Kathe Burkhart is an American interdisciplinary artist, painter, writer and art critic. Described as both a conceptual artist and an installation artist, she uses various media in her work, combining collage, digital media, drawing, fiction, installation, nonfiction, painting, photography video, poetry, and sculpture. The content is feminist; the radical female is the subject. The Liz Taylor painting series, which she began painting in 1982, have been exhibited at the MoMA PS1, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Venice Biennale. Burkhart is also the author of literary fiction and poetry.
Burkhart's The Liz Taylor Series is a self-portrait project in which the artist uses the image of Liz Taylor to explore fantasies and evoke the artists genderqueer identity. Stills of Taylor taken from her films are painted in a cartoonish style with profane text imposed on top. Jane Ursula Harris says Burkhart's work embodies: "ribald humor and feminist-punk attitude." Artist Keith Mayerson has said of Burkhart's series, "Reproduced chronologically, the portraits take on new life as a visual diary, a pictorial narrative in which we witness how women's freedom and spirit have been repressed by male-dominated capitalist culture, with Liz Taylor as our courageous avatar".
Exhibitions
Individual Exhibitions
1988 Paintings from the Liz Taylor Series, Feature, Chicago, and Greathouse, New York
1989 Kathe Burkhart by Elizabeth Taylor, Feature, New York
1991 People in Hell Want Ice Water, Feature, New York Works on Paper from the Liz Taylor Series, Dennis Anderson Galerie, Antwerp
1992 Selected Works from the Liz Taylor Series, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles
1993 Iron Hand in a Velvet Glove, Dennis Anderson Gallery, Antwerp Velvet Revolution, Galleria in Arco, Turin, ItalyWhite Room, White Columns, New York
1997 Selected Works, Galerie De Lege Ruimte, Gent, BelgiumConstriction, Cultural Centrum Bruges, Belgium Selected Works from the Liz Taylor Series 1986-1997, Serge Sorokko Gallery, New York
1997 Irredeemable Skeletons, Shillam and Smith, LondonThe Gaze, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, New YorkCul de Sac, Art Kitchen, AmsterdamAutoportrait,Exit Art, New York Cool It, Art Kitchen, Amsterdam Red Light District: Images of Desire, Galerie Ijburg, Amsterdam
1998 Frightful Paint, Arti ef Amicitae, Amsterdam Drawing the Conclusion, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York
Readings and Performances
5 Minute Performance Olympics, High Performance, Los Angeles, 1984; Anti-Club, Lhasa Club, Los Angeles, 1985; Beyond Baroque, Venice, California, 1985; TV Generations Reading, LACE, Los Angeles, 1986; ABC NO RIO, New York, 1986; Feature, Chicago, and Greathouse, New York, 1988; 6 Women: The Word and the Will,The Knitting Factory, New York, 1989; Brand Name Damages, Brooklyn and elsewhere, 1991; Newyorican Poets Cafe, 1992; The Banquet, Thread Waxing Space, New York, 1992; Jail of Gender; A Theatrical Adaptation of the Poetry, Prose, and Visual Art of Kathe Burkhart, Cafe Voltaire and Transient Theatre, Chicago, 1994; Bob Flanagan Memorial Reading,Poetry Project, New York, 1996.
