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BART WAS NOT HERE / KYAW MOE KHINE [b.1996]



Kyaw Moe Khine (professionally known as Bart Was Not Here) is a Burmese artist in exile based in New York. Bart’s mediums span from working with large scale canvases to figurines, sculptural installations, illustrations, and still expanding. He explores his art practice through world-building, characters, and fiction in a visual language that stemmed from curiosity and escapism - which were his ultimate tools to explore the outside world growing up in an isolated country of Burma. His cinematic compositions and gallows humor can be fully appreciated alongside a riddled commentary on witnessing the past, present, and future unfold simultaneously. Bart’s paintings and sculpture works deal with the themes of voyage, worship, violence, agency, and migration.

Growing up in Burma, an authoritarian country, Bart was frustrated by a corrupted school system, a strict religion, and the inability to assimilate into the conservative Burmese culture. Access to global art and culture through dail-up internet, international films, novels, and magazines found in Burmese bootleg markets provided him a lens to the alternative outside world. Since acquainting with graffiti at 13 years old, he started practicing under the moniker "Bart Was Not Here" to conceal his identity under the regime. Bart graduated from Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore as a Fine Arts major in 2018. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in New York, Paris, London, Sydney, Oslo, Singapore, Hong Kong, as well as his home country, Myanmar.

In 2021, he had to leave his home country due to his involvement in the resistance against the military coup d’état. He was also an artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France for 2021-2022 and at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York for 2023.


RESIDENCIES


2021-2022
Cité Internationale des Arts. Paris,France.
2023-2024
Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. New York,New York.



SELECTED EXHIBITIONS


2023
Cement,Tail of a Gecko,Temple Gallery and Tutu Gallery. New York,USA.
2023
We Are The Seeds,Open Society Foundation. Berlin,Germany.
2023
PhotoClimat 2023. Paris,France.

2023
Fighting Fear II : It Goes Without Saying,16 Albermarle Project Space. Sydney,Australia.

2023
MyanmarBike: A Culture of Remembrance. Berlin,Germany.

2021
Fighting Fear(As a part of Photo Climat 2021). Paris, France.
2021
Fighting Fear. Oslo,Norway.
2021
Myanmar Voices: We Are Still Here,Karin Weber Gallery. Hong Kong.
2021
Fighting Fear: What’s Happening In Myanmar,16 Albermarle Project Space. Sydney,Australia.
2020
Singapore Festival,Lim Ching Tsong Palace. Yangon,Myanmar.


2019
Word Therapy(Sakar Ahla Ku Htone) by Facebook,The Secretariat. Yangon,Myanmar.
2019
08:06:06,Moon Gallery. Yangon,Myanmar.
2019
Street Art and Urban Art in Yangon.American Center Yangon.
2019
God Complex,Myanm/Art. Yangon,Myanmar.
2019
Playing Time and Space,Intersections Gallery. Singapore.
2019
Seeing Through Buddhism. Sri Lanka.
2018
Devotion & Protest,Intersections Gallery. Singapore.
2018
StART Art Fair (As a part of Akroyd Art).Saatchi Gallery. London,UK.
2018
The Lasalle Show,Lasalle College of the Arts. Singapore.
2018
Vice Versa,Lasalle College of the Arts. Singapore.
2017
Roc And Roll,Myanm/Art. Yangon,Myanmar.
2016
ROAR : ULNEASHED, Myanm/Art. Yangon,Myanmar.
2016
#MONOCHROMACY, The Rough Cut. Yangon,Myanmar.
2015
Yangon Street Art Festival, Institut Francais. Yangon, Myanmar.
2015
Seeing With Digital Eyes, Lasalle College of the Arts.  Singapore.
2014
Lasalle Open House 2014, Lasalle College of the Arts,  Singapore.
2013
Urbane Folklore :Innsbruck. Innsbruck,Austria.
2013
2nd Rendezvous Southeast Asia Urban Art Festival. Yangon, Myanmar.
2012
Clap 1 2 3, Dagaung Gallery. Yangon, Myanmar.