Seoul, b. 1972

I Kyoung Ha begins with landscapes encountered in everyday life and on her travels, quietly drawing out the “traces of time and emotion” that remain in moments easy to overlook. Rather than rushing to define what she sees, she holds the scene in a sustained, contemplative gaze, then translates the subtle movements of the heart into paint. In her work, calmness takes precedence over drama; by withholding exaggerated emotional peaks, she allows a gentler resonance to surface—one that offers viewers a soft, lingering consolation. What matters in her practice is less “what is depicted” than “how one stays with the scene.” Different affects—warmth and ease, or solitude and faint melancholy—interlock quietly within a single frame, inviting viewers to encounter their own memories and emotions without strain. I Kyoung Ha favors subdued chroma and controlled value, building density through a traditional painterly process that often begins with a dark underpainting and gradually shifts from shadow toward light. Through this method, she constructs an inner temperature and temporal depth that extend beyond the image on the surface. Having earned a BFA in Painting from Hongik University and completed coursework in Special Video & Graphic Design at Sogang University’s Graduate School of Mass Communication, I Kyoung Ha has consistently expanded an attitude of “looking” and “staying”—as suggested by series titles such as Gaze of Stillness (2024), A Looking Heart (2023), and Quietly Swaying (2022). Across her exhibitions, she continues to refine a visual language that does not insist, but remains—so that time, feeling, and silence can be held with care.