Leaving for China to study abroad 

In 1973, she was born as the youngest daughter with two older brothers in Mokpo. Even though it was awkward for her to move her left leg because of polio at the age of three, she was not hesitant about challenge based on her personality filled with confidence. In the middle of making the third attempt to enter a great university, she watched a French film by chance. The main character who was a jewelry designer looked so great. She studied about jewelry design to become a jewelry designer, and then entered a jewelry design company. After working as an employee for about a year, she accumulated her career experiences as a freelance jewelry designer for seven years. Thanks to the regular paychecks, her livelihood was stable, but there was an unfulfilled thirst for something. In the middle of getting ready to leave for France to study about painting, she visited an Oriental painting exhibition by accident, and she was fascinated by the sense of ink paintings. To enter the university where the artist of the exhibition was working as a professor, she went to China at the age of 31. 
In Central Academy of Fine Arts, she majored in Ink Figure Painting. In the master’s course, she studied about materials. And in the doctor’s course, she majored in Media Art at Beijing Normal University. 

Back to Korea 

Starting with ‘Another Gaze’ in 2014, she held many private exhibitions such as twice in China, twice in New York, and three times in Korea. She participated in many special exhibitions like (New York), (Hong Kong), (Singapore), and (China). In 2016, she had an opportunity to become an artist in residence of Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art(HVCCA) in New York for three months. Due to the expensive house rental cost in Beijing of China, she moved out before flying to the United States. And she put her stuffs and works in her friend’s studio. The contemporary art world of the United States was the new world. It had deep understanding of arts without any prejudices. It was such a fresh freedom that she could not feel in conservative China. 
In order to work stably, she came back to Korea in 2017, and then painted 120 works for a year. She prepared for her exhibition. The title was ‘Conditions of Happiness’ as a project showing the faces of the global conglomerates in coins of each country. This work began from a question ‘Would we be happy if we have lots of money?’. 
However, in November 2020, there was a fire in her house, Namyangju, which was a treasure house including her studio and all her works. In the short moment of taking a walk with her parents after dinner, she faced the huge accident in which the whole house was burnt down because of furnace problem. 

Facing the reality of disabled artist 

Participating as an artist in residence of Jamsil Creation Studio of Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture for three years from 2019, artist Kim Hyunha started thinking deeply about artists’ boundary and prejudice, and disability in Korea. 
“People with disabilities have the starting point different from people without disabilities. Supporting disabled artists in the public domain is to provide the disabled with the same starting point as the non-disabled. 
In Europe, the artist fee is supported in the national level. When a gallery plans an exhibition and gathers artists, the state supports the gallery, and the gallery pays the artist fee to the artists. It is very important to receive the artist fee whenever participating in exhibitions. If a new work created by a disabled artist is supported, the artist draws paintings to the end without giving up in the middle. 
In order to vitalize special exhibitions focusing on galleries, there should be a virtuous circle in which the government invests money in galleries, and the galleries invest money in artists.”

Kim Hyunha
Installation artist, Korean painter 

2012 ~ 2015 Ph.D in Arts as a Chinese government scholarship student in Beijing Normal University, China 
2007 ~ 2010 MFA in Chinese Painting Material Research Team in Central Academy of Fine Arts, China 
2003 ~ 2007 BFA in Chinese Ink Figure Painting in Central Academy of Fine Arts, China 

Member of International Art Interchange Association & Korean Fine Arts Association of China 

Prize-winning experiences
2010    Won a prize in the 4th International Art Biennale in Beijing, China(National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China)
2007    Rising Writer Award in the Korean Fine Art Awards 2007(Korean Art Center, Insa-dong, Seoul)

7 times of private exhibition  
Group exhibition 2023 知話之樂-CAFA special exhibition & many others