Time Alone

14 May - 14 June 2025

  • Han Ji Min 

    Time Alone
  • JD Malat Gallery is pleased to present Time Alone, the debut London solo exhibition by South Korean artist Han Ji Min (b. 1978, Jeollabuk-do), opening this May in the heart of Mayfair. Featuring 17 poignant oil compositions, this exhibition marks a major milestone in Han’s career, introducing London audiences to her quiet and contemplative world.
     
  • Han Ji Min (b. 1978 Jeollabuk-do)
    Han Ji Min in her Studio

    Han Ji Min (b. 1978 Jeollabuk-do)

    Han Ji Min is a contemporary artist based in Seoul, Korea recognised for her distinctly soft-edged compositions of figures in serene and peaceful environments. Han's oil paintings quietly navigate the cultural terrain of contemporary Seoul and question how we locate notions of identity and human sentiment within the human body and its surroundings.
  • Backs Don't Lie
    Han Ji Min, Black Glasses, 2025, Oil on canvas, 17 3/4 x 17 3/4 in, 45 x 45 cm

    Backs Don't Lie

    "Backs don't lie" - Han Ji Min finds a person's true feelings in their backs when the masks of everyday life disappear and inner tension is released. The artist pays attention to the stories told by backs, as well as other parts of the body such as the movement of fingertips, in a journey to find the 'true self'. Han depicts these parts of the body in boldly framed compositions that restrict the viewer's field of vision. Instead of imagining beyond the canvas, the viewer is led to focus on the small gestures frozen within the painting, such as the subtle movements and the sound of the figures that move slowly in the static atmosphere. 
  • Quiet Observations
    Han Ji Min, Boy Reading a Book, 2025, Oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 28 5/8 in, 90.9 x 72.7 cm

    Quiet Observations

    Known for her soft-edged portrayals of solitary figures in still environments, Han Ji Min explores the tension between the visible world and the inner emotional landscape. Using near-achromatic hues of grey, blue, and pink, she conveys both restraint and fragile hope, crafting spaces that hover between melancholy and tranquillity.
     
    At the heart of Time Alone is Han’s belief that “backs don’t lie.” Her subjects are often viewed from behind, unaware and unguarded, offering viewers an intimate glimpse into the honesty and vulnerability of everyday moments. Through quiet observation, she brings the rhythm of the mundane into focus.
     
  • Time Alone
    Han Ji Min, In the Sea, 2025, Oil on canvas, 38 1/4 x 51 1/4 in, 97 x 130.3 cm

    Time Alone

    Each canvas becomes a mirror: not just of others, but of ourselves. Han draws attention to the small, subconscious gestures of daily life, inviting us to reconsider the boundaries between observer and observed. Her visual language reflects both personal experience and a keen sensitivity to contemporary life in Seoul, evoking the ambivalence of solitude, the poignancy of stillness, and the quiet hope of human connection. Time Alone, exhibited on the ground floor of JD Malat Gallery, offers a rare London glimpse into Han Ji Min’s introspective visual language, a counterpoint to the city's noise and relentless movement. It is an invitation to slow down, look closely, and reconnect with the quiet beauty of the everyday.

     
  • A Tranquil Practice
    Han Ji Min, In the Sea, 2025, Oil on canvas, 38 1/4 x 51 1/4 in, 97 x 130.3 cm

    A Tranquil Practice

    While artists such as Lee Ufan and Park Seo-Bo explored presence and materiality through minimalist abstraction, and Do Ho Suh or Kimsooja examined memory through large-scale installation and performance, Han turns to figuration as her site of inquiry. Her subjects are not symbolic but simply present. They sit, turn away, or pause in anonymous interiors. In their stillness, they echo a broader tradition of Korean aesthetics that favour atmosphere over statement. Her paintings do not offer resolution. They observe, and they wait.

     

    Time Alone draws on Han’s lived experience of contemporary life in Seoul. It captures emotional weight not through narrative but through rhythm and restraint. Her compositions begin in quiet observation. Gestures that might otherwise be discarded, a shift in posture, a fleeting breath, become the anchors of each painting. The artist maintains a subtle distance, both from her subjects and from herself. As she observes others, she also observes her own unconscious behaviours, finding strangeness in the familiar. These works do not dramatise solitude. They attend to it, and to us, with quiet persistence.