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Black
& White Gallery is very pleased to present Imitation
of Life – solo exhibition by KK Kozik.
Working almost like a film maker, Kozik’s’s
approach to painting embodies active narration and visualization.
This tendency emerges strongly in the new body of work
as the artist plays out her newly found interest in
the cinematic properties of films, particularly the
ones that span genres from thrillers to screwball comedies.
Paintings and drawings included in this exhibition illustrate
acts that are both true to life and fantastical, with
exaggerated elements and small, poetic moments. Stylistically
evocative of another time altogether, the work offers
a realistic view into a particular, and seemingly mysterious,
lifestyle. While contemporary culture has, of late,
been providing us with many visual throwbacks, Kozik’s
work derives from her own childhood recollections of
adults and their behavior in polite society. Since the
work pivots around the issues of interpersonal relationships,
it can be easily relegated to domestic melodrama and
kitsch if it was not for its intense compositional formalism
and visual wit that force the viewers to avoid safe
clichés.
The title for the show was borrowed from the film by
Douglas Sirk, the German émigré auteur
whose mid-century films include “Imitation of
Life.” He was described by critic Gary Morris
as a director par excellence of “the women’s
picture…a genre that lacks the hip cachet of film
noir or the western.” In the seventies, Sirk’s
films were embraced by Fassbinder and presented by MOMA
in a Retrospective.
KK
Kozik has exhibited extensively throughout the United
States and abroad. She has been reviewed in Artforum,
Art in America, ArtNews, New Yorker, and The New York
Times, among others. Her work was included in the Brooklyn
Museum’s survey of Brooklyn artists, Open House,
and was recently featured at the Fitton Center for the
Arts in Cincinatti. Her etching “Force Majeure”
won the Magnesium Elektron Prize at 2009 North American
Print Biennial and her laminated stained glass windows
were recently installed at the Rockaway Beach subway
station, a commission from the MTA’s Art for Transit
program. She is represented in many private and public
collections. Imitation of Life is Kozik's third
solo exhibition at Black & White Gallery, and the
first one in the gallery's Chelsea location. KK Kozik
lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Sharon, CT.
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note that on February 5, 2010, Black & White
Gallery will hold a Black & White Ball to benefit
Heifer
International, an international charitable
organization helping people obtain a sustainable
source of food and income. A percentage of art sales
from this exhibition will go to Heifer International.
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Image: Bird, 2009, oil on linen, 63x74 inches
Click
on image for more information.
To request hi-res images, please contact the gallery:
info@blackandwhiteartgallery.com
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