Jae Hahn - Reviews

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30 Seconds with Jae Hahn, Orlando Sentinel

Rebecca Swain Vadnie, Sentinel Staff Writer

December 2, 2005

Whether it's her bold abstractions or elegantly unfolding paintings, Jae Hahn has a distinctive artistic style.

You can see Hahn's work in her new show "Unfoldings" at the Millenia Fine Art Gallery at 4190 Millienia Blvd., Orlando. The show opens today and runs through Jan. 15. Details: 407-226-8701.

Your works seem to have two distinctive styles -- works that appear to unfold before the viewer and others based on geometric shapes and lines. Where do these styles fall in your development as an artist?

In the 1980s, my work was not strongly based on geometric shapes and lines. I completed a series of paintings with figures, consolidating my understanding of all the schools of masters. I focused on three major interests: first, structure from Cubism; second, dynamic colors studies from Matisse; and third, free, spontaneous gestural strokes from abstract expressionism.

In the early and mid-1990s, I focused on paintings without figures in my "Kuan" and "Sunyata" series. This is when my paintings became pure abstract, metaphysical, geometric, minimal and contemplative under the influence of Taoism and Zen Buddhism. In the late 1990s, I started to interact with space more actively, interlocking positive and negative space. Each stripe from the earlier paintings became an independent bar painting which also worked as a group using wall space as an extended painting background. And "folding" started to happen. . . .

In December 2004, when I finished my first series of "Unfoldings" drawings, I knew immediately that I had achieved what I had been pursuing for so long. I like the storytelling aspect of "Unfoldings," the way the paintings are spilling by unfolding with viewers.

When were you first introduced to art as a child? How?

Art is one of the earliest things I can remember. My father was an artist and an art teacher, and I was expected to follow his path. However, it was not an easy decision for an immigrant like me to pursue a career as an artist because of the financial difficulties.

Tell me more about "Millenia," the painting you've created for the gallery -- what was the biggest challenge in creating this piece?

The inception of "Millenia" was the most spontaneous and yet most natural thing. As soon as I completed the first set of "Unfoldings" paintings, I showed the photos to Barbara and Robert Lombard of Millenia Gallery. They fell in love with the works I showed them, which were of all colors, shapes and sizes. Then Barbara said something which showed me that she had reacted to my "Unfoldings" paintings exactly as I had while I was making them. She said, "I see something big. You should make it big. Real big." Then Robert asked me whether I could make a piece large enough to fill the largest wall space in the gallery, which is 16 feet high and 55 feet long. I said "No problem." This is how the "Unfoldings" painting titled "Millenia" was born.

When you are not painting, what else do you enjoy doing?

I enjoy just living and working. I recently finished remodeling my home and building my new studio in the back yard. Right outside my new studio, I now have a lovely deck and entry to the backyard garden is through a Chinese Moongate. It was fun to work on "Unfoldings." Work and fun became one. Yes, I can answer your question more conventionally. I particularly enjoy reading and traveling. Both are all about meeting. In reading, I meet with humanity's greatest cultures, ideas, language, our own heritage. In traveling, I meet with the real world.