Renowned for her transcendent abstraction and deeply meditative canvases, Korean-American artist Hyunae Kang is set to unveil a solo booth this September at KIAF Seoul—one of Asia’s premier art fairs. Curated by Korea’s Khalifa Gallery, the presentation will mark another milestone in a career defined by spiritual intensity, bold color, and unwavering pursuit of the divine.
Born in 1959 in Seosan, South Korea, Kang began her artistic journey with sculpture—merging geometric modernism with organic abstraction. Her first solo exhibition at Seoul’s Gallery Hyundai in 1991 garnered widespread attention, but it was after relocating to the United States that her creative language underwent a dramatic transformation. Shifting to painting, she began building a singular world of abstract expressionism fused with Eastern spirituality.
Kang’s technique is unmistakable. Working with thick, textured layers of paint—known as impasto—she constructs canvases that seem to pulse with energy beyond the visible. Critics have described her style as “Eastern introspection translated through Western abstract expressionism.” But even that doesn’t quite capture the spiritual weight her works carry.
“My paintings come from God,” Kang says. “Nature is always my backdrop. People tell me my works are meditative. Sometimes, viewers stand before a canvas and weep. In those moments, all my forgotten senses return.”
And it’s true—her paintings often feel like portals, not just to nature or memory, but to something deeper and sacred. Her commanding use of color has invited comparisons to Mark Rothko, while her quiet depth evokes Korea’s monochrome painting masters. Yet the essence of Kang’s work lies not in comparison, but in its concentrated energy—an energy born of faith, prayer, and reverence for the unseen.
Over decades, she has developed multiple series centered around natural phenomena—Horizons, Halos, Sunrises—each reflecting her intimate dialogue with the natural world. In these works, Kang seeks to reveal what she calls “condensed spiritual energy” hidden within nature itself.
Her sculptural roots are still evident, not just in scale—many of her paintings are large-format—but in materiality. She incorporates unconventional materials like sand, crushed crystal, gold powder, and even pearl dust to give form to energies that ordinary paint alone cannot express.
Kang’s works are alive. Like Monet’s water lilies, they change with the light—glowing under sunset, shimmering under moonlight. In the evening, under gallery lighting, the surface reveals hints of starlight. It's as if the artist planted hidden mechanisms within the painting, like a creator breathing life into the canvas.
Today, Hyunae Kang lives and works in Orange County, California. Her home, perched on a mountain, resembles a gallery—spanning 700 square meters with dedicated studios and exhibition spaces. To many, her life may seem complete. But Kang insists that her soul remains thirsty. “The heart of an artist,” she says, “must always long for something more.” That longing—spiritual, not material—has driven her to challenge the boundaries of contemporary art and forge a path all her own.
Her work is held in major institutions including the Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center (California), the Brea Museum and Historical Society (California), and the Seoul Museum of Art. With her upcoming solo booth at KIAF, she invites a new generation of viewers to stand before her work and feel—if only for a moment—the pull of something higher.
“I hope my paintings help someone heal,” Kang says softly. “That’s why I keep reaching upward.”
Sayart.net Maria Kim & Jason Yim sayart2022@gmail.com
