Kyu-Baik Hwang was born in Busan, South Korea in January 1932. Between 1950 and 1954, he served in the military during the Korean War, and after his service obligation he began to paint, becoming a member of the artist group Shin Jo Kyung and Shin Sang from 1954 to 1967. By 1968 he was a well-established painter but he decided to seek new challenges in Europe. In Paris, he studied art history at the Ecole du Louvre and printmaking at the celebrated Atelier 17. Working with founder Stanley William Hayter, among the most innovative and influential printmakers of the 20th century, Hwang mastered various intaglio techniques. By the time he moved to New York City in 1970, where he was to reside for thirty years, Hwang was primarily working in color mezzotint, a print medium to which he devoted himself exclusively.

Twice a prize winner at the Ljubljana Print Biennale in the former Yugoslavia, and prize winner at the British International Print Biennale in Bradford, England, Hwang has had numerous solo exhibitions in Japan, South Korea, Yugoslavia, Germany, France, Norway, England and the United States. He was also included in exhibitions of Atelier 17 in the United States, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, and Malaysia. His work is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the National Gallery, Oslo; the Uffizi Museum, Italy; the Albertina in Vienna; and the Museé d'Art Moderne, Paris.