ABOUT
My practice centers on accumulation, translation, and transformation through drawing. Thoughts, music, performance, and historical imagery are translated into visual forms, where they intersect, overlap, and transform. I approach drawing as a space where different sources and contexts can be brought into new relationships. Through automatic drawing, responses to music and performance, and reinterpretations of historical imagery, I explore how images can move across different times and cultures and acquire new meanings.
Brain-Planet Series
The Brain-Planet series brings together a psychological exploration of the self and a Buddhist-inspired practice of emptying the mind. I simply crumple a single sheet of paper into a brain-like form and draw everything that passes through my mind. Through a process of automatic drawing, memories, everyday experiences, imagined scenes, and unexpected images emerge through the movement of my hand without a fixed plan. Paradoxically, filling the paper with images becomes a way of emptying the mind completely. The finished form resembles a shell of the brain, filled with images yet emptied of thought.
2. Visual Art, Music, and Performance
These works begin with music and performances that I deeply enjoy, making them a very personal form of fan art. At the same time, I break down and reconstruct performances through my own experience to create new visual forms. This process is connected to the East Asian artistic concept of fang (倣)—creating something new through the reinterpretation of an existing work. In this sense, it shares certain qualities with homage and parody. Experiences of opera, classical music, theater, and jazz are transformed into drawings, murals, sculptures, and animations. Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, for example, was reinterpreted through brain-shaped paper sculptures and large-scale murals.
3. Contemporary Ink Painting and Joseon Art
Using traditional ink painting, I reinterpret images and ideas from the art of the Joseon Dynasty from a contemporary perspective. Historical images, including figures and religious or legendary subjects, become starting points for new drawings and paintings. They are sometimes connected with Western opera, classical music, and literature. Rather than simply combining East and West, I am interested in how the same culture or image can take on different meanings depending on who encounters and interprets it. Through this process, I explore how Korean art can move beyond fixed ideas of tradition and create new meanings across different times and cultures.
Education
2019 DFA, Seoul National University
2008 MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2007 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
2006 MFA, Seoul National University
2002 BFA, Seoul National University
Award & Residency
2026 Schloss Balmoral Artist Residency, Bad Ems, Germany
2024 Art Like Salt Residency, Jeungdo Island, Korea
2021 The 23rd SONGEUN Art Award Exhibition, SONGEUN, Seoul, Korea
2020 Korean Eye 3: Contemporary Korean Art (Book Participant)
2019 1211 Residency of OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2018 Space DAL, Seoul, Korea
2017 MMCA Goyang Residency, Goyang, Korea
2016 ETRO Art Award, Gold Prize, Seoul, Korea
2015 Sema Nanji Residency, Seoul, Korea
2013 Joong-Ang Fine Arts Prize,Seoul, Korea
2012 OCI Museum of Arts, Young Creatives Prize, Seoul, Korea
2011 The Joan Mitchell Foundation “Painters & Sculptors Grant”(nominated), New York, USA
2011 ISCP, New York, USA
2011 NYFA Mentoring Program, New York, USA
2011 JCAL LLC Program, New York, USA
2011 Double Stop Foundation Residency Program, New York, USA
2011 Vermont Studio Art Center Residency, VT, USA
2010 Richmond Art Center Residency & Visiting Artist, Windsor, CT, USA
2008 AHL Foundation Visual Arts Prize, New York, USA
2007 Nippon Steel USA Award and Scholarship, Chicago, USA
2007 Skowhegan - SAIC Matching Fellowship, Chicago USA
2004 Song-Eun Art Prize, Seoul Korea
2002 Joong-Ang Fine Arts Prize, 3rd Prize, Seoul Korea
Solo Exhibition
2026 Haeyoon’s Alibi, H-flux Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2025 Kidam & Yiro: Drawn from the Flames, Flow & Beat, Seoul, Korea
2024 Fabric Talking 2, Gallery MAF, Seoul, Korea
2023 Tales of the Barber-Curator, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2021 Couple, Kyungbang Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea
2020 Dance of Servitude, Space 55, Seoul, Korea
2018 The Magic Lamp, Space DAL, Seoul, Korea
2017 Time Machine, Hanwaon Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2016 Drawing of Procession, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2015 Butterfly Dream, Conor Art Space, Seoul, Korea
2015 Feng(倣), SNU Hoam Faculty Center, Seoul, Korea
2014 Drawing Symphony Orchestra, Coohaus Gallery, New York, USA
2012 Moussorgsky, Pictures at Exhibition, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2010 Designing Egos, Gallery 400, Chicago, USA
2007 Story Teller, Gallery X, Chicago, USA
2003 Fabric Talking, Gallery Gaia, Seoul, Korea
Group Exhibition
2025
Dimensionalists: poetry, image, score, code, MoA, Seoul
Drop the Beat, Space Flow & Beat, Seoul, Korea
Sedimented Material, Gallery MAF, Seoul, Korea
2024
Drawing Rituals, Art Space WOLIN, Seoul, Korea
Yeosu International Art Festival, “Black Cocktail”, Yeosu Expo Exhibition Hall D, Yeosu, Korea
Re:boot, The Unavoidable Matrix, Art Space Seochon, Seoul, Korea
2023
Umkum, Dance Project Dot-Line-Plane, Sogang University Mary Hall, Seoul, Korea
Artistic Life: Dear Mr. H, TINC, Seoul, Korea
2022
The Language Between, Kim Hong-do Museum, Ansan, Korea
Succession and Segmentation, SNU Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Past. Present. Future. The SONGEUN Collection, SONGEUN, Seoul, Korea
NFT ART 101 Art Token, Gangdont Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2021
The 21st Songen Art Award Exhibition, Songeun Art Museum, Seoul
Ogamdo: 5 Scenes of Korean Art, Aural Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Korean Eye 2020, POST Lotte World Mall, Seoul
Balance & Tension, TYPE, Seoul
2020
TENTOTHEN, Culture Station 284TMO, Seoul, Korea
Together, See, Jeju Museum of Art(JMoA), Jeju Island, Korea
Ogamdo: 5 Scenes of Korean Art, Manarat Al Saadiyat(VR Exhibition), Abu Dhabi, UAE
Contemporary Art in the Post-Covid-19 era, Osan Museum of Art, Osan, Korea
2019
Hanguk-hwa, Mindful Landscape, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea
The 20th Anniversary Archive Project of Alternative Space Loop, AlLT Space Loop, Seoul, Korea
Hard Boiled & Toxic, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea
2018
Gyeonggi Millennium Docufesta, Gyeonggi Imagination Caumpus, Suwon, Korea
Artist Note - Contemplative Space, Whanki Museum, Seoul, Korea
2017
Runaway – Dancers Baking Pies, Performance at MMCA Goyang Residency, Goyang, Korea
Squat Seongsu, S-Factory, Seoul, Korea
MCM Modern Boy Series, MCM Myeongdong Space, Seooul, Korea
INTRO, MMCA Goyang Exhibition Hall, Goyang, Korea
Sema’s New Collection, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2016
Inside Drawing, Ilwoo Space, Seoul, Korea
Experiment Expression, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Nocturnal Solace, Itaewon 258-325, Seoul, Korea
Studio K collaboration show, Common Ground, Seoul, Korea
The 5th ETRO Art Prize Exhibition, Baekwoon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2015
Six Senses and the Whimsical World, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Shapes of Gingers, Sema Nanji Residency Exhibition Hall, Seoul, Korea
Weaving Time, Gallery Korea, New York, USA
Homunculus, Sema Nanji Art Exhibition Hall, Seoul, Korea
KOREA TOMORROW, Sungkok Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Scripts of the World 2015, Gaga Hoho, Jongro area, Seoul, Korea
Banyan Tree Art Fair, Banyan Tree Hotel, Seoul, Korea
2014
Praising the Artists, Hanwon Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
YMCA, Imazoo Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Jumbang_Art for All, Corner Art Space, Seoul, Korea
2013
The 35th Joongang Fine Arts Prize Exhibition, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Im Zickzack durch die Welt, Kunstraum Neuruppin, Neuruppin, Germany
ZigZag, Stuttgart Stata Academy of Art and Design, Stuttgart, Germany
Being by yourself, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Bundang SUNH’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition, SPACE U, Bundang, Korea
from i to I, Young Artists Project YAP’13, Daegu Art Square, Daegu, Korea
2012
Shenzhen International Animation Biennale, Shenzhen OCT-LOFT, Shenzhen, China
Micro-Control “Passage to the secrets of art”, Chunchi Gallery, Beijing, China
Korean Art Show 2012, 82 Mercer Soho, New York, USA
Vivid Energy in Art, Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, Korea
Studio LLC Exhibition, JCAL, New York
2011
AHL Contemporary Art Auction, Space on White, New York, USA
Modern & Contemporary Art, 19th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, KCCLA, LA
Scope New York 2011, New York, USA
Narratives of Line and Space, Gallery Maum, New York, USA
Jetaa NY Artist Showcase and Fundraiser, Residence of Ambassador Shigeyuki Hiroki, New York, USA
2010
Art on paper: The 41st Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, North Carolina
Art Loop Open, interactive public art exhibits in downtown Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Conundrum Express, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learing, New York, USA
Jack in the Space, Dean Project Gallery, New York, USA
Conscious behind unconscious, Gallery Korea, New York, USA
2009
Two Degrees of Separation, Satory Gallery, New York
Post Post Post Studio, HAIP Project Room, Helsinki, Finland
Incheon Biennale, Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, Korea
Splinters and Logs Group show, Bushwick Factory, New York, USA
Scope Miami, Miami, USA
2008
Breaking Out, AHL Foundation 2008 Visual Arts Award Winners, Gana Art New York, USA
Nippon Steel - SAIC Exhibition, Chicago, IL, USA
Colesse Show at Neocon, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL, USA
