Nam Kwan was born in Chongsong, North Kyungsang Province, and graduated from Taiheiyo Fine Arts School in Tokyo in 1935. He had one-person exhibitions at the Tongwha Gallery in Seoul from 1948 to 1950 and in 1954 at the Midopa Gallery. While living in Paris from 1955 to 1967 he had one-person exhibitions at Galérie Transposition, Paris in 1964 and Galerie Mensch, Hamburg in 1966. His work was exhibited at the "Contemporay Art Exhibition" in Milan in 1983 and in 1984 at the "FIAC 84" in Paris as well as in an invitational exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris.