About
Kira Nam Greene’s work explores female sexuality, desire and control through figure and food still-life paintings, surrounded by complex patterns. Imbuing the feminist legacies of Pattern and Decoration Movement with transnational, multicultural motifs, Greene creates colorful paintings that are unique combinations of realism and abstraction, employing diverse media such as oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolor and colored pencil. Combining Pop Art tropes and transnationalism, she also examines the politics of food through the depiction of brand name food products, or junk food. Recently, Greene started a figurative painting series spurred by the 2016 Presidential Election, Women’s March, #metoo movement and ensuing crisis of conscience, this new body of work aspires to present the power of collective action by women.
Author Archives: kira.nam.greene
New Studio at the Elisabeth Foundation for the Arts
It has been a while since I posted anything on my blog, and there is a good reason for it! I was selected to become a member at the Elisabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) and got a new spacious studio. … Continue reading
Mathew Barney’s River of Fundament
On a frigid February night, I made a pilgrimage to BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) to see the 6 hour epic of Mathew Barney‘s new film, River of Fundament, loosely based on the 1983 Norman Mailer novel, Ancient Evenings. In … Continue reading
Palette Exhibition and Lecture at Salisbury University
I participated in a fun, food themed group exhibition, Palette and also gave an artist lecture to enthusiastic students at Salisbury University in Salisbury, MD last weekend in February. In Palette, Salisbury University Art Galleries exhibited artworks by artists who use food … Continue reading
The Metro Show: outsider and folk art
Last weekend of frigid and snowy January, I went to the Metro Show to see some very inspiring works that I have seen in recent years. Held at the Metropolitan Pavillon in Chelsea, the Metro Show features very manageable 37 exhibitors … Continue reading
Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AK
Another memorable place that I visited during my Christmas holidays is Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, a diaphanous shrine to American fine art. The museum, founded by Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, opened on 11 November 2011 in an area that lacks … Continue reading
Precious Moments: An American Sistine Chapel?
Over the Christmas break, I visited St. Louis, MO area where my boy friend is originally from. It is always a bit of a culture shock to leave the coastal enclave of cosmopolitanism (or den of atheism :)) that I … Continue reading
Mike Kelley at PS1 MoMA and Isa Genzken at MoMa
This winter New York museums seem to have many interesting retrospectives of contemporary artists, and two of the best are Mike Kelley at MoMA PS1 and Isa Genzken: Retrospective at MoMA. The recent suicide of Mike Kelley (1954 -2012) was … Continue reading
October 2013 Gallery Round Up: Minimalism Rules
As it sometimes (or maybe often) happens in Chelsea or Lower Eastside, many galleries, either organically or not, decide to show very similar types of work at the same time. It seemed that October was a monochrome month in Chelsea. … Continue reading
Chris Burden: Extreme Measures at the New Museum
The New Museum is showing LA artist Chris Burden‘s first extensive New York survey and his first major exhibition in the United States in over twenty-five years. Occupying all five floors of the Museum, “Extreme Measures” is not quite a … Continue reading
Paris Galleries: Rentrée, 2013, Part III
This is my final post about the galleries in Paris, which focuses on abstract paintings and installations, which stood out for diverse and interesting use of materials (particularly Eduardo Terraza’ show at Almine Rech Gallery, Photos 7-8). I am always … Continue reading