KATHARINE KUHARIC – POUND OF FLESH
2011-10-24Taking stock pictures (“unsolicited images” from junk mail, newspapers, magazines and other sources) Kuharic meticulously re-collages images to create reconfigured histories. Her paintings are multi-layered, hyper-real, and highly keyed to an almost hallucinogenic pallet making them overwrought, sensual, and alluring. Seventeen distinct works highlight investigations into American celebrity, pop and suburban culture as well as her personal angst.
In both Jack’s Original and Ladue News, Kuharic takes residents of St. Louis and Ladue respectively and has them reposed on absurdist constructions. In Jacks Original, the grouped figures are given extra girth and she gives them a gesture of shame by having each person cover their genitals and waistlines. The people represented in Ladue News are from a society magazine with the same name. The posed pleasantness amidst the collapsing structure creates a despotic tension.
Pound of Flesh is an ongoing series where Kuharic tracks her weight loss and gain through repeated symbols and motifs. The years accumulate in yellow eggs laid across the bottom of the painting and her corresponding weight is recorded in red balloons above. In the center of the painting is a tangle of holly hocks, the symbol of female ambition. In addition to the measure of weight, these paintings also show the lost possibility of fertility and represent all that is fecund. Flora and fauna are depicted throughout as well as graphics of the Weight Watchers frozen dinners. This contrast of nourishment and hollow, empty food is the key metaphor for the painting.
Exhibition runs through to November 12th, 2011
P.P.O.W.
535 West 22nd Street
3rd Floor
New York
NY 10011
