Byron Kim
Byron Kim (born in 1961 in La Jolla, California) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. In the early 1990s he produced minimalist paintings exploring racial identity. He also graduated from Yale University.
[edit] Works
Kim's work in the early 1990s consisted of monochrome canvases depicting the skin tones of friends and family.[1] He gained early recognition for Synecdoche, his contribution to the 1993 Whitney Biennial, which embodied the aesthetic and political aspirations of the art in that year's exhibition.[2] Synecdoche (1991-1992) is a grid of 400 small, monochromatic paintings. Each panel recreates the skin color of an individual who sat for Kim while he painted their portrait.[2] Although the works, at first glance, resemble minimalist paintings of the 1960s the racial and political dimensions became apparent after reading in the exhibition catalogue how the works came about.[3]
These monochrome canvases were followed by two or three-zoned canvases that color-sampled objects, sites or people.[1] Kim collaborated with artist Glenn Ligon on Black & White (1993), part of a series critiquing the 'prejudices' of art materials, specifically the hues of 'Flesh'-colored tubes of paint.[4] 46 Halsey Drive Wallingford CT (1995) records his family members' various recollections of the color of a home Kim lived in as a child. Other works employ a more naturalistic approach to represent details such as the palms of the artist's hands, or the whorls in his children's hair.
Kim also paints landscapes[1] and makes photographic assemblages.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Carey Lovelace, Byron Kim at Max Protetch - Brief Article, Art in America, October 2001.
- ^ a b Micheal Kelly in Salim Kemal, Ivan Gaskell, Politics and Aesthetics in the Arts, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p249. ISBN 0-521-45418-2
- ^ Micheal Kelly in Salim Kemal, Ivan Gaskell, Politics and Aesthetics in the Arts, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp249-250. ISBN 0-521-45418-2
- ^ Erika Doss, Twentieth-Century American Art, Oxford University Press, 2002, p237. ISBN 0-19-284239-0
- ^ Grace Glueck, Art in Review, The New York Times, Dec 9, 2005.
