When Cheonae Kim was looking for material to make an artistic statement on the exterior of the Milwaukee Art Museum, she selected Sintra Material. At the request of the Museum, the material was donated by 3A Composites USA Inc., which manufactures Sintra Material in North America, and supplied by Commercial Plastics and Supply Corp., the nation’s largest distributor of Sintra Material.

Kim’s work, including a large, interior painting installation, was part of the museum’s exhibition entitled, Interventions: New Art in Unconventional Spaces, on display January 21- April 23, 2000. According to museum officials, the exhibition included the work of ten leading, international, contemporary artists. “This exhibition was inspired by the anticipation of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s new facility and the many changes that will occur…,” said one Museum source. Rather than present the exhibition in one large gallery, which is the museum’s usual practice, the artworks were “intervening” into permanent collection galleries, the former restaurant, the entrance lobby and the grounds –– including Kim’s Sintra Material work, “Untitled, 1999-2000,” on the exterior of the building. In viewing the entire exhibit, visitors had one of the last opportunities to navigate the museum in its unchanged form.

According to Kim, her outdoor project at the Milwaukee Art Museum reflects the movement on Lake Michigan and the surrounding architecture.

“Like many artists of her generation, Cheonae Kim uses Minimalism as a departure point,” states Interventions: New Art in Unconventional Spaces, the museum’s publication that describes the exhibition and its artists’ work. “She begins with the formal elements that define this vital movement of the 1960s and 1970s –– symmetry, simple geometric shapes, restrained color, gridded presentation –– but suggests ways in which content, meaning, and broader interpretations can be added to Minimalism’s usually closed formal and conceptual concerns.” Fifteen sheets of 4′ x 8′ Sintra Material in 13mm black were donated for the project.