BIOGRAPHY
Hannah Smoot is a multidisciplinary artist born in South Korea whose practice is shaped by a childhood spent across multiple countries and cultures. Working primarily in painting and sculpture, she investigates transformation through processes of construction, destruction, and renewal. Her tactile surfaces and experimental materials embrace chance, allowing accidents to become essential elements of the work. Influenced by Francis Bacon, Jenny Saville, and David Altmejd, Smoot creates immersive works that examine vulnerability, mortality, and the tension between beauty and the grotesque. She currently lives and is completing her MFA in Baltimore, where she continues to develop her interdisciplinary studio practice.
CV
Education:
Rhode Island School of Design
(Illustration BFA)
Maryland Institute College of Art
(Multimedia MFA)
Exhibitions:
(Solo Exhibitions)
[2019]
Friends with Strange Parasites, Gaia Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
[2016]
Fred Lazarus Award Winning Solo Exhibition, Fred Lazarus Building, Baltimore, MD
(Group Exhibitions)
[2026]
San Francisco Art Fair, Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion, San Francisco, CA 2026
H.P. Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens, Baltimore, MD
Are You Seeing What I’m Seeing?, Manhattan Beach Art Center, Manhattan Beach, CA
LA Art Show 2026, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
[2025]
Seattle Erotic Art Festival (Seduction: Masquerade of Shadows), Gallery Erato, Seattle, WA
Seattle Art Fair, Lumen Field Event Center, Seattle, WA
Affordable Art Fair NYC, Starrett-Lehigh building, New York, NY
LA Art Show 2025, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
[2024]
Diaf Daegu Korea International Gallery Art Fair, Daegu, Korea
Art Palm Beach, Palm Beach County Convention Center, West Palm Beach, FL
LA Art Show 2024, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
[2023]
Art Within Reach, Black Market Courtyard, Los Angeles, CA
art3F Monaco, Chapiteau of Monaco, Monaco
Seattle Art Fair, Lumen Field Event Center, Seattle, WA
LA Art Show 2023, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
[2022]
LA Art Show 2022, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
[2021]
Yeosu Art Market, Yeosu, Korea
Bank Art Fair, Seoul, Korea
LA Art Show 2021, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
[2020]
Winter Busan International Art Fair, Busan, Korea
Summer Busan International Art Fair, Busan, Korea
LA Art Show 2020, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
[2019]
Inspiration Éternelle, Halle Aux Toiles Rouen, Rouen, France
Gaia Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
STATEMENT
My work explores the shifting relationships between space and figure through dreamlike, surreal images. The figures are in motion, stretching, blending and coming apart as they interact with the space around them and with other beings that inhabit the same world. I use layered textures and soft distortions to create scenes where the boundaries of the body feel unstable and open to change; a suspended reality where identity and form are always in the process of becoming something new.
