Cinefiles will immediately recognise the title of this collective art exhibition; Kiss Me Deadly is a 1955 movie that stands square-jawed and toe-to-toe with the best of the late Los Angeles film noir detective novel adaptations. There are plenty of dark twists and unpleasant surprises in the Mike Hammer mystery, and the same can be said for the neo-noir art which took the hard-boiled sentiments of Kiss Me Deadly and the LA scene of the ’40s and ’50s as its inspiration.
At the exhibition hosted by London’s Paradise Row, film and sculpture accompany the paintings and prints we have featured here, making for an immersive and suitably claustrophobic experience. A dozen artists are responsible for the works, some working collaboratively, others as solo artists, but despite the diversity of styles, Kiss Me Deadly: a group show of contemporary neo-noir from Los Angeles is a coherent collection.
Some pieces are best displayed on spartan white walls under the glare of fluorescent lighting, the better to illuminate these paintings’ dark and hidden corners, to expose their nasty little secrets. Others are mounted against dark backgrounds, blurring the line between fiction and reality, and letting the trauma-hit creations bleed out into the room. Get there before time of death is pronounced on 9th March.
Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe, Plastic Mother Pig Faced Father, 2012,
Silkscreen and ultrachrome ink on paper, 40 x 29 inches
courtesy of Marlborough Chelsea Gallery
Kiss Me Deadly: A Group Show of Contemporary Neo-Noir from Los Angeles
(Installation Image), 2012
onah Freeman & Justin Lowe, Cabaret Straylight #2, 2012,
Custom pigment print, 12 x 18 inches, Edition 1/5
courtesy of Marlborough Chelsea Gallery
Simmons & Burke, Composite C, 2010,
C-Print, 63.5 x 92.2 cm, Edition 1/5
courtesy of Michael Kohn Gallery
Jeneleen Floyd, Birds, 2012,
Cut and pasted paper, 27.94 x 20.96 cm
courtesy of the artist
Kiss Me Deadly: A Group Show of Contemporary Neo-Noir from Los Angeles
(Installation Image), 2012
Glenn Kaino, Torn and Restored Newspaper #2 (Pre-Resurrection), 2010
courtesy of Honor Fraser Gallery
Francesca Gabbiani, Badlands (Dollhouse on Fire 2), 2012,
Colored paper and gouache on paper, Unframed: 40 x 71 in. (101.6 x 180.34 cm)
courtesy of Lora Reynolds Gallery
Bobbi Woods, I know who killed me, 2012,
Enamel on poster, 41 x 27 inches
courtesy of Pepin Moore Gallery
