Haeji Min

About

Haeji Min (b.1995) is a South Korean artist who splits her time between London and Seoul. Min graduated in 2020 with a BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art and received MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art. Her work is influenced by external stimuli, her self-awareness, and her concern for topical social issues. As such, her subject matter can range from observations of everyday life to depictions of social, political, and natural crises.


Education

2020-2023 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London

2017-2020 BFA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (First Class Honours)

2018 Exchange Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2016-2017 Exchange Program at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

2014-2016 Ewha Womans University

2011-2013 Seoul Arts High School


Selected Exhibitions

Solo:

2022

- Beyond the Birthplace, Cassina Projects, Milan, Italy ​ ​

Group:

2023

- Femalarity, Volery Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

- Positions, Alma Pearl, London, United Kingdom

- London Calling, Unit London, London, United Kingdom

- An Act of Choice, Duarte Sequeira, Seoul, South Korea

2022

- Urban Break, Coex Hall B, Seoul, South Korea

- Through a Glass, Darkly, San Damiano Sessions, Carl Kostyál, Milan, Italy

- BLOOM, Place des Vosges, Maison Ozmen, Paris, France ​

2021

- Ethereal, Volery Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

- New Contemporaries 2021, South London Gallery, London, United Kingdom

- Rites of Passage, Unit London, London, United Kingdom

- Imagining Reality, Future Gallery, Berlin, Germany

- WoP, WOAW Gallery collaboration with Avant Arte, Hong Kong

- Wo's Next, The Warehouse Gallery, Hong Kong - Sprezzatura, The Spazioamanita collaboration with Avant Arte, Florence, Italy

- Biennale Europeenne d’Art Contemporain, Galerie Daniel Vignal, France

2020

- Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2020 Shortlist Exhibition, Ashurst, London, United Kingdom

2019

- The Social Art Award, Can Art Catalyze Change- Peaceful Revolutions, Berlin, Germany

2017

- SWAP Edition No. 3: Artist as Machine, New Shoreditch Theatre, London, United Kingdom

Statement

The subject matter of my practice varies in sync with my chronological present and accumulated thoughts. I create fictional characters, scenes, and narratives in my art practice based on real-life experiences that convey aspects of my personality, values, and trajectories in life. This synchronicity of my life and art led me to find subject matter in a method of association. For example, I link the concept of the fluidity of time and its ungraspable nature to the symbolism of water, which carries not only a fluid quality but also the connotation from Greek mythology of the Lethe River–of river waters washing memories from the lives of mortals along a migration from life to death. This thinking process of association inspires me to make stories in a visual form. In this case, the depiction of fluid organic shapes of my metamorphic characters on canvas holds my thoughts about a limited mortal life, heaven and hell, and diverse existential questions. With a mixture of undulating and controlled movements of brush strokes, my visual forms go through a process of genetic mutation that mirrors the fragmentation and flow of thoughts of such a haphazard nature. The gentle overlapping of lines and structural divisions constitute the luminous flesh of my painted subjects and portrays the transparency of veins underneath thin skin, microscopic details of veins in leaves, and exuberant green foliage in paint.

Blue Mirror

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 180 x 220 cm

The Exaltation N plus 1

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 122 x 91.5 cm

The Exaltation N plus Infinity

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 167.5 x 117 cm

Vainful Hope

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 130 x 80 cm

Blue in the Dark

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 168 x 93 cm

The First Bite

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 91x 61 cm

Sanctuary

Medium: Oil and oil pastel on canvas

Size: 102 x 116.5 cm

Scopophilia

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 70 x 60 cm

Pierced by the Stigmata

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 79.5 x 119 cm

Respite

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 79 x 94 cm