In a diverse practice that draws upon the tradition of Romantic painting, Karen Kilimnik (*1955) utilizes painting, drawing, collage, photography, video and installation to produce nuanced and playful observations of historical codes and symbols. Reveling in both mass and high culture, George Stubbs, Jean-Baptiste Oudry and the ballet are as important for Kilimnik as The Avengers, Kate Moss and pop music, forcing such distinctions to collapse into her own specific mélange of cultural influence and production.

© Karen Kilimnik
Karen Kilimnik
Swan Lake
Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland
Through June 25, 2023
The exhibition at Kunsthaus Glarus presents two installative settings featuring Kilimnik's works Swan Lake (1992) and Kitri and friends at the garden folly (2004). Flanking these are paintings from different years that depict a “forest clearing as stage” theme but which also engage intrinsically with presence and absence. With these and other works, the exhibition highlights Kilimnik’s artistic ability to continually renegotiate the conditions of established narratives within and beyond her time.
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