‘It’s me, unfiltered, revealed to the world’: K-actress Ha Ji-won’s journey into art

SEOUL – Veteran South Korean actress Ha Ji-won, in her new solo exhibition Phenomenal Change: Looking Into The Reason I Am Myself, greets her audience not through a glowing screen, but through her canvases.

“There was always confusion between Ha Ji-won the actor and the person I really am,” the 47-year-old told The Korea Herald ahead of her show’s opening on Sept 27.

“I encounter so many emotions through the characters I play, and I love the film set deeply, but there was always something within me that remained unfulfilled as a human being.”

For more than two decades, Ha has been one of South Korea’s most celebrated actors, embodying countless lives since her debut in 1996.

From the fierce female warrior in the period TV series Damo (2003) to the tragic heroine of K-drama What Happened In Bali (2004) to unforgettable turns in Secret Garden (2010 to 2011) and Empress Ki (2013 to 2014) to the disaster action film Tidal Wave (2009), Ha has captivated viewers with her emotional depth and range.

Yet, behind the spotlight, she wrestled with a question: Who am I when I am not acting? It was this search for self beyond the stage lights that drew Ha towards painting.

Over the past several years, she has been quietly carving out a parallel life as an artist in the hope of revealing her more candid, raw and unflinching side.

From personas to paint

Ha began painting about nine years ago as a hobby, but her passion soon grew into something larger.

She made her debut as a painter in 2021 with the group exhibition Woo Haeng (Walking Together), followed by her first solo show in 2023, Ha Ji-won: Instant – The Beginning Of A Relationship.

Expanding her creative territory from film to fine art, Ha participated in Kiaf Seoul 2024, one of South Korea’s most prominent international art fairs, where all her pieces sold out within two days. Her collaboration with Japan’s Snow Contemporary Gallery, which led to her Kiaf debut, reportedly began before the gallery even realised she was a famous performer.

Ha’s works achieved similar success at Incheon Art Show 2024, where each piece – reportedly priced around 20 million won (S$18,143) – was sold out. In July, she was invited to the Study X Plas Asia Art Fair in Osaka, Japan, further marking her growing presence in the international art scene.

Her creative evolution began with the Persona series and continued through Talking Rabbit and Virtual Venus.

Ha’s paintings are often visceral and fragmented, filled with twisted figures and dissonant colour. In other words, they are not portraits of beauty, but confessions.

“When I paint, I’m peeling away all the masks society has given me. What’s left is my truest self, sometimes distorted, sometimes broken. Those are the faces you see on my canvases,” she said. “They may not be perfect, but they’re honest. And that’s my real face.”

For Ha, painting has never been a mere pastime, but rather a necessity.

“As an actor, I’ve lived so many other people’s lives. But outside those roles, there was an emptiness that followed me. Painting became my way to fill that void, not with perfection, but with traces of my truth,” she added.

Turning point: Pause and beginning

Like many artists, the pandemic became both a halt and a rebirth for Ha, who is single. With one of her films delayed for over a year, she suddenly found herself in stillness.

“For over 20 years, I’d been living as my characters. One day, I asked, ‘Why am I even acting?’ That question hit me like the sky collapsing,” she recalled. “At times, I even thought of giving up acting altogether. I frankly didn’t feel good enough.”

But that pause gave her room to breathe and observe.

She began studying her own life, including her family and her overall relationships, with a fresh, sometimes painful objectivity.

“I’d always been protected in some way. But during that (pandemic) period, I’d put on a hat and mask and go outside to experience the world directly by myself. It was a sort of research about life, and that research led me deeper into art.”

The pandemic, then, was more of a new beginning than an interruption, according to Ha.

Her inspirations range from British painter Francis Bacon’s raw distortions to Serbian conceptual artist Marina Abramovic’s performance art. Abramovic’s influence, in particular, shaped Ha’s ideas on audience engagement.

“Her works taught me how art can be a conversation with the public. Someday, I’d love to create a live artwork during a fan meeting, something we experience together at that moment.”

Ultimately, Ha credits her acting career as her greatest muse. “Living as so many characters feeds my art. Painting feels even more instinctive, or more primal than acting.”

According to Ha, directors who visited her exhibitions have remarked that her canvases reveal a Ha Ji-won more authentic than any character she has portrayed onscreen.

“Art has made me happier as an actor. Now, when I perform, I don’t just see the character, but I see the human being behind it. That makes me feel whole again.”

Her studio, just a short walk from home, has become her sanctuary. “Even when I don’t paint anything, just being there helps me breathe, reflect and simply exist,” she said.

Ha describes both acting and painting as forms of expression, but with one key difference.

“In acting, I express myself through a character. But when I paint, I am the subject. It’s entirely my story on the canvas. That’s why exhibiting my work is both nerve-racking and deeply humbling. It’s me, unfiltered, revealed to the world.”

Road ahead

Art is more about continuation than completion for Ha.

“This is all part of a process, so maybe I’ll finish my life’s work right before I die. Until then, I want to keep expressing myself – through movement, through colour, through performance. It’s endless.”

Whether in front of the camera or behind a canvas, Ha continues to challenge both herself and her audiences. “I hope my work encourages others to face their inner selves, just as I face mine. If even one person feels that connection, then the art has done its job,” she said.

The actress will soon return to her stage in the drama Climax (2026), directed by Lee Ji-won, with whom she previously collaborated on another upcoming project, the film Portrait Of A Family. The series follows a couple consumed by ambition as they climb the intertwined worlds of business and entertainment.

“I can’t give spoilers, but I can promise the story and characters will not disappoint the audience,” Ha said confidently with a smile.

Her exhibition runs through Oct 31 at Vista Valley Gallery in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK