Soonhwa Kang
Multidisciplinary artist/designer, Cultural Mediator
ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice reflects ancestral memorial rituals and layered questions of cultural identity.
Rooted in the ceremonies I witnessed growing up — offerings, gestures, and shared silences that honor the unseen — my work explores remembrance, loss, and healing.
Through ceramics and ink painting, I work with traditional materials such as clay and ink not as region-specific tools, but as timeless, elemental substances. They hold memory and carry the potential for transformation. By shaping, brushing, and layering, I trace continuity across fragmented histories, seeking grounding and connection in a divided world.
These materials become vessels for reflection — holding space for grief and care, for what is visible and what remains unseen. My work aims to open a dialogue around cultural preservation, invisible histories, and the emotional labor of remembering.
BIO
Soonhwa Kang is an artist and cultural mediator based in the Netherlands, born in Tokyo to a third-generation Korean-Japanese family. Her work explores themes of identity, memory, and cultural heritage through ceramic objects and ink paintings that interweave personal history with shared rituals of remembrance.
Before focusing on art full-time, she worked internationally for over twenty years as a visual designer in the cultural and social sectors across Tokyo, Singapore, New York, and Amsterdam. This background continues to shape her multidisciplinary practice and sensitivity to material, form, and communication.
Growing up between Korean and Japanese cultures, she developed a deep appreciation for subtle differences and in-between spaces. This experience — of belonging to both and neither — informs her ongoing exploration of hybridity, cultural continuity, and healing.
Soonhwa has exhibited in galleries and alternative spaces in Amsterdam, Haarlem, Eindhoven, and Wassenaar. She also leads Sumi-e workshops that share the philosophy and techniques of East Asian ink painting.
In 2025, she expanded her studio, Hanato Atelier, into a collective platform that invites artists working with natural materials and handcraft to host workshops. The atelier serves as a space to create, connect, and reflect — nurturing dialogue, sensitivity, and the continuity of shared traditions.
これまで20年以上にわたり、東京、シンガポール、ニューヨーク、アムステルダムなどで、文化・社会分野に携わるデザイナーとして活動してきました。現在は、その経験を活かしながら、より個人的な物語や文化の表現を重視したアート制作へと軸足を移しています。
日本で在日コリアンとして育つ中で、家庭を通じて韓国と日本、両方の文化に触れてきました。その体験は、微妙な違いや文化の奥行きを感じる力となり、同時に「どちらにも属しきれない」という独特の感覚を私にもたらしました。そうした“間”に生きる感覚が、私の創作活動の源泉であり、個人的な物語を表現する動機となっています。
アムステルダム、ハーレム、ワッセナーなどのギャラリーで作品を展示してきたほか、墨絵の哲学と技法を紹介するワークショップも継続して行っています。
2025年からは、自身のスタジオ「Hanato Atelier」を拡張し、自然素材と手仕事に焦点を当てる多様なアーティストを招いたワークショップ・シリーズをスタートさせました。今のような混沌とした、暴力的で忙しない社会の中だからこそ、「つくる・つながる・ふりかえる」静かな時間と空間を大切に育てていきたいと考えています。
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
“Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie