New York City: Whitehot Recommends: Karen Kilimnik's radical fantasy at Gladstone

Karen Kilimnik, Inka’s tree painting – the spell, in the cute woods, near snow white’s cottage, 2008. Water soluble oil color on canvas, 23 7/8 x 19 7/8 inches. © Karen Kilimnik. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery. Photo: David Regen

By WM February 28, 2025

From the press release:

Karen Kilimnik’s (b. 1955, Philadelphia) debut exhibition with Gladstone Gallery opens January 16 in New York, featuring the artist’s radical, fantasy compositions of tropical beaches, coastal landscapes and floral forests. The exhibition brings together 17 of the artist’s paintings created between 2008 and 2024.

Kilimnik’s paintings meld Raoul Dufy’s lively and luminous paintings of seaside vistas and regattas with the seductive allure of travel brochures and Biggles English adventure stories.

In one of the glittering seascapes there is the strange sight of Sopwith camels circling above while submarines lurk offshore. Proving not only that this place never did and never will exist, but also that these paintings are spells that form a kind of magic.

Representing a kind of nomadism of the mind, the places Kilimnik depicts— including “kaleidoscopic gardens” and verdant views of the English countryside—offer respite, and diversion. Ultimately, in one way these are also partly protest paintings — representatives of many people’s dislike and unappreciation of the Orwellian past 5 years of censorship, propaganda and lack of freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of movement, and bodily autonomy. WM

Exhibition ends March 1, 2025