Miru Kim

Miru Kim
Miru Kim exploring the Paris Catacombs
Born	1981 Stoneham, Massachusetts, US
Nationality	Korean-American
Education	Phillips Academy Columbia University Pratt Institute
Known for	Photography, illustration, urban exploration
Website	www.mirukim.com

Miru Kim is an artist, photographer, illustrator, and arts events coordinator, who has explored, documented, and photographed various urban settings such as abandoned subway stations, tunnels, the Croton aqueduct, Paris catacombs, factories, hospitals, and shipyards.

Kim was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts in 1981 but was raised in Seoul, Korea. She returned to Massachusetts in 1995 to attend Phillips Academy in Andover, and later moved to New York City in 1999 to attend Columbia University. In 2006, she received an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute.

Kim's Naked City Spleen series of photographs include images of herself nude in these settings. For her new series, called The Pig That Therefore I Am, she has visited industrial hog farms and immersed herself amongst the pigs. She is the daughter of contemporary South Korean philosopher Young-Oak Kim (aka Do-ol).

Kim was featured in Esquire's 2007 Best and Brightest issue

The Financial Times of London included Kim in an article titled "We'll climb that bridge when we get to it" about "urban explorers", people who scale bridges and roam subway tunnels, storm drains, derelict factories, sewers, steam vents and other forbidden city infrastructure.