Michelle Im is a Korean American artist working in Queens, New York. Her project ‘RATxCHICKS’, pronounced as [ratchix] is a project name for her ceramics that is a play on the words ‘rachet’ and ‘rad chicks’. Humor is what drives a lot of the ideas she has for her decorations. In her work, she explores ideological tensions that she experienced growing up in both the United States and South Korea. Creating intricate patterns in her ceramics is in part, a way to marry two diametrically opposed systems of culture- individualism and collectivism. She often pairs motifs that are deliberately out of the ordinary and part of the process is to encapsulate a sense of absurdity in a way that is approachable and inviting to the viewer. She graduated with a degree in Biology and Art from The State University of New York at Buffalo and was named one of Ceramics Monthly 2022 Emerging Artists. Her dream is to one day breed rats with birds.
