Synecdoche, 1991-present
Oil and wax on panel
Dimensions variable. Each panel: 25 x 20 cm
Courtesy the artist and Max Protetch Gallery, New York

A ‘synecdoche’ is a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole (set of wheels for car, for example) or the whole stands for a part (head for mind, as in 'use your head').  Kim painted this series of oil and wax panels from life, each based on the skin tone of a single model, 'a part which, for better or worse, stands for the whole person'. To date he has painted just over 400 panels. For Kim, as few as one can be the work: 'any part of the artwork can stand in for and in a sense actually is the whole work.'