“There is a sly politics to Sally J. Han’s paintings. As 'A Painter of Modern Life', she seduces the eye and the mind with her pictorial narratives…careful to embed details that hint at her identity as a Korean and Chinese American.  Twentieth century American art has not always told stories that reflect Asian American realities. Han’s work beguiles us with quiet yet powerful scenes of her lived experience. A game of Mahjong while savoring a cigarette. A studious girl pouring over her homework. A piano lesson. Smartphones are the only clue that these scenes are unfolding in the present tense. Her techniques hark back to the century’s old alchemy of painterly expression, while creating scenes of everyday life that are simultaneously very contemporary and yet utterly timeless”

- Alison Gingeras

Sally J. Han has cultivated a distinctive artistic practice that merges the quiet intimacy of everyday life with subtle yet incisive cultural commentary. Her work explores the intersections of personal memory, diasporic identity, and the timelessness of human ritual, often recontextualizing traditional Korean aesthetics within contemporary settings. Through her meticulously rendered paintings, Han invites viewers into moments of stillness, where the ordinary—whether a solitary moment on a park bench or gazing into a mirror—becomes a site of poetic resonance.

Han’s work has been exhibited widely in solo and group presentations, including solo exhibitions at Fortnight Institute, New York (2020); Gallery Belenius, Stockholm (2023); and a solo presentation at Independent Art Fair, New York (2021). Her paintings have also been featured in significant group exhibitions at the Flag Art Foundation, New York; Jeffrey Deitch (Wonder Women, curated by Kathy Huang); and the Aïshti Foundation (Dark Light: Realism in the Age of Post-Truths, curated by Massimiliano Gioni), among others. Her works are held in the permanent collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; and the Museu Inimá de Paula, Brazil.

Born in Shenyang, China, in 1993 and raised in South Korea, Han moved to New York to pursue her artistic education. She earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts (2016) as a Silas H. Rhodes Scholar and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art (2019). Han currently lives and works in New York.