Sam McKinniss - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The artist's debut monograph delves into his vibrant paintings, capturing pop culture icons with wit and pathos.

Drawing inspiration from iconic figures and imagery from popular media, press photos, and other artworks, McKinniss transforms familiar images of bold-faced names--including Leonardo DiCaprio, Michelle Pfeiffer, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Britney Spears, Halle Berry, Joan Didion, Lil Nas X, and Mariah Carey, to name a few--into strikingly original works. By reinterpreting snapshots of celebrities and working with images with an inbuilt cultural power, McKinniss infuses them with a new layer of depth and significance--making them more powerful, expressive, and ambiguous. His portraits are not mere copies but rather captured moments of collective memory, heightened with emotion and drama.

Transitioning from painting friends to internet-sourced imagery, McKinniss taps into emotional wells sublimated within the drama of entertainment, theater, pageantry, presentation, fashion, and glamour in his work. Oscillating between being a fan and an idol, McKinniss illustrates complex roles and identities existing in his art.

Review Quotes

"Sam McKinniss's debut monograph is a dazzling tribute to pop culture's most iconic figures. With lush, color-saturated paintings, he reimagines familiar images through vibrant painting. Iconic figures such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, and more inspire the featured works, infused with drama, nostalgia, and ambiguity. Blurring the line between celebrity culture and artistry, the striking Rizzoli volume Same McKinniss captures the depth of fame and fortune in a new light." -- CURATED TEXAN

"The American figurative painter Sam McKinniss takes images from popular culture and reinterprets them in lush, hyper-saturated oil paintings imbued with a queer sensibility. He's painted Lil Nas X in his pink cowboy suit, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and a self-portrait in the style of a J.Crew advert. But, as his debut monograph from Rizzoli demonstrates, he is much more than a painter of pop culture, and is equally drawn to subjects from the natural world: cows, flowers, which he paints in the style of 19th-century French painter Henri Fantin-Latour, and swans." -- FINANCIAL TIMES

About the Author

Sam McKinniss (b. 1985) works and lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Kent, Connecticut. His figurative paintings are most often sourced from popular culture, the entertainment industry, sports, and the internet. Natasha Stagg is a writer and editor based in New York City. Jarrett Earnest is a writer and curator based in New York City. He is the author of What It Means to Write About Art: Interviews with Art Critics (David Zwirner Books, 2018) and Valid Until Sunset (MATTE Editions, 2023).