Milt Kobayashi

A third generation Japanese-American, Milt Kobayashi was born in New York City; soon after that his family moved to Oahu, Hawaii, and then ventured to Los Angeles when he was eight. After receiving his BA in 1970 from the University of California, Kobayashi began working as an illustrator. However he found that his work, which was quite editorial in its nature, did not fit the Los Angeles commercial art market. In 1977, Kobayashi returned to New York City. There, a casual visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art permanently altered his artistic direction after he saw Velazquez’s portrait Juan de Paraja.

There is a quiet sophistication in Kobayashi’s oil painted canvases, summoning a pensive, ethereal feeling in the viewer. Kobayashi’s subjects are people from another time and place and, yet, they are strangely familiar — they are urban dwellers lost in thought as they take a momentary respite from their routine. Kobayashi’s people are absorbed in the world of contemplation and meditation, making them attractively aloof.