Alex McQuilkin

Born in Massachusetts / Works in Beacon, NY

BIO

Alex McQuilkin’s work has been exhibited internationally since 2000. Her paintings, videos and installations explore themes such as the role of cultural aesthetics in defining female identity and the power structures embedded within artifice.

Recent highlights include solo exhibitions at de boer gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Plymouth Rock, Zurich, CH; Museum of American Books, Brooklyn, NY; Marvelli Gallery, New York, NY; Galerie Adler, Frankfurt, DE. Group exhibitions include KONIG Galerie, London, UK; Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY; MoMA PS1, Brooklyn, NY; KW Institute, Berlin, DE; Marlborough Contemporary, New York, NY; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, ES; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Martinetz Gallery, Cologne, DE; Kunstraum, Brooklyn, NY; Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; Reyden Weiss Collection, Weserburg, Bremen DE; Neuehouse, New York, NY; Collectors Room, Berlin, DE; Manifesta 10, St. Petersburg, RU, and Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN. McQuilkin’s work has been reviewed in the NY Times, the Village Voice, FlashArt, Art Magazine, and elsewhere. She received her BFA and MFA from New York University. Her work is included in numerous private collections and public collections including the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Knoxville Museum of Art and the Smith College Museum of Art.

You'll like Alex if: you have a deep appreciation for Victorian era wallpaper

My work explores the tangled relationship between the aesthetics of popular culture and female identity. Juxtaposing various forms of imagery—from mass-produced textiles to commercial advertising— I examine the subtle and insidious ways that contemporary culture influences the private self. My current series, hand painted renderings of wallpaper, takes the idea of the home interior as its starting point and draws upon the visual language of mass-produced textiles to comment on gender roles and class structures.