KIKI KOGELNIK

In an era shaped by the Space Race and Cold War, Kogelnik became fascinated with the uncertainties and possibilities of a new, technology-driven future and the evolving representations of women’s bodies. Kogelnik’s paintings and drawings depict a world of dismembered techno-bodies and mechanically enhanced avatars floating aimlessly in vibrant, pop-like compositions reminiscent of the bold shapes and colour planes associated with modern advertising.

Kogelnik started creating work in the early 1950s—by the 60s, she focused on the human form and outlines of body parts and by the 70s, there was an explicit focus on the portrayal and representation of women and the female figure. In 1971, Kogelnik created a series of works titled, “Women’s Lib.” The work depicts the artist standing valiantly with a pair of enormous scissors in hand and her iconic cut-outs at her feet. The same era brought her “Hanging” series—vinyl silhouettes, flopped over clothes hangers; a commentary on the fluidity of identity and the impermanence of the human body. Kogelnik returned to her hangings and to vinyl as a material, until the late-1980s. Those years also found Kogelnik distilling simplified forms into a language of paintings, ceramic wall works, and drawings that riffed on feminism and politics. The work of this time was very much in conversation with the punk and new wave culture that sprung up around her SoHo studio. Kogelnik’s work occupied its own cultural space, intersecting with various movements but always defying categorization on a larger scale.

Kiki Kogelnik (1935 - 1997) was born in Austria and lived and worked between Vienna and New York. Recent solo museum shows include Kiki Kogelnik – Inner Life (Kunsthalle Stavanger, Norway); Kiki Kogelnik: Fly Me to the Moon (Modern Art Oxford, UK); and I Have Seen the Future (Hamburger Kunstverein, Hamburg). She was the subject of major retrospectives at Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, Austria in 1998 and at Kunsthalle Krems, Austria in 2013.

Courtesy Pace Gallery