Hanna Lee Joshi
Hanna Lee Joshi is a Korean-Canadian artist who’s practice primarily involves depictions of the female form.
Her work currently explores the search for autonomy within and themes of individuality and how it relates to the universal identity.
Hanna Lee Joshi expresses the emotional intelligence of her rich internal world through color. Her relationship with intense hues bloomed at the tail end of a major depression in 2017, when she turned to intuition to explore new combinations. “I found that I saw life in more vivid colors,” she said.
Overcoming obstacles is nothing new for Hanna—she was only 12 when her entire family immigrated to Canada from Korea. It was a critical age to experience a language barrier, but planted the seeds needed to develop a powerful visual language of her own, one that didn’t rely on words to be understood.
Her commitment to self-mastery continued into adulthood, when she was diagnosed with Graves disease, an auto-immune disorder that overproduces thyroid hormones. She took the opportunity to slow down, listen to her internal needs, and shift gears. She replaced her workload as a storyboard artist with her own therapeutic art. She healed a lifelong disease through several years of patience and research…and kicked open the door for gallery shows and personal recognition in the process.
(Bio Source): Fate Finds You
Hanna Lee Joshi is currently residing in Vancouver, on the unceded traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her last solo exhibition in December 2022 at Thinkspace ‘What Is It You Seek?’ explores the search for autonomy within and themes of individuality and how it relates to universal identity. The vibrant faceless figurative works evoke an ethereal goddess, luminous and full of wonder and yet also deeply human. Drawing from her own lived experience, her work offers a glimpse into synesthetic realms that chart a journey through the inner landscape. With this show the artist is asking “what is it you seek?” as a question that arises within. At the same time the figures depicted evoke mystical beings asking the same of the viewers as if granting a boon or wish.
