Cats have a talent for making perfectly ordinary moments feel slightly unpredictable. A quiet room, a carefully arranged table, or an otherwise polished still life can change completely when a paw appears from nowhere or a pair of yellow eyes emerges from behind a curtain. That tension between the familiar and the strange sits at the heart of London-based artist Minyoung Kim’s paintings, where black cats frequently appear as mysterious, mischievous characters.
Kim’s fascination with cats comes partly from their contradictions: they are familiar and seemingly everywhere, yet can remain strangely unreadable. In her work, they are rarely just decorative subjects. A cat might reach for something it should not, hide behind an object, interrupt an otherwise composed scene, or appear only as a paw, tail, shadow, or pair of eyes
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#1 Unwelcome Guest
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That playful sense of disruption runs through Kim’s wider approach to painting. She combines meticulous technique with absurd compositions, unexpected changes of scale, unusual creatures, and details that reward a closer look. Her recent work also draws on the visual language of European still-life painting, particularly its treatment of light, liquids, reflections, and optical illusion. Alongside her recurring feline imagery, these elements create paintings that can appear calm and beautifully composed at first, only to reveal something much stranger underneath.
Now, take a closer look at Minyoung Kim’s quirky cat paintings and surreal still lifes, where a seemingly innocent scene can hide a mischievous paw, an unsettling gaze, or one wonderfully strange detail.
#2 Cat In Yolk
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#3 Chopped Melon
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#4 Sweating Egg
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#5 Behind The Veil
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#6 Love Hurts
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#7 Cherries With Cat
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#8 The Bite
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#9 Cat Moth
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#10 Orange Huntness
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#11 Night Willow
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#12 The Pot
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#13 Milky Ghost
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#14 Between Olives
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#15 Cat Apartment
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#16 Cat Sock
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#17 Swirling Tale
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#18 The Jar
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#19 Drowning House
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#20 Summer Reverie
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#21 Big Fish
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#22 Condensed Gaze
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#23 Chestnut Bur
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#24 Hidden Witness
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#25 Negotiation
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#26 Nocturnal Shell
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#27 Peeping
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#28 Reflector
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#29 Sole Wave
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#30 Under Cloth
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