Erin Hyunhee Kang is an artist based in Boulder, Colorado. Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Erin moved to the states at age of sixteen. She received BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and MFA in Drawing & Painting concentrated area from University of Colorado Boulder.
Erin began her career as a photography assistant at The New Yorker magazine at Condé Nast before joining Tapehouse Toons as part of the visual effects team for The X-Presidents series on Saturday Night Live’s TV Funhouse and Disney’s Lizzie McGuire. She then worked as an in-house book jacket designer at Penguin Group USA, creating covers for award-winning authors across prestigious imprints such as G.P. Putnam’s Sons and Riverhead. After relocating to Boulder, Erin taught visual arts in the Boulder Valley School District and currently teaching at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Erin’s work reflects her personal experiences, engaging with the liminal dimensions of life events and translating them into visual forms shaped by an interplay of traditions, folklore, metaphors, mythologies, and allegories.
Erin’s freelance clients include Penguin Random House, Boulder Valley School District, Denver Art Museum, and Denver Theatre District & Public Arts. Erin has recently exhibited her work at Artwork Loveland, AKAGallery, Dairy Arts Center, RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and CU Art Museum.
Artist Statement:
My current artistic practice focuses on graphite drawings that explore the theme of encountering the past. My drawings reflect personal experiences in diasporic struggles, engaging with the liminal dimensions of life events. These struggles appear in fragmented depictions of what I call Marginal Space, where I examine emotions that arise in confusing times while seeking clarity and acceptance of impermanence.
I see life as suspended between opposites—the natural and the abstract, the past and the future, life and death—never fully belonging to one side. Embracing this in-between state allows me to explore life’s mysteries, which I translate into visual forms shaped by an interplay of traditions, folklore, metaphors, mythologies, and allegories. Each drawing engages with regret, contemplation, desire, tragedy, and mortality, reflecting the fleeting nature of existence. Through this work, I hope to honor humanity’s resilience in the face of pain and adversity while affirming our capacity for hope in uncertain times.