Karen Kilimnik Wins at Child’s Play

Karen Kilimnik says f--k you! …with cat stickers. Her recent exhibition at 303 Gallery in New York was hilarious and rebellious.  I love a bombastic Dana Schutz exhibition- don’t get me wrong - but it was refreshing seeing art that was not abiding by Big Boy’s rules.  While Schutz may respond to blows with blows, Kilimnik is staging a sit-in. All artists have the canon ringing in their ears but Kilimnik’s free-spirited artwork reminds viewers that play is the key to creativity. I wish artwork was called artplay.

It’s out of art-world vogue to admit that inspiration has anything to do with making art.  Instead pride is taken in strong work ethic. Perhaps it’s time to revitalize words like inspiration and fun and goofing-off instead of glorifying hard work and grit. Defining art as work-which of course it is-overemphasizes production and achievement rather than the ebb and flow, the ups and downs, the failures and experiments and simple joy of creating: of playing.  Of art-making.  Artwork can define the material production of art but to use it always without interweaving play creates a stagnant imbalance in both artists’ and viewers’ expectations. 

I compare Schutz to Kilimnik because Schutz is any easy bite, playing well within the aesthetic rules we know and know to love- grand scale, clever, complicated composition and powerful color and gesture. Kilimnik’s paintings in contrast seem underworked, washed-out, simple and anticlimactic. Too pretty and benign to be rebellious. But the act is courageous, in a “Frankly, I don’t give a damn” fashion.   Kilimnik’s glittering paintings and sticker sprinkled collages reintroduce free-spirited whimsy by opening what the viewer sees to questions and doubts of - is this good, is this valid, is this finished? A fresh reminder that art involves more than just finished product.  The product is merely a transparent container for the spirit that fills it.

The exhibition of Karen Kilimnik inspired me because it was spirit-heavy and product-light. To make Art that is grandiose, flashy or compositionally sound is not interesting to me because it is not an authentic expression of the human experience.  Where are the flaws, the failures, the struggles? Kilimnik’s art was small but forthright. What was there was laughing and pleasurable and honest. It sparkled, literally. Ultimately I believe that worthy art is authentic art. To authentically express takes time and dedication to peel away layers of adult and become child again. But more importantly it takes courage, to allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to be seen. No clever tricks or fancy tools to mask flaw or fragility or strange originality.

How brave can I be - Kilimnik style? Do I have the courage to put cat stickers on my paintings? The canon is a point of tension in my mind, lurking and judging and comparing. Pointing its’ finger to say - it’s not big enough, it’s not worked enough, it’s not clever enough. Do I have the courage to paint in a way that the canon has not deemed worthy? The wrestling match in my mind grounds my art practice, motivating my drive to strengthen my game. To win at artplay.