THE FILE: Interview with Amanda Kirkhuff

Lorena Bobbitt 2009, oil on panel 20”x24”

In this latest installment of THE FILE, Daniel Samaniego interviews LA-based artist and activist Amanda Kirkuff. They discuss Kirkhuff's classical approach to painting contemporary women, the working dynamic with her models, Lorena Bobbitt and much more...

I am fascinated by your study and depiction of women. You explore a range of archetypes, fictional women, real women - ‘dangerous’ women. The canon is stuffed with objectified women, women as passive victims. The women you paint are anything but passive. Can you talk about the women you paint and speak to your relationship to the male gaze in classical painting?

Art made through a male gaze that features objectified women is like a catcall; it is a homosocial display of toxic masculinity. In other words, men are making it to perform for each other. Women as individuals are truly invisible in this system. In contrast, the figures in my paintings are always based on real people that I know, and I define this as fundamentally unrelatable to the aberration of painting women as objects. When I ask someone if they want to model, I involve them in the process pretty thoroughly. They learn the story of the person they are going to portray and the concept behind the future work. The model is an active part of my art making, and their individual background is part of my reason for asking them in the first place. I don’t believe “passive” women exist, I think this is an imaginary concept men made up for each other to fantasize about. So no, I’m not doing that. But…

We are all swimming in and breathing the male gaze, right? It is our atmosphere. Artists, regardless of our backgrounds really don’t have a choice but to respond in some way to patriarchy. Because there are so few women classical painters archived in art history, I do consume and am influenced by male painters whose content I regularly find repellant. It’s sad, and I long for more representation in figurative painting.

Caravaggio painted Judith over 400 years ago. I can’t think of many women, especially realist painters who paint at your level of mastery dealing with women who kill: Andrea, Jody, Judith. How have these women associated with violent narratives become so central to your content?

Wow thanks! For the record, my favorite Judith is Artemisia Gentileschi’s. Those bloody sheets, she really nailed those. Violent women are an interesting symbol. When I depict a woman who has murdered her children, it easily elicits an emotional response; But when you analyze why people respond with such vitriol you unearth many layers of systematic patriarchal injustice and history. The dominant narrative of maternal filicide subjugates women and removes all male accountability. For example we are obsessed with women who kill their children, yet 91% of people who kill their families are men*. Domestic violence is the number one predictor of familicide, it is a public health crisis, yet our social awareness of the issue is minimized and normalized. My portrayal of violence committed by women is an allegory for war and a counter narrative to violence against women.

Oprah GIF (No Is A Complete Sentence)[drawing #2 of pentaptych] 2019, graphite on paper 52”x10” or 10”x10” each

I saw your show at 2nd Floor Projects (here comes every body, 2010) the weekend I moved to San Francisco 10 years ago, it was the first exhibition I saw in the city. I was instantly mesmerized by your portrait of Lorena Bobbitt.

That is so sweet that I am tied up in your memory of moving to SF, I love that. When I thought about Lorena Bobbitt as an icon, I thought of her as a woman pushed to the very edge of what she could take, and when she reached that point she fought back.

Did you see the recent documentary series on Lorena Bobbit? I am curious to know your thoughts about Lorena as a subject now and how mainstream media covers women and crime in the present.

With the recent documentaries I was very interested in how the tone of her story changed since the media coverage in the 90’s. There was a pronounced “Me Too” vibe going on for sure. I enjoyed watching them. The Amazon Studios one felt like it was written by men, but with a “we see what happened now and we are sorry” feeling. There was a lot of (frankly, triggering) content about domestic violence. I guess it’s the thought that counts? But there was also a recent episode of 20/20 that interviewed John Bobbitt at length, and I actually really enjoyed it. 20/20 is trashy tv (my favorite) and I never expect it to be “woke” but they snuck in some sick burns on John. I honestly thought it was a very feminist profile.

Jody Lynn Bowman 2015, oil on canvas 46”x71”

In Lorena, the acid green is fantastical and otherworldly as in an Ernst painting. With Andrea (Andrea Yates #2 [La Llorona], 2012), the restrained grisaille palette reads like a film noir still. Your palette is always so deliberate and perverse. How do you go about researching color and making decisions?

I do take inspiration from cinematic lighting, a lot of the process starts with the model and the set, which I stage carefully. The lighting, props and color choices usually start conceptually, I might be making a historical or pop culture reference, for example. Some of my choices are just me trying to flex (those light backgrounds bounce light and are usually a lot more work than chiaroscuro.) But once I start painting, many of my color choices are just observation and emotional license. There are a lot of layers and the underpainting is important. I use a deliberately limited palette, almost exclusively primary colors and I rarely introduce new pigments. Right now I am working with about 12 colors: 4 blues, 2 yellows, 3 reds, 2 whites and one purple. I have no idea if this is normal or not, but I probably spend as much time mixing paint as I do applying paint to the canvas. I like to push myself to render and/or distort what I see with the colors I already have. If I was going to take my color technique to therapy I would say it has scarcity and control issues.

Jody Lynn Bowman 2015, oil on canvas 46”x71”

There is a sort of sly humor to your drawing of Andrea Yates. The way she peers out of the tub her eyes just above the bathwater. In fact, I think a lot of your work has a funny edge to it. Do you find some people miss the beat?

Yes they do! I sometimes get accused of being too serious. I do deal with serious subject matter, and I am an angry lesbian after all, but I am definitely cracking jokes too. I don’t really mind if some things go over people’s heads, though. Since I started showing my work I have always experienced [straight men] who like to interject their “I DoN’T gEt iT!?” opinion. I usually don’t feel like taking them to kindergarten class, so I don’t worry about it much.

Andrea Yates (La Llorona) #2 2012, graphite on paper 24”x19”

As a queer artist, is it important for you to self-represent and to tap into a rich history of queer artists who use their own body in their art?

Yes, representation is a huge umbrella subject for me. As you referenced earlier, the male gaze is ever-present, so putting a contrasting image, an image I can relate to, into the world is important to me. As an art consumer too, seeing paintings by and about POC, queer, trans, female…artists is like drinking water, it feels so good. Representation isn’t just good for marginalized artists, it is necessary for everyone’s well being.

Shotgun & Passsing The Joint [diptych] 2018, oil on canvas 29”x22” each

What are you working on in the studio now?

My next body of work is about manual labor and autobiographical symbols relating to my upbringing, being raised by my mom and an assortment of outlaws. I am making paintings about waiting tables, biker culture, wearing a uniform to work, and imagery from my childhood. I am also writing an essay about money and the art industry, and finding out some interesting/depressing statistics through that process. 

Waitress 2011, oil on canvas 49”x58”

When and where can people see your work next?

I always post upcoming shows on instagram @amandakirkhuff and also on my website news page https://www.amandakirkhuff.com/news. I just made a twitter account so maybe I’ll start posting there as well, same handle @amandakirkhuff. I recently signed to do my first book cover, which is exciting. The title is We Had No Rules by Corinne Manning and published by Arsenal Pulp Press. My work also appears on an album that was just released by Karen & the Sorrows, a queer country band out of Brooklyn. The album is called Guaranteed Broken Heart and it’s really good! Also my studio is in downtown LA, come visit if you are ever in town, I love studio visits.

* Men Who Murder Their Families: What the Research Tells Us - NIJ Journal/Issue No. 266 - https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/230412.pdf

All images courtesy Amanda Kirkhuff.

Photo of Amanda Kirkhuff in the studio in Los Angeles, 2019

Photo credit: Lillian Cutrono

Amanda Jebrón Kirkhuff was born in Seattle, Washington in 1982. She attended Seattle Central Community College where she was trained in oil painting and figure drawing, and was ultimately assisted in earning a scholarship to attend The San Francisco Art Institute. Kirkhuff graduated with a BFA from SFAI in 2006. For 12 years Kirkhuff lived in San Francisco and New York City, participating in underground queer nightlife and activism. She worked with many civil rights and social change organizations, and her working-class background, community, and values continue to inform her work. Kirkhuff currently lives and works in downtown Los Angeles. Contact info is available at www.amandakirkhuff.com.

THE FILE The file is open: studio visits, conversations and issues in new painting and drawing. An ongoing Settlers + Nomads interview series curated by Queens-based artist Daniel Samaniego.

Daniel Samaniego’s hyper-detailed drawing installations are a meditation on queer persona. He received his BFA in Painting and Drawing in 2007 from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and an MFA in Painting in 2011 from the San Francisco Art Institute. Samaniego has been an Artist in Residence at the Vermont Studio Center (2014). 

Posted by Wendy Kveck, December 1, 2019.