COVID-19
Perhaps you’ve never wondered what it would feel like to be a monarch butterfly drunk on Aperol Spritz. That’s a shame, but one that can be rectified by allowing Alejandro Jiménez-Flores, also known as florencio, to introduce you to kiki, the subject of a series of radiantly kitsch paintings on view at ADDS DONNA during the virtual NADA Chicago Gallery Open earlier this fall. The pictures include gouache-on-muslin illustrations of kiki’s fabulously inebriated soirée, featuring shimmery lights of all colors, and a pair of small psychedelically dyed silk rondels that suggest the exciting but worrisome effect of alcohol on kiki’s eggs. It’s unclear if kiki is florencio’s alter ego, though it seems a strong possibility: in a video on the exhibition website, the artist relays kiki’s story as a poem, told with great empathy and all the gender fluidity of metamorphosis. Besides which, who wouldn’t want to envision themselves gorgeously patterned and dancing through the air under a disco ball moon?
—Lori Waxman 2020-11-20 5:10 PM