Nina Childress. Body Body
The exhibition
The Sylvie Vartan, Hedy Lamarr, Sissi and other pop culture stars that mark out the retrospective of Nina Childress' forty-year career - since 1980 - at the Frac MÉCA in Bordeaux are only pretexts for exploring painting.
And what exactly does Nina Childress intend to explore? Styles. At the crossroads of influences, this French-American born in 1961 in Pasadena, California, has a plethora of them. Her painting is expressionist in her Bad Simone (2008), with thick lines and a face as if dissolved in a glass of orange juice. Pop, with his Little Teddy Bear (1991), an oil and acrylic on canvas where the marshmallow occupies all the space, on a green background. Realistic, in his pastel portrait of a little boy, in 1997. Abstract, in her Flounet series (2003), where only masses of colour with blurred contours are visible. Recently, Childress has even tried her hand at sculpture. The only common thread between her paintings is the constant choice of acid colours. And here again, there is audacity. The former punk singer, who cut her teeth with the Ripoulin Brothers collective from 1985 to 1989 after a spell at the Arts Décoratifs, has retained the taste for surprise that is characteristic of free figuration.
Extract from the article by Emma Noyant published in the numéro 100 de la revue Art Absolument, published on 18 March 2022
To read: Nina Childress. 1,081 Paintings. Text by Fabienne Radi. Co-publication Beaux-Arts de Paris / Galerie Bernard Jordan / Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, 2 volumes, €49
And what exactly does Nina Childress intend to explore? Styles. At the crossroads of influences, this French-American born in 1961 in Pasadena, California, has a plethora of them. Her painting is expressionist in her Bad Simone (2008), with thick lines and a face as if dissolved in a glass of orange juice. Pop, with his Little Teddy Bear (1991), an oil and acrylic on canvas where the marshmallow occupies all the space, on a green background. Realistic, in his pastel portrait of a little boy, in 1997. Abstract, in her Flounet series (2003), where only masses of colour with blurred contours are visible. Recently, Childress has even tried her hand at sculpture. The only common thread between her paintings is the constant choice of acid colours. And here again, there is audacity. The former punk singer, who cut her teeth with the Ripoulin Brothers collective from 1985 to 1989 after a spell at the Arts Décoratifs, has retained the taste for surprise that is characteristic of free figuration.
Extract from the article by Emma Noyant published in the numéro 100 de la revue Art Absolument, published on 18 March 2022
To read: Nina Childress. 1,081 Paintings. Text by Fabienne Radi. Co-publication Beaux-Arts de Paris / Galerie Bernard Jordan / Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, 2 volumes, €49
When
17/12/2021 - 20/08/2022
