Kris Andrews
Playing in the Dark, 2026

Clay and oil on paper

21 1/2 x 29 1/4 inches (54.6 x 74.3cm)

Courtesy of the artist

Selected by Rashid Johnson

Kris Andrews is a New York based artist whose work explores identity and the instability of inherited forms. Born with albinism, Andrews began his practice by examining the condition as an experience that simultaneously defines someone racially as white while marking them as other. Over time, this inquiry widened into a sustained consideration of white racial identity and the forces that shape and reshape our sense of self.

Andrews’s works are built through repeated cycles of building up, flattening, and attempts to smooth over damage. Through this process, the instability he examines as a subject becomes embedded in the physical structure of the work itself.

Andrews received his BA in Fine Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and later attended the MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to New York in 2005 and maintains a studio in Brooklyn.