Julie Kim is a multidisciplinary artist based in San Jose, California. Before focusing on art full-time, she worked in architecture and technology, designing affordable housing, walkable neighborhoods, digital products and even a trash can.
Her work draws from memories of a childhood divided between Santa Rosa, California, and Seoul, South Korea. She explores themes of migration, domestic life, and material culture. Most recently, she taught digital art workshops for older immigrant adults at a local community center.
Bio
I am a self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose work is rooted in my experience as a second-generation Korean American, and as a caregiver for my parents and children.
I am interested in the quiet ways memory lives in ordinary things like a piece of fruit, a patterned cloth, a family photograph, or a broom leaning on a courtyard wall.
My background in architecture, urban planning, and public interest technology shapes how I think about place and community. I often find myself working against Silicon Valley’s fixation on the future by paying attention to what it overlooks: immigrant family life, domestic labor, aging, and the interior lives of suburban communities.
Through solitary studio work and community-based projects, I try to make space for personal memory to become shared cultural material.
Artist Statement
C.V.
Julie Kim
jliekim@gmail.com
Education
2007 MA in Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles
1999 BA in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley
Group Exhibitions
2026 FEM-mini, NCWCA, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2025 Interwoven, GenARTS Silicon Valley, Noble Gallery, San Jose, CA
2025 Afterlife, School of Arts and Culture, Mexican Heritage Plaza, San Jose, CA
2025 Fundraiser for Gaza, Tamper Room Gallery, Fremont, CA
2024 VOTE!, Works/San Jose, San Jose, CA
2021 Afterlife, School of Arts and Culture, Mexican Heritage Plaza, San Jose, CA
Teaching
2025 “Stories We Hold,” City of San Jose Parks & Recreation Department
2025 “Vessel of Fruit Memories,” City of San Jose Parks & Recreation Department
Writing
2020 “Better Language Translation Through Machine Learning: Everything I Wish I Knew 6 Months Ago,” The Startup
2018 “Discovery Sprints Do Work (Even in Government),” Code for America blog
2012 “Stop, the Bus,” Mobility: The European Public Transport Magazine
Speaking
2024 “Centering Patients and Clinicians in a Complex Government Ecosystem,” Design in Product conference
2021 “Better Language Translation Through Machine Learning,” Code for America Summit and Google Coffee Chat
2019 “Designing an Inclusive City: UX Methods in Another Language & Culture,” Brigade Congress
2018 “User Research in Another Language,” National Day of Civic Hacking
Residencies and Fellowships
2026 AVA Lab, Kearny Street Workshop, San Francisco, CA
2018 Community Fellowship, Code for America, San Francisco, CA
Press
2012 “Waste Not,” Print magazine. Print
2011 “What Happens When a Bus Stop is Turned Into a Lounge Room?,” Gizmodo. Digital
2011 “What Happens When You Put a Coffee Table at a Bus Stop?” Good Magazine. Digital
2011 “Home” Radio Netherlands International: Earth Beat. Radio