Chris Kienke “Very, Very Presidential Speech”

Amos Eno Gallery

[Image: Chris Kienke "Great Relationship with Blacks" (2019) Acrylic on digital print, 20 x 16 in.]

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Amos Eno Gallery presents Very, Very Presidential Speech, an exhibition of new works by Chris Kienke based on the first official White House portrait of President Donald Trump.

Each work in the exhibition comprises brightly colored, hand-lettered quotes from the President superimposed onto his first official White House portrait. Each is an intervention, using the President’s own words to subvert the portrait’s intended effect. Kienke performs a graphic intervention on the portrait by overwriting it with select quotes in sans serif lettering.

Kienke’s “Very, Very, Presidential Speech” project examines the President’s perspective as expressed through verified quotes about women, race, and patriotism inflected with privilege and nationalistic overtones. These Presidential perspectives influence current debates ranging from ideas about freedom and citizenship to how a society responds to gun violence. Ideas about patriotism, citizenship and freedom are represented by language that is itself reflective of class, race, and gender. In the artist’s view, these quotes “shape our beliefs about what American values are and who gets to share in those values.” Kienke responds to dialogues around social, political, historical and economic issues filtered through nationalistic and patriotic ideals and what he views as a demand for visual rendering.

Chris Kienke has been with Amos Eno Gallery since 2012 and has his work has been exhibited in over 70 shows including recent solo exhibitions at Northwestern University (2018), the University of Kentucky (2016), the Art Center at National Central University in Taiwan (2015) and Fuchs Projects in New York City. Chris exhibited in the Florence Biennale in 2011, the Brussels Biennial in 2009 and was included in New American Paintings in September 2009. Kienke has been a fellow at Hospitalfield House in Scotland in 1998-1999 and at the Vermont Studio Center in 2003 and 2007. His work is in permanent collections such as ABN Amro Bank in Dubai, Savannah College of Art and Design, Sharjah Art Museum (UAE) and the United Kingdom National Collection. Chris Kienke received his MFA from Southern Illinois University - Carbondale in 2000 and his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1994.