Cosmetic Portraits: Angela Dimayuga, Aruna D'Souza, Danny Park, Lulu Grier-Kim, Mihail Lari, Young Joon Kwak, Shizu Saldamando, Toba Khedoori, Peter Som, 2020

CLE Cosmetics CCC Cream on paper

12 x 10 in.

Edition of 40

GYOPO launches the 2020 artist edition by acclaimed New York-based painter Byron Kim, Cosmetic Portraits: Angela Dimayuga, Aruna D'Souza, Danny Park, Lulu Grier-Kim, Mihail Lari, Young Joon Kwak, Shizu Saldamando, Toba Khedoori, Peter Som, a 2-tiered limited edition and original work to benefit GYOPO. Printed by El Nopal Press in Los Angeles, and using makeup foundation as his medium, Kim has created an edition of 40 prints and three hand-painted works reminiscent of Synecdoche, which was exhibited to great acclaim at the celebrated 1993 Whitney Biennial. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part stands for a larger whole. This ongoing work is an open-ended archive of portraits of his community and other groups and individuals with whom he engages. In collaboration with Kim, GYOPO selected nine AAPI participants in the US whose skin tones are represented in a grid.

Cosmetic Portraits invites us to consider what skin color signifies, the range of shades within our species, and the impossibility of a single portrait to capture the complexity of an individual. The subjects of these portraits include Angela Dimayuga, Aruna D’Souza, Danny Park, Lulu Grier-Kim, Mihail Lari, Young Joon Kwak, Shizu Saldamando, Toba Khedoori, and Peter Som. We are pleased to bring together an intergenerational, multi-gendered and culturally diverse group of remarkable artists, writers, chefs, students, activists, designers, and entrepreneurs who, as individuals are unique and integral members of the AAPI community, and together, represent the vastness of diasporic Asian identities. Through this abstracted portrait, they have been united to represent a whole, which we believe is a meaningful gesture during this time of racial reckoning and physical distance.

GYOPO wishes to thank Korean-owned CLE Cosmetics for their collaboration and in-kind donation.