HWI HAHM
(b.1993 Busan, South Korea)
Hwi Hahm earned his MFA at Hunter College in 2024 and BFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. He had a recent solo show at JJ Murphy Gallery in New York, a two person show at F2T Gallery in Milan and PM/AM in London and has participated in multiple group exhibitions including C L E A R I N G, New York, Chapter NY, New York, JO-HS Gallery, New York, Unosunove, Rome, IT. He has participated in residencies such as Palazzo Monti at Brescia, Italy, and Pilotenkueche Residency at Leipzig, Germany in 2017. He is currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY.
SELECTED WORKS
Artist Statement
My paintings are built through layers that obscure as much as they reveal. Working over existing imagery, I create visual barriers that resist easy interpretation, evoking absence, ambiguity, and the fragmentation of identity. Figuration is withheld, replaced by geometric forms, abstracted structures, and landscapes that suggest human presence without defining it. My work is the repercussion of the dissociation of identity (disappearance of individuality), and it offers a balance between material properties and the illusionistic possibilities of painting. I avoid a direct representation of heritage and history, which results in the ambiguity of subject matter.
My work draws from German Expressionism, Cubism, and Metaphysical painting, yet subverts their existential pursuits. The compositions emerge from the question: can geometry be personal? The result is a balance between materiality and illusion, humor and melancholy—a surface where swaths of paint fail to become something specific, yet resonate with emotional and philosophical tension. Each canvas becomes a site where identity is not defined, but continuously withheld and renegotiated.
Emotions that derive from the fragmentation of identity: deteriorating, exhausting, and demoralizing are dispositions I make for the subjects to live on. Paintings are evolving as I am addressing myself onto the canvas.
“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn’t
― Albert Camus, The Stranger
INSTALLATION VIEWS
SHOWS WITH JOHS
ARTIST’S CV
EDUCATION
Hunter College, New York, USA
- Master of Fine Arts
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
- Bachelor of Fine Arts
Lorenzo de Medici School, Florence, Italy
- Study Abroad Program
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 – JJ Murphy Gallery, “Desire for Clarification”, New York, USA
2024 – Square Gallery, “Smudgy and Lossy”, Seoul, South Korea
2021 - Lubov Gallery, “Bushman’s Poetry, Starman’s Prank”, New York, USA.
Two Person Exhibition:
2025 – F2T Gallery, Hwi Hahm & Mathilde Albouy “It is What It is Not”, Milan, IT
2025 – PM/AM, Hwi Hahm & Areum Yang “Thinking of That Room”, London, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2026 – JO-HS Gallery, Nigredo – Albedo – Rubedo, Casa Siza, Mexico City
2025 – JO-HS Gallery, “Happens to the Heart”, New York, NY
2024 – 205 Hudson Gallery, “April” MFA Thesis Show, New York, NY
2024 – PM/AM, Group Exhibition #58, London, UK
2024 – C L E A R I N G, “Dictionary of Accepted Ideas”, New York, USA
2023 – 1/9unosunove, “One wall a web through which the moment walks”, Rome, Italy
2023 – Hunter College MFA Gallery, “Unexpect”, New York, USA
2023 – Airlock, “Aging”, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2023 – David Zwirner Platform Initiative and Gathery, New York, USA
2023 – Kiosk Gallery, “Tribeca Grill”, Glasgow, Scotland
2022 – Chapter NY, “Elective Affinities”, New York, NY. USA.
2022 – David Zwirner Platform Initiative “Month of November” Online Exhibition
2022 - Hunter College MFA, “What’s the Matter?”, New York, USA.
2020 – Ground Floor Gallery, “Non-placeholder”, Brooklyn, NY. USA.
2019 - SVA Gallery, “Selected Solo Representation”, Brooklyn, NY. USA.
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