UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology FALL 2023 - Flipbook - Page 16
"Walking with Shadows" Kim Cogan
phenomenon. And yet, it is decidedly San
Francisco’s quality of light emanating through as
it has always done with the fog.
capture not the nostalgia of his hometown, but a
steelier, sharper feeling akin to New York in the
winter.
“You have to paint what’s most familiar to
you. If I were in a di昀昀erent place, I’d probably
paint di昀昀erently,” he said. In 2018, Kim had an
exhibition at Henoch Gallery in New York,
and, curious if he could “apply the same style
of painting to another city,” he spent time in
Manhattan and Brooklyn to paint a series for
the show. While the paintings occupy the same
moodiness as his San Francisco paintings, his
keen attention to light, mood, emotions, and
how architecture and sky interact enabled him to
He also discloses that there is a series that is
di昀昀erent enough from the majority of his work
that he really had to hustle to convince a gallery to
exhibit the paintings. The series began by piecing
together photos and memories (and 昀椀lling in gaps
by making a few things up) from photo albums his
mother had created and meticulously labeled from
before he was adopted to when photo printing
gave way to digital sharing. Highly personal
and as emotionally-charged as his cityscapes, the
paintings incorporate more people than any other
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