KOMOREBI

Komorebi - IN PRIVATE COLLECTION

60in x 36in | 152cm x 91cm

Layered pure 24k gold from Thailand, Ink, resin, mounted on metal

Komorebi • 木漏れ日

Komorebi is a Japanese word meaning “sunlight filtering through the trees”.

This piece was commissioned by a collector who has family from both Japan and the United Kingdom. She wanted a piece that served as a reminder of her family and heritage.

The shape of this piece is based on the aerial view of the United Kingdom (minus Northern Ireland). Meanwhile, the design was inspired by Kintsugi. Kintsugi, meaning “golden joinery”, is a traditional Japanese art form that uses gold to repair broken pottery. This repairs the brokenness in a way that makes the object more beautiful, and even more strong than it was prior to being broken.

The green and gold elements were Inspired by Kim's piece, "Jade". Jade emerged from a private commission for a collector’s parents in Taiwan, becoming the foundation for a new body of work that contemplates cultural inheritance, fracture, and the quiet strength that emerges through repair. Prompted by a personal story of family hardship and reconciliation, artist Kim Rose found herself drawn into a deeper meditation on resilience. “There was something sacred about the way they came back together,” she recalls. “I wanted the painting to hold that weight—to reflect both the wound and the mending.”

Informed by Taiwan’s interwoven cultural roots, Jade draws on both Chinese and Japanese traditions. In Chinese cosmology, jade is far more than a precious material—it is a vessel of protection, virtue, and longevity. Referred to as The Stone of Heaven, its worth surpasses gold in the traditional saying: “Gold has value; jade is priceless.”

Running alongside this is the influence of Kintsugi, the Japanese philosophy of golden repair. Rather than obscuring damage, the method renders fracture visible—veins of gold transforming brokenness into strength. “I wasn’t interested in covering anything up,” says Rose. “I wanted to make the gold the thread that holds it together.”

The resulting technique—a new material process developed by the artist—mimics the luster and density of jade while integrating hand-applied 24k gold. These golden lines do not decorate, but instead bind—tracing paths of endurance, memory, and restoration.

The piece is less a portrait than a reliquary: an object meant to be held across time, passed between hands. In Jade, Rose offers not only a visual homage to familial love and cultural reverence, but a quiet invocation—that strength, like beauty, often reveals itself only in the places where something once broke.

To inquire about custom art, email hi@KimRoseArt.com or submit below.

(SWIPE THROUGH GALLERY PICTURED BELOW)