Hi,
I’m Chi, an illustrator from South Korea based in London.
I’ve been practicing freelance since graduating from Kingston School of Art, and I also studied at The Royal Drawing School in 2023. Ever since living in New Zealand as a child — and later in California and London — I’ve been shaped by multicultural settings. My love for drawing has grown slowly and deeply over the years of studying and living in London.
In the midst of fast-produced, short-lived digital works and an overflowing amount of trash online, I’m navigating how to hold on to the human hand and touch. Whether I’m working as an illustrator, designer, art director, or teacher, I aim to keep drawing at the heart of my practice. I’m learning digital tools (Blender this year!), and I’m not against them — I embrace the efficiency and convenience they offer and believe I can use them to create lots of fun and new things. But I always want to begin with my hands, my ideas, and the act of putting material to surface.
There’s an intimacy between the work and the hands that create it, as John Alcorn once said. I believe in that artisanal ethos — and I enjoy it so much. I hope that’s something you can sense in the works you see here.
Welcome!
Chi :)
By the way, I share some of my process and thoughts behind my works here:
https://chipark.substack.com/
For commissions and enquiries please email
parkchitown@gmail.com
I’ve been practicing freelance since graduating from Kingston School of Art, and I also studied at The Royal Drawing School in 2023. Ever since living in New Zealand as a child — and later in California and London — I’ve been shaped by multicultural settings. My love for drawing has grown slowly and deeply over the years of studying and living in London.
In the midst of fast-produced, short-lived digital works and an overflowing amount of trash online, I’m navigating how to hold on to the human hand and touch. Whether I’m working as an illustrator, designer, art director, or teacher, I aim to keep drawing at the heart of my practice. I’m learning digital tools (Blender this year!), and I’m not against them — I embrace the efficiency and convenience they offer and believe I can use them to create lots of fun and new things. But I always want to begin with my hands, my ideas, and the act of putting material to surface.
There’s an intimacy between the work and the hands that create it, as John Alcorn once said. I believe in that artisanal ethos — and I enjoy it so much. I hope that’s something you can sense in the works you see here.
Welcome!
Chi :)
By the way, I share some of my process and thoughts behind my works here:
https://chipark.substack.com/
For commissions and enquiries please email
parkchitown@gmail.com
2025 Mote, Thames Side Studios, London
2024 Whorl, Hypha Studios, London
2024 Gathering Relief, Appach Gallery, London
2024 Works on Paper 6th, Blue Shop Galleries, Online
2024 RBSA Print Prize Exhibition, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2024 Royal Watercolour Society Open 2024, Bankside Gallery, London
2023 It’s Nice That x Wieden+Kennedy London: New Faces, W+K London Office, London
2023 Small But Mighty, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, London
2023 The Drawing Year 2023 End of Year Exhibition, The Royal Drawing School, London
2023 The Best of the Drawing Year 2023, Christie’s, London
2023 Open Studios, Space Studio, London
2022 In Person/In Situ: KSA Degree Show, Candid Arts Trust, London
2020 CoLab Drawing Competition, Platform Gallery, Kingston School Art, London
2018 Re-reimagined; Berkeley Student Art Show, Worth Ryder Gallery, Berkeley, CA
Prizes & Awards
2024 Student Prize, The Royal Birmingham Society of Arts
2021 Shortlisted, Design a Notebook, Kingston University
2021 Shortlisted, VINTAGE + Kingston IABA Prize
2020 Winner, CoLAB Drawing Prize
2019 First Prize in Children’s Cover, Penguin Design Awards, Penguin Random House
It’s Nice That, “What’s fiction and what’s reality? Chi Park’s playful portfolio offers no answers”, April 2024
It’s Nice That, “18 of London’s most promising illustrators and artists create portraits of the Wieden+Kennedy London team”
AOI, “10 Illustration Graduates to Watch”, July 2022
So Young Issue Thirty-Nine, “Illustration Graduates of 2022”, Aug 2022
Penguin Randomhouse, “Winners of the 2020 Student Design Award revealed”, Sept 2020
Residencies
2024 Naughty Muse Studios Awarded Residency, Busan, South Korea
2023 Moritz/Heyman Residency, Borgo Pignano, Italy
2020 Body and Place; CoLAB Residency, Owlpen, UK
Qualifications
Royal Drawing School ‘23
Kingston School of Art ‘21
University of California, Berkeley ‘18