Biography
Hyun was born and grew up in Korea, before coming to France to earn a PhD in Fine Arts at Université Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne. She also studied with Jean-Pierre Pincemin at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and explored Chinese woodblock printing at various prints studios in Beijing, China.
Hyun has shown her work in Paris, London, New York, Seoul, Daegu, Osaka and Carthage. She was shortlisted for the GRAV’X prize in 1995 and 2007, and was awarded the first prize of the Salon des Artistes de la Ville de Paris in 2002. Her prints are in private collections globally and in a number of public collections, including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Tunisian Ministry of Culture, the Asian Arts Museum of Toulon, the Museum of drawings, original prints of Gravelines and the Cernuschi Museum - the Museum of Asian Arts of Paris, and the 'Champollion - Les écritures du monde' Museum, Figeac.
Underneath the Gam tree
“Like many Koreans, we used to have a large Gam tree – or Persimmon tree - in our backyard. In the summer, its generous leafage would bring freshness to the house, playing with the wind to draw symphonies of shadow and light on the grass. And in the winter, the plump gam fruits would scatter orange dots against the snowy sky.”
For Hyun, printmaking is an art of process rather than a reproduction technique. Paradoxically, it can reveal the changing nature of things through repetition. For example, when the matrix meets the paper, time and space open for imperfectly dried layers of ink to mix, for the image to interact and play with the veins of the wood.
Hyun's art hinges on keeping time and space alive, to allow the unknown to join with the known. She gives way to a force that can express itself only when the artist steps back: the void. As a result, though each of Hyun’s prints are born from same matrix, lines, and gestures, each of them breathes with changing shades, textures and moods. Just like the quiet mingling of shadow and light underneath the Gam tree.