Byron Kim

Best known for Synecdoche (1991), a grid of hundreds of monochrome “self-portraits”—the colors corresponding to their sitters’ skin tone—Byron Kim explored identity politics with his early abstract paintings. More recent works have included untitled paintings of cloudy night skies that Kim paints from memory, their subtle variations of purple and gray only visible with close inspection. Speaking of the figurative aspect of works that largely appear abstract, Kim has said, “I love a good abstract painting, but I’m often not interested in what people talk about when they talk about abstraction, so I prefer to apply my own content.”