Jonathon Kimbrell

Wonder Woman Revolt, 2007
acrylic on canvas

Jonathon Kimbrell likes recycling bits of paper or printed materials into his paintings and enjoys anything that looks like it’s been run through the printing press a few times. So he tries to catch this look and feel in his work, sometimes manually. This gives to his pop-art some kind of strange delicacy: there are two universes in any of his paintings; both universes seem very shy and fragile (though sending energetic signals to each other) and you don't know any more which is the real world. The foreground seems a fairy tale floating in the background, or is the background immersed in the foreground? Is this what makes Kimbrell distinct from obvious models (like Warhol or Lichtenstein)?

And a sudden connection to a great naive: Pirosmani!

Shake Well, 2008
ink jet transfer on acrylic on canvas

Thank God for Sophia Loren, 2008
ink jet transfer on acrylic on canvas

(Fine Art & Artists Gallery in Georgetown)