Selected works

Catalogue

Download the catalog as a PDF.

It includes a complete list of selected works available for exhibition, an ongoing project, an artist statement, a CV, and contact information.

Choose which projects to include.

View page
View page
View page
View page
View page
View page
View page

hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Portfolio

EchoesəvYourFace

This interactive art installation was created in collaboration with Dr. Luca Franceschi (Ph.D.), a machine learning scientist. The viewer's facial expression is captured by a camera in real time, then their emotions are identified through an AI face recognition model. The detected data dynamically transforms the colour, movement, and intensity of the interactive LED lights installed to illuminate the abstract paintings, in a rich variety of ways.

Rather than simply identifying a single primary emotion, the AI subtly incorporates secondary emotions, such as traces of surprise within a happy expression, enabling intriguing and nuanced combinations in the light sequences. When multiple viewers' faces are recognized simultaneously, each person's primary and secondary emotions mix, producing unpredictable and varied combinations.

The three main paintings displayed for the interactive installation (Fragments I, II, III) capture the swirling of feelings in an abstract style. It is about the sensation felt while wandering and searching for something, floating and suspended in space. Then, suddenly, every form of emotion overwhelms the viewer, surrounding them and drawing them somewhere among the fragments of memory. It is like a rush of feelings rising from within, like thousands of petals drifting without destination, tangled, spiraling, pulling each other close. It is as if every portion of memory comes rushing in, producing a chaotic longing before letting it drift away, forlornly.

Fragments I
145 x 95 cm each (Unframed)
Oil & Acrylic on canvas
2025
Fragments II
145 x 95 cm each (Unframed)
Oil & Acrylic on canvas
2025
Fragments III
145 x 95 cm each (Unframed)
Oil & Acrylic on canvas
2025
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

EchoesəvYourFace

Emotions I
36 x 48 cm each (Unframed)
Oil & Acrylic on 330g/m² paper
2025
Emotions II
36 x 48 cm each (Unframed)
Oil & Acrylic on 330g/m² paper
2025
Emotions III
36 x 48 cm each (Unframed)
Oil & Acrylic on 330g/m² paper
2025
Emotions IV
36 x 48 cm each (Unframed)
Oil & Acrylic on 330g/m² paper
2025
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

EchoesəvYourFace

Movement I
50 x 70 cm each (Unframed)
Acrylic on 400g/m² paper
Movement II
50 x 70 cm each (Unframed)
Acrylic on 400g/m² paper
Movement III
50 x 70 cm each (Unframed)
Acrylic on 400g/m² paper
Movement IV
50 x 70 cm each (Unframed)
Acrylic on 400g/m² paper
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Innerscape

"Innerscape" is a series of imagined emotional landscapes, each accompanied with its own soundtrack, played in Korean traditional string instrument called Gayageum, composed and performed by the artist.

This series traces the confusing, unsettling experience while becoming someone different over time. It grows out of life between different places and cultures, where belonging is always partial and the sense of home stretches, blurs, and sometimes slips away.

Each painting captures the feeling of standing on the boundary between two spaces, absorbing the overwhelming influence of a new environment while feeling a growing distance from the home country. Moments of confusion, constant adaptation, and the sensation sensation of never fully belonging to either side are compressed into these inner landscapes. When the question of ‘what is the truest version of oneself?’ constantly circles, the certainty of identity blurs, the self feels unstable and strained to its limit, and the emotions and memories shaken by different expectations and meanings finally appear as 'Innerscape'.

The melodies of the gayageum, heighten the emotion of the artist finding herself where different cultures clash. These soundtracks transform flat paintings into a multi-sensory experience, fusing sound and color into a single emotional state. This allows viewers to do more than look at the landscape; they feel its rhythm, tension, and subtle inner changes as if walking through her memory.

Listen to the soundtrack
Silent Witnesses
95 x 140 cm
Oil on canvas
2025
Listen to the soundtrack
Observer
42 x 62 cm
Oil on canvas
2025
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Innerscape

Listen to the soundtrack
The Hole
95 x 140 cm
Oil on canvas
2025
Listen to the soundtrack
The Passage of Time
70 x 46 cm
Oil on canvas
2025
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

The Misty Heaven

"The Misty Heaven" is the opening series of her ongoing exploration into the dynamic interplay of spontaneity and control, which she has adopted as her primary methodology.

One sketch showing objects floating within a misty, dreamlike space recalled the ascending saints found in the works of Old Masters, which became a motif for her works. Their dynamic compositions, fantastical moods, elegant styles, and balanced relationships among figures influences her art.

The artist possesses an instinctive desire to control, even while occasionally yearning for a spontaneous approach to life. This duality is reflected in the creative process. Lines are formed free, unconscious brushstrokes gradually coalesce into recognizable forms. Through the intentional shaping of these figures, the process goes through unexpected moments of creation. Objects floating within the composition, rendered in dark or intense hues with dynamic brushwork and fluid motion, evoke a sense of movement and vitality. In contrast, bright, serene colors and soft textures create a static, misty atmosphere that balances this dynamism.

The Misty Heaven VI
120 x 80 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
The Misty Heaven V
120 x 80 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

The Misty Heaven

The Misty Heaven IV
200 x 70 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
The Misty Heaven IV-I
100 x 70 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
The Misty Heaven IV-II
100 x 70 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

The Misty Heaven

The Misty Heaven III
50 x 100 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
The Misty Heaven II
60 x 90 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
The Misty Heaven I
50 x 100 cm
Oil on canvas
2024
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Dance (Hani-mation)

The series ''Dance (Hani-mation)' is a portrait of the artist made through movement, holding her emotion as it came, before shaping. What started as improvised motion in her Berlin studio grew into a quiet refusal of fixed identity, of social structure, of the expectations gathered around her. The work is a declaration made on impulse, a rite in which she lets herself go by way of rhythm, memory, and feeling.

Collage I of 9 'Dance' — 80 x 57 cm, Oil and Acrylic on paper, 2024

Working with a camera she triggered by remote, she gathered more than 400 frames while moving freely to music. The method placed her outside anyone else's looking and kept her inside the moment, so that what mattered was not her appearance but her sensation. With makeup, costume, and outward performance set aside, she wanted an honest presence to surface, that of a woman, a Korean, an artist making her way through the difficulty of life in another country. It is the record of a body shaken loose so that a soul could be held.

Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Dance (Hani-mation)

Nudity here is not borrowed from the Western vocabulary of freedom. It is exposure that asks for total emotional openness, and it is a direct meeting with the awkwardness and fragility that being unclothed brings. For an artist raised in Korea, where nudity rarely serves as a means of self expression, the choice carries a weight of its own.

Collage II of 9 'Dance' — 80 x 57 cm, Oil and Acrylic on paper, 2024

The work holds Berlin's freedom and creative charge together with the grey beneath it, the loneliness, the hours of alienation. Dance is at once how she shows herself and how she draws the emotional shape of the city. Berlin is a place where freedom, solitude, fragility, and the feeling of having no bearings all arrive together. To live in another country is to translate yourself without end. As the woman she used to be thins into distance, 〈Dance (Hani-mation)〉 reaches for her, a hand extended slowly to remember her and to find her again.

Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Chopin

This series began with the artist's passion for Frédéric Chopin’s music, expressing his melodies through visual art. Giving in entirely as the music overwhelms her with emotion, the artist keeps each movement completely instinctive. Without looking at the surface, the brush flows naturally across wet paper with acrylic ink.

Sometimes the focus narrows to a single passage, capturing its pure spirit in a single moment. Other times, a whole musical piece becomes the entire art piece. A single Chopin nocturne repeats in the background during the work, allowing fresh brushstrokes to respond to and overlap with what came before. Every new listen sparks a different feeling, leaving behind a physical buildup of emotion on the paper.

This body of work shows exactly how the artist’s bond with classical music becomes a practical way of making art. This straight line from sound to art creation is growing into the 'AfterThoughts' project, where visual art and music meet to express philosophical ideas.

Untitled — 36 x 48 cm each, Oil pastel, Acrylic ink on paper 310 g/m², 2025

Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Chopin

Untitled — 36 x 48 cm each, Acrylic ink on paper 310 g/m², 2025

Untitled — 36 x 48 cm each, Acrylic ink on paper 310g/m², 2024

Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Connection

Gazing down at the city lights from a plane window, the artist caught herself thinking that the world is woven entirely from a vast web of relationships. Some connections grow from a heartfelt bond, while others originate from the weight of obligation. Within that space, the boundary between what is freely chosen and what is maintained out of necessity frequently blurs. Human connections are brilliantly beautiful, yet at times they can heavily burden the mind.

Allowing instinct to guide her hands, she moves the brush across wet paper, moving between spontaneity and control. Each time the ink seeps into the surface, the bleeds and dots generate unpredictability, and from that specific moment she finds the intentional forms that can only bloom there. Lines that extend thick and thin, sometimes trembling and sharp, become the delicate and hazy boundaries within our ties, showing the intricate complexity of human relationships. Much like the facets of life shaped by the intersection of intention and chance, she wants to capture on canvas the dual nature of these connections, the coexistence of their beauty and their weight.

Connection I
48 x 36 cm
Acrylic ink, oil pastel on paper 310g/m²
2024
Connection II
36 x 48 cm
Acrylic ink, oil pastel on paper 310g/m²
2024
Connection III
33 x 68.5 cm
Acrylic ink on paper 310g/m²
2024
Connection IV
33 x 68.5 cm
Acrylic ink on paper 310g/m²
2024
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Ongoing Project: AfterThoughts

After Liberty

Questions like 'What is life, and how should one live it?', 'What kind of being am I, with what thoughts and struggles?', and 'How should I view the world around me?' came to feel closer than ever to the artist. She feels a longing for depth of thought, and an uncertainty in her attitude toward everyday life. Saying that she never used to belong to the kind of person who reads books helps explain her current behaviour.

John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, which she began reading last December, was deepening the questions that had been vaguely surfacing in her mind. First published in 1859, its discussions of individuality and freedom, the diversity of circumstance and human development, and the warning against the tyranny of the majority provoked a fierce inner reaction in her.

Though these might feel like obvious truths from today's perspective, it felt like clenched fists pounding again and again at the society she had lived in, the environment she had lived in, and the thoughts she had lived by. A curiosity for philosophical questions and reflection arose in her. She read, one after another, Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, and the Zhuangzi, and the list of books she wanted to read next kept growing by the day.

The emotional stirrings brought on by passages from these books passionately pushed her toward abstract visualization and musical composition. On Liberty is the very first meeting point of art and philosophy for her. This process of boldly looking into a philosophical message, reflecting on it, and talking it through will become not only a subject for art but an important material that colours her life anew.

Sketch drawings and Photo of a work in progress at the studio
Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

Artist Statement

Hani Kim is a visual and sound artist based in Berlin. Over the past 13 years, her life has moved through Seoul, Bern, Milan, and London before her current city. That journey has broadened her perspective, but it's also left her with a cultural dissonance from the friction between Eastern and Western ways of thinking. Her work explores emotional states rooted in identity, cultural in-betweenness, memory, and psychological change.

Her practice is shaped by a balance between instinct and control. Her paintings begin with spontaneous, raw gestures that capture fleeting emotions and unconscious impressions, then she steps back to shape the overall composition and mood. It's a process that shifts continually between spontaneity and control, unconscious feeling and deliberate action.

Since reading John Stuart Mill's On Liberty (1859) last December, her work has grown beyond exploring emotional states into philosophical questioning. Mill's ideas on individuality, freedom, and the tyranny of the majority got her thinking hard about the environments, societies, and mindsets she'd lived through, and stirred up questions she'd carried for a long time but never really faced: What does it mean to live? What thoughts and concerns shape me as a being that exists? How should I view the world around me? That led her to Boethius, Marcus Aurelius, Zhuangzi, and other philosophical reading. These philosophical messages, much like psychological shifts or memory, became a solid foundation for the kind of artistic resonance she's after.

Her ongoing project AfterThoughts turns these philosophical ideas into visual and sound form, beginning with its first series, After Liberty. One piece of Mill's thinking has already taken shape as a piano composition (working title: Individual Freedom Suppressed by Society), built from emotional melody and dissonant chords. Going forward, she wants to keep bringing philosophical matters and artistic expression together, through painting, music, installation, and combining other media.

Hani Kim / 김하늬hanikim.com·hanikim.com@gmail.com·@hanikim_art

CV

Hani Kim / 김하늬 (b. 1990, South Korea) — based in Berlin

Education

  • 2026 Workshops: Ceramic Art, Microbial Cellulose in Art and Design, Silkscreen printing, Wood Cut Printing, SketchUp, Performance Art, bbk Berlin
  • 2023 - 2024 Private lessons under Isabella Gabriel Niang and Paola Ferri, Berlin
  • 2022 - 2023 Drawing & painting studies under Andrei Krioukov, Kunst Schule Berlin
  • 2009 - 2014 BA Communication Art, University of Sejong, Seoul

Exhibition / Open Studio

  • 2026 Zemin Berlin, "friction", Group exhibition, Berlin
  • 2025 - 2026 Kunstverein Neukölln, "Horizonte", Group exhibition, Berlin
  • 2025 48 Stunden Neukölln Art Festival, "EchoesəvYourFace", Duo exhibition, Berlin
  • 2025 Galerie erstererster, "Wer ist der Spion?", Group exhibition, Berlin
  • 2025 GlogauAIR, Virtual Open Studio, Berlin

Residency

  • 2025 On-line Residency Program, GlogauAIR, Berlin

Bibliography

  • keephustling, Interview "Pursuing Her Dream as an Artist in Berlin", October 2025, Seoul
  • GlogauAIR, Catalogue of Artists in Residence, Q1 2025 issue, March 2025, p.30-31, Berlin
  • GlogauAIR, Interview "Meet the On-line Artist", March 2025, Berlin

Contact

hanikim.com
hanikim.com@gmail.com
@hanikim_art

↑ Back to top