Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Ryu has held solo exhibitions including 《Every Body, Come On! Yo!》 (Museumhead, Seoul, 2023), 《THE PICTURE SHOW》 (Mihakgwan, Seoul, 2021–2022), and 《Chrichri Meerychri Stmas》 (Sungkyun Gallery, Seoul, 2019).

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Ryu has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Art Spectrum 2024 《Dream Screen》 (Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, 2024), 《Summer Screening Night》 (Faction, Seoul, 2024), 《Sticky》 (MUMOKJEOCK, Seoul, 2022), 《The Raw》 (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2022), the 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale 《One Escape at a Time》 (Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2021), 《Pack: Adventure! Double Cross》 (Post Territory Ujeongguk, Seoul, 2019), and the 4th Factory Art Festival (Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul, 2014).

Originality & Identity

Hansol Ryu’s practice begins from a perspective that understands the body not as a unified whole, but as a collection of fragments that can be disassembled and separated. As seen in her early video works Pong Pong(2014) and Chrichri Meerychri Stmas(2018), she dismantles familiar perceptions of the body by depicting scenes in which eyes, hands, organs, and other parts detach from their original positions and operate independently. This approach is not simply an expression of grotesque imagery, but reveals the possibility that the meanings and functions assigned to the body can be overturned at any moment.
 
This line of inquiry is further developed through an image language drawn from gore films and comics. The artist constructs scenes in which the body is “damaged” by combining everyday objects with exaggerated special effects, exploring the point at which fear and humor coexist. Rather than functioning as mere shock tactics, this approach addresses how sensations shift according to the distance between reality and fiction. The gap in which proximity produces discomfort and distance generates laughter becomes a core structure that runs throughout her practice.
 
In later works, this disassembly of the body becomes increasingly connected to social contexts. In Virgin Road(2021), she transforms the familiar narrative of a wedding into a union with oneself, using scenes of bodily division and recombination to twist gender norms and social conventions. Here, the body no longer functions as a fixed marker of identity, but as a mutable medium that disrupts established norms.
 
In her recent solo exhibition 《Every Body, Come On! Yo!》(Museumhead, 2023), this conceptual framework is further expanded. The body is no longer presented as a subject within a coherent narrative, but as a dispersed and overflowing cluster of images. Rather than conveying meaning, the body appears as a material condition that resists it, with an ambiguous sense of laughter and liberation emerging from this state.

Style & Contents

Hansol Ryu has developed her practice across video, drawing, installation, and performance. In her early works, she directly presents the transformation and disassembly of the body through moving image, actively employing low-budget special effects and crude props. The exaggerated staging in Pong Pong and Chrichri Meerychri Stmas does not reinforce realism, but rather disrupts it, prompting the viewer to recognize the materiality of the image itself.
 
A key element in her work is the activation of tactile sensation. The body in her videos is not merely visual, but is presented as something that seems touchable—through stretching textures, bursting forms, and sticky surfaces. This sensory mode operates in a manner similar to ASMR or mukbang videos, extending beyond visual perception to induce physical responses in the viewer.
 
This tendency becomes even more explicit in her sculptural works. In the exhibition 《Sticky》(MUMOKJEOCK, 2022), works such as Pimple and Scalp Carpet appear as enlarged or transformed parts of the body, using materials such as latex, silicone, and sponge that emphasize tactile qualities. These sculptures do not pursue the completeness of traditional sculpture, but instead stimulate sensation through states of stickiness, elasticity, and extension.
 
Furthermore, her work is closer to an accumulation of scenes than to a linear narrative. Events that unfold over time in video are compressed into singular moments in sculpture, creating a condition in which multiple temporal images coexist simultaneously. In 《Every Body, Come On! Yo!》, these scenes are dispersed throughout the space, leading the viewer to engage not with individual works, but with a collective field of images on a sensory level.

Topography & Continuity

Hansol Ryu’s practice is characterized by its focus on sensation itself, achieved through the disassembly and recombination of the body rather than its representation. In particular, she continuously explores the point at which fear and humor operate simultaneously, using the gap that emerges from their collision as a driving force in her work. This approach goes beyond the appropriation of gore imagery, functioning instead as a method of analyzing and reconfiguring the structure of sensation.
 
While many contemporary artists focus on digital imagery or virtual environments, Ryu emphasizes the “touchability” of images through crude special effects and material props. Materials such as cable ties, silicone, and sponge do not reinforce realism but dismantle it, while simultaneously generating a new form of sensory reality. In this regard, her work is constructed around experiential sensation rather than visual fidelity.
 
Her practice also prioritizes the formation of a continuous flow through the repetition and variation of images, rather than the completion of individual works. Under the notion of a “body disassembly show,” her works—developed across multiple media—do not converge into a fixed meaning, but remain in a state of ongoing transformation and expansion. This suggests an approach that produces and sustains sensory conditions rather than delivering a singular message. By addressing the relationship between the body, sensation, and image, her work continues to reveal experiences that emerge between the virtual and the real, and between image and material. It sustains a state of instability within these boundaries, extending outward while maintaining the ambiguous and unresolved sensations that define her practice.