Kyaw Moe Khine

Kyaw Moe Khine (b. 1996), known professionally as Bart Was Not Here, is a Burmese visual artist in exile based in New York. Rooted in subversive storytelling and graffiti culture, his practice spans painting, sculpture, and installation to construct narrative worlds inhabited by recurring characters and shapeshifting motifs.

Raised under military dictatorship in Myanmar, Bart’s work reflects a personal history shaped by censorship, displacement, and resistance. Drawing from bootleg subcultures, folklore, internet semiotics, and cinematic language, he explores themes of agency, myth-making, and the unstable nature of identity and home.

Bart holds a Fine Arts degree from LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore (2018) and has exhibited internationally, including in New York, Paris, London, Oslo, and Yangon. He has held residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts (2021–2022) and the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (2023–2024).