Name Kim Alsbrooks | ||
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Kim alsbrooks art phag
Kim Alsbrooks is a Philadelphia-based artist. She was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1961, and lived briefly in Philadelphia during the 1990s. After living in Arizona for 10 years, and in Charleston, South Carolina, she returned to Philadelphia in 2007. She has had a number of solo exhibitions, and has recently received considerable attention for her White Trash Family series which includes over 600 miniatures, painted on discarded trash. She is one of the winners of the West Prize.
Contents
- Kim alsbrooks art phag
- Education
- Career
- White Trash Series
- Exhibitions
- Fairmount Park Map
- Awards
- References
Education
Career
Kim is currently self-employed, primarily contracted by the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, as an artist. In Charleston, she worked in historic restoration; she is currently the owner of Luxe Painting & Historic Restoration in Philadelphia.
White Trash Series
Alsbrook's White Trash series challenges perceptions of the history of the civil war and associated class distinctions by creating miniature portraits of 18th century historical figures in graphite and oils on a base of discarded pieces of trash. Her work was sparked in part by an interest in the tradition of miniature paintings on ivory, and also by the comments of a women's history professor friend on historical biases in art. She began developing the series in 2004 while living in Charleston, South Carolina.
Alsbrooks creates miniature portraits by creating an oval shape that is gessoed onto the trash. Then she draws the image on the gesso in graphite and paints it in oils before varnishing it. She says of the process of finding materials: "The trash is found flat, on the street. One cannot flatten the trash. It just doesn't work. It must be found so that there are no wrinkles in the middle and the graphic should be well centered. Then the portraits are found that are complimentary to the particular trash." One of her favorite times to pick up trash is after the yearly Philadelphia Mummers Parade.
Exhibitions
Fairmount Park Map
In 2014 Kim published a small artisan map of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, reflecting her own years of exploring the park on foot and by bicycle.