Hwang, Insook

Insook Hwang is a Korean-born visual artist who develops mixed media pieces using a wide variety of techniques such as drawing, painting, printing, stenciling, etc. She also uses digital imaging and lenticular printing to construct her installations.

"I believe that my role as an artist is to inspire and energize people with love and positive energy through my art, which is creating magical forms and imaginative spaces. Through my playful abstract forms, I portray a metaphorical world where there are no cultural, political, racial, religious, national and ideological differences - no boundaries. It is a transcendental space filled with love and joyful energy. My works are multi-dimensional drawing installations composed of various drawings, paintings, sculptures and animations. For over a decade, I've been developing diverse mixed media techniques, a combination of traditional techniques such as freehand drawing, painting, collage, sewing, and stamping with various digital techniques which include lenticular prints (holograms), stenciling, sticker making, digital print, digital cutting, photography, animation, painting, drawing, sewing and collage.

In my work, my interest is in creating a form that resembles a living organism by combining small, repeating images that assemble into a larger, more intriguing form. This approach employs some unique cloning and collage techniques, as well as a distinctive vocabulary. The special characteristics of these works lie in the repetitive, playful combinations of cartoon-like symbols and marks. When creating forms digitally, I use each small image like a living cell, replicating them with slight variations in their form. My installations are whimsical, transformable and can be expandable as each individual work connects with the others organically. I perceive the given space not only as an artist but also as an architect, creating dioramas and designing my installations in relation to the given space, human scale, and the movement of the viewers. In my installations, viewers become animated abstract elements moving around and passing through the installation and between works. Their interaction with the work completes the work."

Excerpt from Insook Hwang, Artist Statement, 2015

Gallery of Selected Works

Energy-Love: Miracle (2015) Getting Entangled II (2001) Breast Pile I (1999) Spiritual Enlightenment (Buddha) (1999) Lovers (Karma I) (1998) Maternal Garden (1998) Sorrow and Hope (1998) Spirit of Night (1998) Vacant Desire (1998)