Bio
Daeun Lim is a designer and maker from South Korea. She studied ceramics at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and earned her MFA in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2024. She has participated in artist residency programs at the Interdisciplinary Ceramic Research Center (ICRC) at the University of Kansas, Baltimore Clayworks, the New Harmony Clay Project, and Clayarch Gimhae Museum.
Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including the Red Lodge Clay Center (MT), The Clay Studio (PA), Hudgens Center for Art & Learning (GA), Delaplaine Arts Center (MD), Bund 18 Jiushi Art Gallery (Shanghai, China), KCDF Gallery (Seoul), and Clayarch Gimhae Museum (Gimhae), among numerous others.
Website&Instagram handle: daeun.work
Artist Statement
My work employs the aesthetics of utilitarian ceramics in order to challenge assumptions about functionality. My process and the resulting forms adopt the language of industry - sleek, white ceramics rendered with 3D modeling, printing, and mold-making - but subvert the expectation of utility. These materials and methods produce objects that are both recognizable and unfamiliar, whose apparent functionality ranges from ambiguous to hyper-specific, impractical, or exaggerated to absurdity.
I explore objects’ potential beyond practical use. I design “function” in a way that pushes boundaries rather than reinforcing traditional utility, and reposition function as a question rather than an answer. Function in my work moves beyond the literal and becomes an analog for the human experience. Shaped by the identities given to me - a woman, a foreigner, and someone who continuously moves between different cultural and social expectations - these functions reflect ways of seeing, adapting, and existing within shifting contexts.
