Jeong Hyun Ha’s Luminous Density: Innocence on Canvas (2024) grounds itself in the traditional language and narrative of the artist whilst allowing for new perspectives and interpretations. Ha’s new solo exhibition at Roy Gallery aims to illustrate what she considers a sense of “luminous density” from her canvas. This essence is attained in two areas: the formative language of her expressive technique and the symbols on canvas that capture Ha’s life-moments. 

Ha’s primitive painting style is associated with her perspective and attitude towards the canvas. Consisting of scribbly handwriting and rich colors, she intends luminous density by using oil sticks as her primary medium. Unlike typical processes in oil paintings, Ha’s process involves using the oil stick to rub by hand and/or brush to increase fluidity on canvas. Other steps include using an oil-sticked brush to directly paint or dipping the bar into a medium then applying it to the brush. Through these methods, Ha reveals a set of emotions and intentions that honestly yearns for essences of purity and transparency. Here, Ha’s myriad use of mediums reflects a certain complexity of underlying narratives rather than representing formal ideas. Thus, her choice illustrates the paradox of how painting with less force can at times communicate greater power on canvas. 

The series title, “Draw Without Drawing” refers to the fact that Ha’s works are not about drawing in the classical sense of the word, but about drawing out what is inside of her. Spanning from 2013, the series is currently in its 160th installment. Principally, the entire lack of hyphenation or alphabetization in Ha’s numbering system indicates parity in value amongst all her works—regardless of size or layer depth. Like a singular, unbreaking line the numbering system is perhaps further symbolic of the overarching, connected nature of an artist’s journey whose personal path is coherently linked and creative output uniformly valuable. As such, Ha leaves us curious regarding the changes and continuities of next few hundred works in “Draw Without Drawing”. 

 

1. Luminosity 

Holding degrees in both fine art and design, Ha has matured her design language through corporate settings and has since explored this background on canvas. This process manifests itself optically through Ha’s internalized codes of simultaneously understanding sculptural and design languages. From this perspective, Ha’s works are visually invocative of user interface (UI) design. 

From Apple’s real-world resemblance technique of “skeuomorphism” to Microsoft’s “flat design” method of organization through simplistic lines and planes, and Google’s “material design” approach toward three-dimensionality or Dribble’s “neumorphist” emphasis on volume and shadow tactility, the evolution of UI design over the past twenty years is ceaseless. 

However, rather than mimicking the periodic shifts characteristic of modern artists in the past few decades, Ha actualized her own sense of change through another UI design trend in “glassmorphism”. Characterized by its distinctive blurring of the background to create a frosted-glass effect, glassmorphism utilizes multiple layers to float objects in space and vivid colors to emphasize blurred transparency augmented by subtle, faint borders. 

Wholly independent of the artist's intention, it is up to the viewer to discern whether the similarities are naturally reflective of an artist whose experiences are shaped through the digital screens and as such, processes and interprets data under such a rubric. Most likely, this seems to be the case. 

Though transparency is achievable through conditions of pristine clarity, it is also attainable through refinement. Ha embodies the latter, as her regulated and methodical nature pronounces itself whether through personal interviews or the sheets of stainless-steel paints stacked neatly on her palette in her studio. Undoubtedly, Ha will continue to keep things in order. Even improvisation in her works exposes this organization. Despite self-characterizations of pure and carefree frolic, she divulges a strong devotion to eliminate inadequacies and inexperience from such ordered norms of gaiety. As such, Ha’s flowing use of hands and brush affirms her positive attitude and trust in the artistic process. She strives toward luminance through refined and layered expressions. Spaces between layers evoke the checkerboard of white and gray like erased backgrounds in Photoshop—revealing clear memories as blurred images. Through this subtle screen Ha seemingly demands the viewer to similarly affirm life. Like the ripples of marbled paint on clear water waves, the contrasts, cycles, and layers of Ha’s images intertwine and luminate. 

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2. Density 

The superimposition of time, space, and symbols within a single screen evokes the singularity of the Tesseract in the movie Interstellar. Though Ha’s bright and cozy image lacks discernible gloom or solitude, it does not exude sheer positivity. Alongside the zeal pervades a “negativity of negativity.” Simply put, Ha seemingly internalizes loss and vividly transforms her sadness and fears as joy and happiness. The pain overcome, then, moves both the artist and the viewer. Ha’s ideology does not outright aim for the sacred but does not preclude the attempt towards idealized archetype. The symbolic figures of the self, child, acts of drawing, as well as the quotidian of experiences, memories and sensations all enable and guide the narrative without achieving a sense of reenactment. 

In web development, a “design system” refers to a system that defines design principles and specifications which includes reusable UI components and code. In Ha’s works, the symbolic narrative, color definition, and combination of mediums in the “Draw Without Drawing” series effectuates such a design system so that each painting is coherent whilst offering a distinct experience. Clicking on any URL of a title of Ha’s works, we are led to an archive page of symbols and images published of a densely, packed screen of her painting.

 

Of course, the rough, soft, and playful drawings also reveal the artist’s willingness to reject norms and codes. This is perhaps to shed pressures of self-censorship instilled by various devices of societal control such as social customs and institutionalized education. Through the entirety of her creative process, Ha pursues gamification by applying game-like elements to non-game contexts of conception and realization: transforming creative acts themselves into contexts for entertainment that engage. Ha’s process of completion is not simply an act of building density, but an act of drawing out the cascade of memories and re-sensitizing them to increase their resolution. 

Ultimately, the sum of these acts foments a profound, heavy density unshrouded by its luminosity.

Continuing our divergent assessment of Ha, the system that she perfects is purely rational, and does not follow techniques of automatism as mentioned by various critics. Her unfettered expressions and various mediums applications are akin to the epidermis than the core. The artist ultimately has something she wishes to realize through her painting. It seems more appropriate to quell worries of potential reduction of formal, sculptural language into mere decorative background. Clearly, Ha has managed to arrange the screens of luminous density with a sense of expectation and conviction that moves the viewer to a state of pure bliss. 

Ha’s works present themselves like lush shelves stacked with her memories. Treading in through the carefully laid path amongst the canvases, we are luminously showered with happiness and positivity sourced from layers of her works. We walk away, pleasantly damp in this rain.

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