Artist Bio

Christy Hyonsuk (현숙)

Born in Fort Knox, Kentucky in the 1980s and raised in Dongducheon City, South Korea throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Christy Hyonsuk’s artistic vision reflects an ongoing dialogue between heritage, memory, and identity. During her formative summers on Jeju Island, her mother’s homeland, she developed a deep connection to her ancestry and the enduring cultural traditions that continue to inspire her work.
A Korean American mixed-media abstract artist, Christy Hyonsuk creates vibrant, layered compositions that explore belonging, memory, and cultural continuity. Her intuitive process transforms emotion into form—each piece serving as a bridge between personal experience and collective heritage.
Through her practice, Christy Hyonsuk seeks to share the spirit and culture of Jeju Island with audiences around the world, honoring the memory of her ancestors and preserving the narratives that shaped her identity.
Christy Hyonsuk is currently based in Jersey City, New Jersey and New York City, New York where she continues to expand her practice and present works that celebrate the beauty, resilience, and enduring legacy of Korean culture.

크리스티 현숙 작가 소개

1980년대 켄터키주 포트녹스에서 태어나 1990년대와 2000년대 초 한국 동두천에서 성장한 크리스티 현숙 작가의 예술적 비전은 유산, 기억, 그리고 정체성 사이의 끊임없는 대화를 반영합니다. 어머니의 고향인 제주도에서 성장기를 보낸 여름 동안, 그녀는 자신의 조상과 작품에 영감을 주는 오랜 문화적 전통에 깊은 유대감을 형성했습니다.

한국계 미국인 혼합 매체 추상 작가인 크리스티 현숙 작가는 소속감, 기억, 그리고 문화적 연속성을 탐구하는 생동감 넘치고 다층적인 작품을 만들어냅니다. 그녀의 직관적인 작업은 감정을 형태로 변환하며, 각 작품은 개인적인 경험과 집단적 유산을 연결하는 다리 역할을 합니다.

크리스티 현숙 작가는 자신의 작업을 통해 제주도의 정신과 문화를 전 세계 관객들과 공유하고, 조상들의 기억을 기리고 자신의 정체성을 형성한 이야기를 보존하고자 합니다.

크리스티 현숙은 현재 저지 시티와 뉴욕을 거점으로 활동하며, 한국 문화의 아름다움, 회복력, 그리고 지속적인 유산을 기념하는 작품을 선보이고 있습니다.

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Born in Fort Knox, Kentucky in the 1980s, Christy Hyonsuk grew up surrounded by the rhythms of two worlds. Her earliest memories are woven with her mother’s voice — stories of a faraway homeland filled with mythical creatures, ancestral legends, and the Rock, Winds, and Women of Jeju Island. To young Christy Hyonsuk, her mother’s Korea was a place of enchantment and memory, a realm that existed somewhere between folklore and dream.

At home and within the small Korean Christian church her family attended in Fort Knox, the Korean language was sacred — a private tongue spoken only among those who understood. It was a secret world of words and stories, a bridge to an unseen heritage that quietly shaped her imagination.

Moving to Korea

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Moving to Korea 🐯

Moving to Korea

When her family relocated to Dongducheon City, South Korea — less than two hours from the North Korean border — Christy Hyonsuk encountered the layered complexities of her mother’s homeland. It was there, as a child, that she began to understand the history and pain of a divided nation and the quiet resilience of its people that was left by the Korean War 1950.

Summers on Jeju Island

1990s summers, Christy Hyonsuk would journey south to visit her grandparents on Jeju Island — the volcanic paradise often called the “Hawaii of Korea”. These summers became her formative palette: the scent of sea salt and tangerines, wind and clotheslines, fishing nets under the sun, and the joyful rhythmic pulse of island life. There, she witnessed the strength of the women in her family — her grandmother, aunts, and mother — working side by side with a grace born of endurance. Together they embodied the spirit of Jeju Women: resilient, nurturing, and bound by a deep sense of togetherness. Through them, Christy Hyonsuk learned that beauty was not merely seen, but lived — woven into the daily acts of labor, care, and community that sustained the island and its people.

Boxes of Love

When summer ended and Christy Hyonsuk returned to Dongducheon up north on the mainland, her Jeju grandmother, Yi Gisul (이기술), continued to send her love across the sea. Boxes of freshly caught fish and handpicked tangerines would arrive — each piece of fruit a small, glowing message of affection. To Christy Hyonsuk, every box was a work of art in itself: a parcel of memory, a tangible form of “I love you” expressed through the language of citrus and care. After the death of her grandmother in 2020, Christy Hyonsuk experience deep longing for just one more hand picked tangerine. In result, Boxes of Tangerines collection was created.

Death brings a new life

Spring of 1999, Christy Hyonsuk’s family once again gathered on Jeju Island, but this time it wasn’t for vacation. Her grandfather had passed away, and the family came together to prepare for a traditional Jeju funeral and remembrance. Through the clothing, food, and ritual dances, Christy Hyonsuk felt the deep, spiritual heart of Jeju—the way grief and tradition intertwined to honor life and death. She carried this experience with her, using it to bring life and emotion into her artwork.

Echoes of Jeju

When Christy Hyonsuk was older, she discovered the dark and painful secrets hidden in her family’s past on Jeju Island. Before her grandfather served in the Korean War 1950, his two brothers’ lives were stolen during the Jeju Massacre 1948, and the rest of the family lived in weeping silence, too afraid to speak about what happened. After the battles of Korean War ended, Christy Hyonsuk’s family on Jeju Island found strength in rebuilding their lives and supporting one another through the power of community.

Christy Hyonsuk art collection, Story of Jeju-do, is a tribute to the island and its people — both those who were lost and those who survived. Guided by the voices of her ancestors, Christy Hyonsuk paints to remember the pain, strength, and love that shaped her family’s story. Through her artwork, she hopes to bring peace and remembrance to others, offering a quiet space to reflect, heal, and honor the memories of those whose voices were once lost to time.

Artistic Formation

These early experiences became the foundation of Christy Hyonsuk’s artistic vision — a synthesis of memory, place, and cultural identity. Her paintings are not depictions of landscapes, but emotional cartographies, translating recollections of Jeju’s light, air, and color into abstract form. The repetition of gesture and texture mirrors the cycles of her family’s rituals—the careful hands that packed tangerines, the steady waves that shaped the island’s shores.

Now based between Jersey City, New Jersey and New York City, New York, Christy Hyonsuk transforms nostalgia into narrative. Her work carries the pulse of migration, the tenderness of distance, and the desire to share Jeju’s culture with the world. Through abstraction, she reconstructs fragments of her childhood into visual poems — each one an offering to her ancestors and a celebration of the enduring spirit of Jeju Island.