"Since 2019, Boston University associate professor of art in painting Lucy Kim has been using genetically modified bacteria to produce melanin, the bio-pigment behind human skin, hair, and eye color, in her work. A recipient of the 2022 Creative Capital Award, Kim began this project while an artist-in-residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and then brought it to Boston University Biology labs.
Last year, Kim had a solo exhibition of her melanin prints titled Mutant Optics at the Henry Art Gallery – University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The show was a culmination of Kim’s work, which spans painting, sculpture, and biological media to deconstruct the social and psychological aspects of vision, including how we extract meaning from what we see..."
