Hong Ji-young is a contemporary visual artist based in Seoul, South Korea, whose work spans painting, media, and installation. Her practice reveals the hidden dimensions of identity, challenging surface appearances and exploring the deeper, often unseen layers of human existence.
Born in Seoul in 1987, Hong discovered her passion for art at an early age, beginning to draw and paint seriously by the age of eight. She went on to earn a BFA in Occidental Painting from Sung-Shin Women’s University in Seoul and later completed an MS in Technology Art at Chung-Ang University, a combination that has come to define her cross-disciplinary and conceptually driven approach to visual art.
Hong’s work is rooted in the metaphor of “removing the epidermis.” Using techniques that draw from both scientific imaging and digital manipulation, she seeks to strip away the external surface of her subjects to expose what she calls the “inner appearance” — an unseen energy that transcends social and physical boundaries. Her compositions often merge the symbolic and the scientific, referencing metaphysics, psychology, and the language of technology to question how identity is perceived. Through this process, she invites viewers to move beyond binary constructs of race, gender, and beauty, encountering instead a universal essence that connects all human experience.
Hong continues to expand her visual language through the integration of media art, installation, and immersive presentation. Her focus on the tension between inner and outer perception—between the visible body and the invisible self—remains central to her evolving body of work. With each new project, she deepens her exploration of universal human subjectivity, positioning herself among a generation of artists redefining identity and technology in contemporary visual culture.
