I have always known that I am a painter at heart, though the path to becoming one was far from linear. Growing up in South Korea, my earliest memories are of drawing and coloring—sometimes even on the kitchen walls. I studied calligraphy as a child, and the rhythm, discipline, and physical intelligence of that practice continue to inform my work.
As a teenager, I immigrated to the United States, an experience that sharpened my awareness of perception, translation, and the instability of fixed meaning. In high school, I was drawn equally to art and science, developing my visual practice alongside a deep curiosity about how the world works at atomic and molecular levels. Ultimately, I chose to study biochemistry in college, but the decision did not replace art; it expanded the field of inquiry my painting would later inhabit.
After learning how complex systems operate at microscopic scales, I became interested in how they function at more integrated, human scales. This led to a 26-year career in investment management, where I earned the CFA designation and worked within complex, non-linear systems shaped by feedback, uncertainty, and constraint. My scientific and financial training fostered a systems-based way of thinking grounded in observation, process, and interaction — an orientation that continued to evolve through my work in markets. Throughout those years, I studied abstract painting part-time at the Art Students League of New York, sustaining a parallel studio practice without the pressure of commercial visibility.
Since leaving finance, I have been painting full time. I now see science, art, and finance as distinct but permeable modes of inquiry, each shaped by different constraints. Together, these experiences inform a practice grounded in process, material responsiveness, and an ongoing investigation into how meaning emerges through interaction, accumulation, and change.
Education
Art & Visual Training:
Lifetime Member, Art Students League of New York
Calligraphy Studies, China Institute in America, New York
Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, Bucknell University, 1987
Science & Finance Training:
CFA Charter Holder, 1997
A.B. Biochemical Sciences, Harvard University, 1992
Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, 1986
Honors:
Merit Scholarship, Art Students League of New York
Selected Group Exhibitions:
Art Students League of NY, New York, NY
Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY
Community Exhibitions:
John Jermain Library, Sag Harbor, NY