Glamour puss…
This is a very early ink drawing from 1979 by Kilimnik, the American master of trashy glamour, deceptive glitz and cheap, seductive sentiment.
Love cats …
Its slouched moggy with a typically mysterious gaze has been reimagined, in high-fantasy mode, as rescued from the streets and reborn as a society club member. A number of Kilimnik’s works are feline-themed, including recent collages where cats become the star turn in reproductions of old religious or classical paintings.
Scatter brain …
Kilimnik first came to attention in the 1990s as a pioneer of “scatter art”. In her case, this meant wilfully half-baked collections of props – part theatre scene, part shop window, part fangirl make-believe – repurposing history and pop culture in stories of her own devising.
Bad romance …
Later, painting would take a central role in her installations: deliberately bad daubings of movie stars, society celebrities and art history’s pretty boys and girls, lavish landscapes and architecture; as well as darker material, such as the fighter planes in this show.
