Glamour and glitz at the MCA

Karen Kilimnik, The Hellfire Club episode of the Avengers, 2007.
Courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York. Photo by Aaron Igler.

Needles, pills, lighters and an unidentifiable white powder are all scattered on the third floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art. You may wonder: Drug deal gone bad? Some artists forgot to clean up after last night? New exhibit?

If you were thinking the last option, snaps to you! Karen Kilimnik’s new exhibit, now through June 8, is the latest list of edgy MCA shows. Focusing on the glamour and glory of '80s and early '90s media culture, the Philadelphia native amasses a wide range of art forms and media to question our obsession with celebrity. Warhol-influenced sketches adorn the wall and “scattered art” installations, a potpourri of seemingly thrown together random objects, stretch across the floors and walls of the space. In these installation pieces, every minute detail is painstakingly replicated to its past semblance as on its previous tour stops. Alongside aestheticized paintings of pop stars, the darker side of mass media resonates. The chilling words “helter skelter” drip red acrylic, while bullet holes, toy guns, jump rope and an abandoned stuffed puppy leashed to a nail in "I Don’t Like Mondays," "The Boomtown Rats," "Shooting Spree," or "Schoolyard Massacre" (1991). Kilimnik’s unforgettably tragic themes tap a universal quality whether showing unstoppable human destruction or the fantasy-filled disconnect between common people and the untouchable celebrity. - Justyna