The exhibition “Vargas & Youngsup Han” at OLYAA Gallery (September 1–28, 2025) is a unique cultural encounter that bridges two distinct yet complementary worlds of artistic expression. This collaboration highlights the bold innovation of body art and the timeless tradition of Korean Hanji paper, inviting audiences to experience creativity in unexpected and transformative forms.

Vargas, a world-renowned body painter and the creator of Body Realism, is celebrated for transforming the human body into living, breathing canvases. His practice merges fine art with performance, producing works that blur the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and movement. Each piece becomes a powerful statement about identity, humanity, and the way art can literally live and move in space. Through his art, Vargas challenges traditional notions of the canvas, replacing it with the human form to emphasize intimacy, vulnerability, and resilience.

Youngsup Han, OLYAA’s Korean artist-in-residence, brings a very different but equally powerful tradition to this joint exhibition. Han is renowned for his mastery of Hanji, traditional Korean handmade paper, which has been used for centuries in Korean art and culture. In his work, Hanji becomes more than just a medium — it is transformed into a vehicle of abstraction, texture, and cultural memory. His layered compositions reveal both fragility and strength, capturing the subtle interplay of tradition and modernity, permanence and impermanence.

By presenting their works side by side, the exhibition creates a fascinating dialogue: Vargas’s vibrant, ephemeral body paintings exist in a fleeting moment, while Youngsup Han’s Hanji works embody endurance and heritage. Together, they showcase the spectrum of human creativity — from the immediacy of live art to the contemplative permanence of crafted materials.

Visitors to the “Vargas & Youngsup Han” Exhibition will have the rare opportunity to witness how contemporary body art and Korean traditional paper converge, both honoring their cultural roots and pushing artistic boundaries forward. This exhibition is not only a celebration of two artists but also an exploration of how art can unify vastly different mediums into a shared narrative of innovation, culture, and humanity.

🗓 Dates: September 1 – 28, 2025
📍 Location: OLYAA Gallery, 704 76th Street, North Bergen, NJ 07047
✉️ olyaa.art11@gmail.com