OAN KIM

Oan Kim, Franco-Korean saxophonist, singer, composer, photographer and director, is a multidisciplinary figure of the contemporary art scene. His musical universe, eclectic, embraces jazz, contemporary music, indie rock, classical and film music, reflecting an insatiable curiosity and a constant search for new sonic and visual territories.

From this alchemy of influences emerges Oan Kim & the Dirty Jazz, a sensual and urban jazz where harmonic subtlety meets bodily pulse. Sonic explorations turn into haunting melodies, crossed by the tension of rock and the visual poetry of cinema. Discovered by the essential jazz producer Jean-Philippe Allard, the albums Oan Kim & The Dirty Jazz (2022) and Rebirth of Innocence (2024) were released on his brand-new jazz label Artwork Records/PIAS and met with unanimous critical acclaim. A third album, expected in spring 2026, will mark a new step, with a more collective and in-depth creation alongside Benoît Perraudeau (guitar), Eli Frot (piano), Paul Herry-Pasmanian (bass) and Simon Lemonnier (drums), under the artistic direction of Matthis Pascaud. His collaborations with singer Gabi Hartmann, trumpeter Nicolas Folmer, drummer Edward Perraud, the group Feu! Chatterton, or writer Laurent Gaudé testify to his openness to very different genres.

In parallel to music, Oan Kim develops a career as a photographer and director, co-founder of the photo agency M.Y .O.P . His works, exhibited from Paris to Seoul by way of New York and Macao, and his documentaries, presented in international festivals (Doc NYC, Hot Docs, Krakow Film Festival…), question the boundaries between reality and subjectivity. His work has been recognized with numerous distinctions: SCAM Documentary Prize, Silver Prize at the Krakow Film Festival (2021) and Emergent Filmmaker award at the DMZ festival for The Man Who Paints Waterdrops co-directed with Brigitte Bouillot, the Swiss Life Prize for 4 hands (2019) with Ruppert Pupkin, or the Nuits Photographiques Prize and the Tomorrow’s Artist Prize of the Sungkok Museum. Projects such as Je suis le chien Pitié (2009), a four-hand photo book with writer Laurent Gaudé, or Digital After Love (2019), a photo-music collaboration with musician Ruppert Pupkin, illustrate his cross-disciplinary approach, both poetic and anchored in reality.