Na Kyungsoo is an artist who redefines illustration through the medium of hanji—traditional Korean paper made from mulberry fiber. For her, hanji is not merely a background on which images are drawn, but a structural material where matter and time intertwine to generate form. Trained initially in sculpture and later in furniture and interior design in Milan, Na developed a sensitivity to structure, texture, and spatial perception that now informs her approach to paper and ink as living, tactile entities.

Using 100 % mulberry-fiber hanji sourced from Jeonju, Na prints her own drawings and patterns through letterpress, a traditional metal relief printing technique. Each work is then refined by hand—brushed, pressed, layered—so that the traces of pressure, fiber, and pigment become a single visual language. “Hanji is not just a surface for drawing,” she explains. “It’s already a world of its own—the fibers, the breath of its surface, the way light rests upon it. I make images through its materiality.”

Rather than constructing narratives, her compositions emphasize structure and rhythm. Lines, planes, voids, and tonal gradations are arranged with precision, inviting the viewer not to read but to linger. In a culture dominated by instantaneous digital images, Na’s work insists on the slowness of touch and the individuality of each impression. “Perfect control is impossible on hanji,” she says. “A small difference in pressure changes the tone; pigments seep unpredictably. But that unpredictability is what I love—it brings life to the work.”

Her exploration of printing, drawing, and craft questions the very act of image-making: What does it mean to make an image today? Positioned between design, painting, and experimental craft, Na calls herself a “visual artisan,” crafting sensorial experiences rather than communicative illustrations. Through repetition, pressure, and residual traces, her works reassemble the visual language of material and memory.

Quiet yet resonant, her illustrations are less about depiction than presence—images born from the meeting of hand and matter, where time itself leaves its impression. In Na Kyungsoo’s world, an image is not seen but felt; not produced, but slowly revealed through touch, rhythm, and the breath of paper.