Karen Kilimnik

Influenced by traditions of Romantic painting, portraiture and landscape, Kilimnik gives equal weight to a range of disparate subjects in her work – from popular culture to Old Master paintings, via television shows, movies, books, magazines, animal portraits and fairytales – such that distinctions between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture dissolve. This creative levelling was apparent in her early works – following studies in art and architecture in Philadelphia, in the late 1980s and early 1990s she presented a series of exhibitions featuring paintings, photographs, drawings, installations, sculptures and films arranged around the exhibition space. Kilimnik’s paintings include portraits, landscapes, houses and interiors, animals and scenes from the ballet, rendering mythology, femininity, and historical and fictional themes through her confident, loose brushwork.