Byron Kim's Material Explorations at James Cohan Gallery Examine Bruises, Celestial Bodies, and Scale

Byron Kim presented his exhibition 'Mud Root Ochre Leaf Star' at James Cohan's Lower East Side location from December 9, 2016 to January 22, 2017. The show featured paintings created through a distinctive process of dyeing and staining raw canvas with natural pigments like indigo, sandalwood, and ochre, then rubbing them with hide glue and oil. These works explore the visual similarity between bruises and celestial phenomena, inspired by a Carl Phillips poem describing sunlight on a lover's bruise. Kim's practice often bridges micro and macro scales, as seen in his ongoing 'Synecdoche' series of skin-tone panels first shown at the 1993 Whitney Biennial. The physicality of these new works—where dye penetrates canvas weave and wrinkles resemble veins—creates a tangible connection to the body. Kim draws from Robert Smithson's writings on deep time and Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu's 'The Inner Chapters' to interweave intimacy with vastness. Works like 'Blue Lift Sandalwood Fall' allow dye to fall back on itself, creating haloes reminiscent of Renaissance saints or radiation residuals. The exhibition demonstrates Kim's continued conceptual investigation of how specific imagery unfolds into unbounded subject matter, from children's hair whorls to night skies.