Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Han has held solo exhibitions including 《Inaudible Garden》 (Whistle, Seoul, 2024-2025), 《Spawning Scenery》 (Whistle, Seoul, 2022), and 《Nightcap》 (YOUR MANA, Seoul, 2017).

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Han has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 《CUTE》 (Somerset House, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2025), 《Game Society》 (MMCA, Seoul, 2023), 《After Graybox: From Collection to Exhibition》 (Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, 2022), 《SF 2021: A Fantasy Odyssey》 (Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2021), 2020 Busan Biennale 《Words at an Exhibition — an exhibition in ten chapters and five poems》 (Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, 2020), 《Fantasia》 (Steve Turner Gallery, LA, USA, 2019), and 《Phantom Arm》 (Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2018).

Originality & Identity

Ram Han explores the point at which memory and sensation formed within the digital environment intersect—where reality and the virtual, personal experience and images of others become entangled. As already evident in her early work Cracked(2017), her images do not convey a specific narrative but instead evoke a sense of familiarity that cannot be precisely identified. This is closely connected to the formation of “quasi-memory,” in which repeatedly consumed images from mass media are transferred into personal memory.
 
This line of inquiry becomes more concrete in the 'Room Type'(2018) series, presented in 《Phantom Arm》(Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, 2018). The hotel room—an ephemeral and impersonal space—is combined with the artist’s private memories, becoming both a personal archive and a reconstructed public image. The 'Object'(2018) series further recalls overlooked elements within this space, revealing how memory is selectively constructed.
 
The subsequent 'Souvenir'(2019) series addresses the distortion of memory more directly. Rather than focusing on lived experience, it examines “image-based memory” constructed through images and souvenirs, demonstrating how images themselves come to replace emotional memory. Souvenir01_06_F exemplifies this condition, simultaneously expressing desire and emptiness toward banal, repetitive objects.
 
Through the 'Case'(2020) series and 《Spawning Scenery》(Whistle, 2022), Ram Han’s focus shifts from memory to sensation itself. The hybrid body depicted in Case_01_01(toxin)—a composite of human, animal, and plant—emphasizes tactile and visual stimulation over clear meaning. This develops further in I am relieved, extending into a sensory experience that imagines the invisible interior of the body. In her recent exhibition 《Inaudible Garden》(Whistle, 2024–2025), this trajectory reconnects to painterly concerns, moving toward an exploration of vitality and sensation that digital images cannot fully capture.

Style & Contents

Ram Han’s practice begins with digital painting, yet extends beyond a mere technical choice to question the very ontology of the medium. Her works are produced using a tablet and Photoshop, existing initially as immaterial files that are later translated into various output forms. In particular, the use of light panels—seen in early works such as Room Type_01(2018)—serves as a key formal device, preserving the luminosity and RGB color spectrum of digital images.
 
This format is closely tied to the environment of social media. Works such as 'Room Type' adopt square compositions and bright illumination reminiscent of Instagram interfaces, and after exhibition, images are cropped and redistributed online. Through this process, a cyclical structure emerges between physical exhibition and digital circulation. This approach is further extended into the physical realm in the 'Object' series.
 
A notable shift in her later work is the emphasis on surface texture and sensory experience. In the 'Case' series, smooth gradients, glossiness, and minute highlights create tactile illusions on a flat surface. The artist refers to this as “visual ASMR,” marking a transition from narrative-based engagement to sensory immersion. This tendency is further intensified in works such as Case_01_02 and I am relieved.
 
In 《Spawning Scenery》, VR work Uninvited–Tamagotchi and 3D elements expand the image beyond the flat plane into spatial experience. In 《Inaudible Garden》, painterly qualities re-emerge: as seen in Bye Bye Meat(2023), zoomed-in framing and abstract patterns obscure whether the image is a fragment or a whole. This can be understood as an attempt to intersect the immateriality of digital painting with the visual language of traditional painting.

Topography & Continuity

Ram Han’s practice consistently engages with how digital images construct memory and sensation. While early works such as 'Room Type' and 'Souvenir' focused on image-based memory and digital nostalgia, later works—including 'Case' and 《Spawning Scenery》—shift toward emphasizing sensation itself. In 《Inaudible Garden》, this exploration of sensation returns to painterly language, extending into a broader inquiry into the medium.
 
Even when employing VR and 3D, Ram Han prioritizes visual and tactile impressions over technological interactivity, centering on how an image is “felt” by the viewer. The concept of “visual ASMR” occupies a distinctive position in this regard, directly reflecting contemporary modes of sensory consumption of digital images.
 
Her work also consistently maintains a cyclical structure between online and offline, original and reproduction, file and output. Works are exhibited as light panels, then fragmented and recirculated through social media—functioning not merely as a display strategy, but as a method of incorporating the logic of contemporary image consumption into the work itself.
 
Within this trajectory, Ram Han’s practice does not remain fixed to a single medium or form, but continues to expand through the question of how sensation and images generated within digital environments can be engaged. Her recent interest in painterly elements can be understood as part of this ongoing process, suggesting a continued negotiation between digital imagery and painting.