Nina Childress

Nina Childress is a painter born in 1961 in Pasadena (USA), living and working in Paris. Coming from the alternative punk scene and then from the collective Les Frères Ripoulin, she has not stopped painting since 1983. His works can be found in the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, the Mamco in Geneva, the Mac-Val, and many Frac.

531-Untitled (Santa Claus and skinny chick) is part of the Toys series (1994-1997). The end of the 80s sounded the death of painting but Nina Childress continued in this medium, via what she called a “conceptual and silly” painting based on objects (Tupperware, candy, soaps…). Later, Nina Childress again allowed herself to paint the human figure, but through figurines, toys.

Santa and the chick, usually rather round, are here articulated in wire. They seem to fall from the sky and their shadow merges with the multitude of flowers that make up the background. As a young mother, Nina Childress takes as models objects from her daily life and starts a critical reflection linked to the models of representation proposed to children.