About the Artist
Han is a Gwangju-based artist, active in both Gwangju and Seoul, whose character-driven paintings blend vibrant color, crisp contours, and playful storytelling. Drawing on a lifelong love of cartoons, a painter mother’s influence, and years of translating for major art museums, his work brings humor, moral imagination, and optimism into bright narrative scenes. After studying art in Chicago, exploring the New York and East Coast art world, and deepening his understanding of contemporary art at the Korea National University of Arts, Han returned fully to painting in 2020 and has since developed a distinctive visual world animated by courage, energy, and emotional openness. His exhibitions in Seoul, Gwangju, and abroad continue to expand this universe, inviting viewers into moments of clarity, warmth, and delight.
My Story
I was born in Riyadh in 1985 and spent my early childhood moving between Saudi Arabia, St. Louis, Seoul, San Diego, and later Jeonju and Gwangju. What stayed constant was drawing. I copied the characters I saw on TV—especially Batman—and filled endless pages with figures and stories. My mother is a painter, trained in the Korean tradition of the 1980s, and from her I absorbed the feeling that art was simply part of life. I knew from an early age that I wanted to make pictures: my second-grade self wrote “illustrator” on a t-shirt portrait project, and through middle and high school I kept circling around the idea of becoming a cartoonist or animator.
I studied art and art history at DePaul University in Chicago, where studio classes and art since the 1970s opened my eyes to painting as a lifelong pursuit. After graduating, I supported myself by translating for art museums—a path that unexpectedly became a 14-year career and kept me close to the art world while giving me time and tools to keep learning. I traveled widely too, studying at Harvard Summer School, spending time in Beijing, New York, and Europe, and exploring architecture and visual culture at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. I also entered the art theory master’s program at the Korea National University of Arts, encouraged by my mother, who felt I needed deeper grounding in contemporary art.
Only in 2020—when the pandemic paused my translation work—did I finally have the uninterrupted space to paint seriously. I painted forty-nine large canvases that year, rediscovering the joy and confidence I felt when drawing as a child. From that turning point came a new body of work and several solo exhibitions in 2022 in Seoul and Gwangju. Today I live in Gwangju, active in both Gwangju and Seoul, and preparing to relocate to Seoul to work in an environment that energizes me. Through my paintings, I hope viewers feel good—simply and truly. If art can offer a moment of openness, humor, or moral clarity, then it has done something meaningful.
Nov. 2025