Yo Ahn Han is a visual artist from the Republic of Korea. He has received his BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA from MassArt. Han is teaching at MassArt as an assistant Professor and RISD as a visiting Lecturer. His work is a visual dialogue between suppression and desire, a duality which speaks to both his experience of cerebral arteriovenous malformation and to his bifurcated cultural identity. His work has been shown internationally in the United States, South Korea, and the Netherlands. Recent solo shows include “My Princess, Bari”(2015) at ART MORA Gallery in New York, “Botanical Rhapsody”(2019), “Seeking Serenade”(2021) at Chase Young Gallery and “Soils of Tinctured Embodiment”(2020) at Berry Group Office in Boston. Yo Ahn Han has recently been appointed as a juror for Beacon Gallery “totem” group exhibition (2020) and biannual painting& Drawing fellowship for Massachusetts Cultural council (2020) Additionally, Han has been featured in Boston – Art Review Issue 01, Eagle Tribune (2018), New England Home, Boston Globe, Tupelo Quarterly, and Arte Realizzata (2021).

In recent years (2021 – 2022), Han has shown in greater Boston area, including solo exhibitions as “Seeking Serenade” at Chase Young Gallery, “In Search of Floral Bodies” at Fitchburg Art Museum alongside several group shows as “Triple Oscillation” at MassArt x SOWA Gallery, “Quotidian Queer” University hall gallery at UMass Boston, and “Line (선)/Seon( Line)”, Fort Point Art Community Gallery. He is also a participant of 32nd MassArt Benefit LIVE auction. Forthcoming event is a new solo show on March 2023 at Chase Young Gallery.

Han has just shown at exhibitions are two persons show at Studio Artego, “Hyperphantasia”, New York (September, 2022) and there are Solo shows, “Spellboound” at Chase Young Gallery (September 2025), “Reves Rococo” at Galerie NeC (March 2024, Paris), “Sculpted Dreamscape” at Zillman Art Museum at Bangor, Maine (2025), “Between thee Layers” at MariiArt Kunst (August 2025, Wiesbaden).

Artist Statement

YoAhn Han’s work centers on the body as an unstable and excessive site—one shaped by vulnerability, devotion, and ornament. Living with a neurological condition that disrupts bodily control, Han understands the body not as a fixed vessel but as a force that exceeds intention, oscillating between pleasure and pain.

Through hand-cut paper, poured pigment, and layered surfaces sealed in resin, Han constructs lush, ornamental landscapes populated by floral bodies and mythic forms. Flowers associated with both eroticism and mourning—such as chrysanthemums and titan arum—function as surrogate bodies: queer, non-normative forms that resist lineage, reproduction, and prescribed social roles.

Drawing from Rococo excess, Art Nouveau line, and the ornamental traditions of Silla and Goryeo Korea, Han treats ornament not as decoration but as survival. His slow, devotional process—allowing materials to stain, spill, and then be meticulously cut—enacts a negotiation between surrender and control. Negative space becomes a charged interval where memory, desire, and fragility persist.

Rather than seeking a singular center, Han’s work embraces multiplicity. His figures belong not to genealogy or purity, but to variation—to decorative ecosystems where excess becomes protection and surface becomes a site of care.

EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibitions

• Spellbound, Chase Young Gallery — Sep 2025
• Between the Layers, MariArt Kunst, Wiesbaden, Germany — 2025
• Sculpted Dreamscape, Zillman Art Museum, Bangor, MA — Jan 2025
• Art on Paper Fair (Solo Booth), NYC Pier 36 — Sep 2024
• Convergence, Arts Research Collaborative, Lowell — Apr 2024
• Rêves Rococo, Galerie NeC, Paris — Mar 2024
• Transfigured, Chase Young Gallery — Mar 2023
• In Search of Floral Bodies, Fitchburg Art Museum, MA — Jan 2022
• Convergence, Lyceum Gallery, NH — Oct 2021
• Seeking Serenade, Chase Young Gallery — Mar 2021
• Terra of the Peculiarly Gaiety, Barry Group Real Estate — Sep 2020
• Drowned Florescence, Bancroft School — Oct 2019
• Botanical Rhapsody, Chase Young Gallery — Jun 2019
• Space in Between, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, Newton, MA — Sep 2018
• Metamorphic Desire, Essex Art Center, Lawrence, MA — Jan 2018
• 매혹적 가두어짐 (Enchanting Box), Space the In, Seoul — Aug 2017
• Alluring Confinement, Artlery Gallery — Aug 2016
• My Princess Bari, Art Mora, NYC — Feb 2016
• Paean for Abandoned, Double Space, Seoul — Sep 2015
• Dream Universe, Meneer Tabak, Amsterdam — Jul 2015

Group Exhibitions

• Art Karlsruhe Art Fair, Germany — Feb 2026 (Forthcoming)
• Affordable Art Fair, Boston — Oct 2025
• Paper Art Fair (Solo Booth), New York — Sep 2024
• Evergreen (상록의 빛을 찾아서), Chuncheon High 100th Anniversary — Apr 2024
• Hyperphantasia (Two-Person Show), Studio Artego, NY — Sep 2022
• K-Art Fair, COEX, Seoul — Sep 2022
• Hampton Art Market Fair, Hampton, NY — Aug 2022
• Summer Group Show, Chase Young Gallery — Jul 2022
• Quotidian Queer, UMass Boston — Mar 2022
• 32nd Annual MassArt Auction — Apr 2022
• Line (선/Seon) Two-Person Show, Fort Point Arts Community — Mar 2022
• Triple Oscillation, MassArt x SoWA Gallery — Jan 2022
• 30th Annual MassArt Auction — Apr 2019
• Korean Cultural Society Boston Benefit Auction, Artist of the Year — 2018
• Chase Young Gallery Group Show — Aug 2018
• 29th Annual MassArt Auction — Apr 2018
• Displacement, Aviary Gallery — Jan 2018
• Holiday Highlights, Chase Young Gallery — Dec 2017
• Sanctuary, Distillery Gallery — Nov 2017
• Korea in the Artist’s Voice, Long Island Children’s Museum — 2017
• Sent From a Pure Moment, Godine Family Gallery — Oct 2017
• Summer Palette, Chase Young Gallery — Aug 2017
• Art All State Mentor Group Show, UMass Dartmouth CVPA — 2017
• 28th Annual MassArt Auction — Apr 2017
• Active Tranquility, Chase Young Gallery — Mar 2017
• You Think It’s , but It’s Really , Midway Gallery — Aug 2016
• Art All State Mentor Group Show, UMass Dartmouth — 2016
• ART BUSAN International Art Fair — May 2016
• The Salon Art Mora, Art Mora, NYC — Dec 2015
• Paper Works, Upstream Gallery, Hastings-on-Hudson — Jun 2015
• Wanderlust, UFORGE Gallery — Jun 2015
• Art All State Mentor Group Show, UMass Dartmouth — 2015
• 26th Annual MassArt Auction — Apr 2015
• Seventh National Juried Exhibition, Prince Street Gallery, NYC — Jan 2015

PUBLICATION & PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS

• Boston Art Review, 8 New Shows Before November, Oct 2025
• Boston Magazine — Mar 2024
• MIT Mural Project — Nov 2023
• Boston Globe, YoAhn Han: Transfigured — Mar 2023
• Dig Boston, In Search of Floral Bodies — Jan 2022
• WBUR, 13 Art Exhibits to Brighten Winter — Jan 2022
• Boston Globe, At Chase Young Gallery, an Alchemist with Paper and Paint — Apr 2021
• Arte Realizzata, A Scintillating Conversation with YoAhn Han — Apr 2021
• Tupelo Quarterly — Mar 2021
• New England Home, A Cut Above — Feb 2021
• Harper’s Magazine, Ethereal Desire — Dec 2018
• Dig Boston, Displaced at Aviary Gallery — Jan 2018
• Eagle Tribune — Jan 2018

REVIEW / JURY PANELS

• Rhode Island State Council on Arts Fellowship Jury — 2024
• Artworks Gallery Show Your Pride Jury, Maine — 2023
• Massachusetts Cultural Council Biennale Fellowship Jury, Painting — 2020
• MassArt MFA-BLR Review Board — 2020
• Beacon Gallery Juried Exhibition Totem — 2020
• MassArt Printmaking & MFA Low Residency Final Reviews — 2018
• Harvard GSD Architecture Program Review — 2018

EDUCATION

MFA, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston — 2014
Pace Gallery Scholarship Recipient

BFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago — 2011
Merit Scholarship Recipient

EXPERIENCE

Teaching & Lectures (2014–Present)

• Visiting Critic, Rhode Island School of Design — since 2020
• Cambridge Center for Adult Education — since 2020
• Panelist, MassArt PCE Think Thursday: Drawing in a Wired World — Dec 2018
• Assistant Professor, MFA-BLR Program, MassArt — since 2017
• Visiting Lecturer, Studio Foundation & Painting Dept, MassArt — since 2017
• Artist Mentor, Art All State, Dartmouth, MA — since 2015
• Instructor, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston — since 2015

Visiting Lecturer Engagements

2025
Artist Talk, Gallery Representation & Exhibiting Your Work, University of Memphis — Oct 2025

2018–2022
MassArt PCE: Drawing in a Wired World Discussion Panel – Harvard GSD, Drawing for Design: Ink Drawing (Prof. Ewa Harabasz)

2017
Harvard GSD, Drawing for Design: Ink Drawing (Prof. Ewa Harabasz) – Brookline Gateway Arts — Studio Visit

2016
Harvard GSD, Drawing for Design: Ink Drawing – MassArt Graduate Seminar (Prof. Sharon Dunn)

2015
MassArt Low-Residency MFA, Studio Class (Prof. Sharon Dunn)

2014
Harvard GSD, Landscape as Painting Seminar (Prof. Ewa Harabasz)