Handy Beag 白炫智 

Born: Korea.

locations: Arizona, US

Exhibitions:

2015 – Sahmyook University Museum “Art Department Exhibition” Seoul, Korea. 

2017 – Ellsworth Theater “Art Show, Pine Manor College” Boston, MA.

2020 – Lionel Rombach Gallery “Seated Apart” Tucson, AZ.

2022 - 2025– Found: RE Contemporary Gallery “Embedded Art” Phoenix, AZ.

2022 – Found: RE Contemporary Gallery “Stop! RE:Move” Phoenix, AZ. 

2023 – Tohono Galleries "The Night Queen 2023" Tucson, AZ.

2023 – Blue Koi Gallery "Still Life"

2024 –Tohono Galleries 10 x 10 | A Fundraiser (2024) exhibit 

2024–Gallery 4%Floral & Botanical 3 Contest w Prize

2024–Book <Art and Woman>

2024–Arts To Hearts Project, Virtual Exhibition Lines and Curves

2024–Book <Lines and Curves>

 ARTIST BIO

HyeonJi Beag is a Korean American artist and educator who majored in Studio Art with a minor in Business at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Currently pursuing a Master's in Secondary STEM Education, Beag has honed her artistic and educational skills across diverse cultural and academic settings, having studied at institutions in Seoul, South Korea; Boston, Massachusetts; and Tucson, Arizona.

Her artistic journey began with watercolor during high school in Gangnam, Korea, where she gained acceptance into a highly competitive art program in Seoul, with an admission rate of 28.2:1 (564 applicants for 20 spots). This foundation expanded significantly when she moved to the U.S. in 2017, where exposure to new mediums, particularly oil painting, reinvigorated her passion. Completing her degree in Tucson, Beag’s solo travels through 23 countries further shaped her perspective and inspired her work.

As an art therapist and educator, Beag’s approach is deeply personal and rooted in human connection. Her work reflects themes of individuality, survival, and cultural identity, often through self-portraits and spontaneous depictions of daily life. These themes are informed by her experiences as a face-blind artist, an immigrant, and a survivor of domestic violence since 2019.

Her art has been showcased in exhibitions across Phoenix and Tucson, where her use of deep, saturated colors conveys her emotions and sense of place. Through her art, Beag seeks to explore and express resilience, vulnerability, and the beauty of the present moment.

Artist Statement

When you see a giraffe among a group of giraffes, you recognize its form but might not distinguish it as an individual. This is how I perceive faces due to my face blindness. My portraits interpret this experience by replacing human features with animal characteristics. Conversely, my landscapes and still-life works reflect the clarity and intimacy of my immediate surroundings—each piece a meditation on the moment and space I inhabit.

Having spent more than half my twenties in 13 different countries, I developed a profound appreciation for the details of everyday life. Moving to Arizona introduced me to the unique beauty of cacti, whose lines, dots, and textures echo the narratives of time and endurance. Similarly, aged wood evokes human qualities through its scars and layers, much like Victor Cheung’s visual storytelling.

My artistic practice began with the disciplined realism of pencil and watercolor studies in Korea’s highly competitive high school art programs. It wasn’t until I arrived in Boston in 2017 that oil painting reignited my creative voice.

Since 2018, my self-portraits have been a personal exploration of resilience as a domestic violence survivor. Painting allows me to articulate what words often cannot. Each stroke is an act of reclaiming my identity and processing my journey as a face-blind immigrant navigating life as both an outsider and an observer. Though sharing my vulnerabilities through art is challenging, it remains my most authentic language.

Through my work, I invite viewers to see the world as I do—through fractured lenses that, when pieced together, create a mosaic of individuality, survival, and connection.