Lucy Kim is an interdisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture and biological media. In her hybrid works, she embraces distortion as a tool to deconstruct how we see what we see: the relationship between our evolved vision-centricity, constructed socio-cultural systems, and personal desires.

Kim is a recipient of the 2022 Creative Capital Award for her project printing images with bacteria that has been genetically-modified to produce melanin, the bio-pigment behind human skin, hair, and eye color. She began this project while an artist-in-residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and continues to develop it at Boston University, where she teaches. Through this project, Kim expands her committed study of our visual habits, which she first began in her sculptural paintings using unconventional processes in the studio. Kim is based in Cambridge, MA and is Associate Professor of Art at Boston University.



Currently on View:
Tender Loving Care: Contemporary Art from the Collection
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
July 22, 2023 - July 28, 2025
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Painting Deconstructed
Curated by Leeza Meksin
Ortega y Gasset Projects
May 18, 2024 - Aug 24, 2024
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Upcoming:
Lucy Kim: Mutant Optics
Henry Art Gallery - University of Washington
July 20, 2024 - February 2, 2025
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Selected exhibitions:
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Institute of Contemporary Art Boston
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Cambridge, MA)
Institute of Fine Arts at New York University
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA)
Tufts University Art Gallery (Medford, MA)
Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore (Saratoga Springs, NY)
Brooklyn Academy of Music (Brooklyn, NY)
Oddkin (East Providence, RI)
Ortega y Gasset Projects (Brooklyn, NY)
Galerie Pact (Paris, France)
Lundgren Gallery (Mallorca, Spain)
Lisa Cooley (New York, NY)
Hesse Flatow (New York, NY)
Fused/Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco, CA)
Lyles and King (New York, NY)

Education:
Rhode Island School of Design (BFA Painting 2001)
Yale University School of Art (MFA Painting and Printmaking 2007)

Recognitions:
Howard Foundation Fellowship (2024)
Brother Thomas Fellowship (2023)
Creative Capital Award (2022)
Artist-in-residence, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (2018-2021)
Hermitage Fellowship (2021)
Mass Cultural Council Grant (2019)
ICA Boston James and Audrey Foster Prize (2017)
Artadia Award (2014)
MacDowell Fellowship (2007)
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2005)
Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship (2001) 

Press:
The New Yorker
Juxtapoz
Bomb Magazine
The Boston Globe
The Brooklyn Rail
Art Papers
ARTNews
Artforum
Boston Art Review

Collections:
MIT List Visual Arts Center
Institute of Contemporary Art Boston
Kadist Foundation
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
New York Public Library
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard