TO STAND ON THIS LAND

Choongseok Han

To Stand on This Land, 193.9 x 130.3 cm, acrylic on Korean cotton, 2025

《To Stand on This Land》 Exhibition Introduction

“A journey of a child who grew up too fast, becoming an adult in the truest sense”

In 1997, Korea was hit by an unprecedented economic crisis the IMF financial crisis. Yet, strangely, many of us recall that time as an era of “romance amidst hardship.”

To Stand on This Land, 162.2 x 97 cm, acrylic on Korean cotton, 2025

Se Ri Pak winning the LPGA in her bare feet, the patriotic PSA backed by Yang Hee-eun’s “Evergreen”, and the nationwide gold collecting movement These images remain in our collective memory as symbols of a nation that overcame together. But beneath that sentimentality were the children who had to grow up too quickly. And it is through their eyes that Han Choong-seok begins his story.

The King Cat, 116.8 x 91 cm, acrylic on Korean cotton, 2025

For over two decades, Han has painted consistently. He often says that only two of those years were spent searching for his own identity. The rest were spent thinking deeply about relationships. His work captures the delicate fabric of human connection with honesty The emotional distance, quiet survival, the act of reading the room. The figures in his paintings are watchful, yet unshaken. They stand still and quietly resilient.

The Girl, 27.3 x 27.3 cm( 5S), acrylic on Korean cotton, 2025

Their gaze leans not toward fear, but toward warmth. Their emotions remain steady restrained, but present. This exhibition is both a philosophical self portrait and a quiet chronicle of what we’ve all lived through The time we were forced to grow up too soon. It is a gentle path toward restoration A reminder that even when shaken by relationships, we find our way back to standing firm.

– Junsoo Park

Relationship Practice, 145.5 x 112.1 cm, acrylic on Korean cotton, 2025

Artist Statement (2025 August)
To stand on this land
“Relationships”
At times, we ask ourselves how deep must we go to truly know ourselves?
When we seek to measure the depth of the sea, the sea responds with waves.
Life tells us not just to look at the waves but to enter them.
Setting aside the distant joy of merely gazing at the ocean, we step into its waves.

I’m strong 72.7 x 60.6 cm, acrylic on Korean cotton, 2025

Seeing those ahead of us pushed and shaken by the water,
I once said to them:
“Hold your center. Stand strong.”
But soon, I too was soaked.
And even a gentle wave made me stagger.
It was then I realized:
They looked that way to me only because I, too, was wavering.