Hahn experiments with the line through gestural expression to open a new horizon as a pictorial expression. She understands the great conundrum when trying to visualize life: that life cannot be reproduced or portrayed. Even if it is consciously represented or symbolically expressed, it cannot be life itself, it can only be a symbol of it.

The essence of direct expression of movement for Hahn is gesture. The form and tendency toward rhythm inherent in the gesture prevents abstract forms in painting from becoming static. Combined with the movement of the line and the perceptual movement of the eyes, Hahn sets up a visual stimulation wherein certain rhythmic patterns extend the perception to induce the audience with the essential rhythms of life.

Art is active. It carries a life force. It perceptually contains the properties of living creatures; it moves in a dialectic that grows and disappears in time. As such, Hahn investigates the formality of the rhythm of ebb and flow. At the same time, the rhythms in Hahn’s work form a unity in the organism as a whole. This unity is not a mechanical or conceptual unification, but rather a movement of unity within the movement. Hahn’s work investigates the notion that the essence of life is movement, form, and the persistent tendency of movement.

By interweaving the sinuous shapes and lines, they become superimposed layer upon layer creating depth in the multiple planes in space emphasizing rich juxtapositions. They tangle, but not completely. They imply connections and relationships in humanity. As life does not always reveal its essence, so too the incipiency of Hahn’s lines are speculative. But as in life, we know we touch each other’s lives and are all ultimately intertwined. Hahn’s gestures and lines not only convey the expressive movement of life representing the continuous flow of rhythmic curvilinear patterns, they express the continuity of life.


Artist bio

Hyewon Hahn (b. 1982, Korean) is a contemporary painter whose acrylic and oil paintings take the basic element of line to explore relationships. Overlapped, twisted, and tangled the lines gesticulate the connections and complications inherent in the human condition. Yet, they are not static, rather, the perceived movement and undulating contours point to the essential rhythms of life.

Hahn received her BFA in drawing and art history and her MFA from Pratt Institute, NY graduating with an Outstanding Merit with Distinction from the Fine Arts Department. Subsequent to her artistic schooling, Hahn received her PhD from Hoingik University, Seoul, South Korea.

Hahn’s work has been exhibited at the HOMA Museum, Seoul, South Korea; Hagajae Museum, Seoul, South Korea; Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA) museum, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea; Tsukuba Museum of Art, Kanto Ibaraki, Japan; the Painting Center, NY; Gallery DOS, Seoul, South Korea; Hangaram Gallery, Seoul, South Korea; Tompkins Square Park Gallery, NY; Broome Street Gallery, NY; Tri-Mission Gallery, Rome, IT; Gallery Sejuli, Seoul, South Korea; Steuben Gallery, NY; Dante Alighieri Society, Venice, Italy; and the American Embassy in Rome, IT.