Kit King’s paintings are absolutely breathtaking. In fact, at first glance, you might hardly realize they’re paintings at all. Highly photorealistic, her work often focuses on the human body, paying particular attention to the human face. But while King’s work is hyperrealistic, she often adds an element of surprise to her pieces: distorting them in one way or another, and often rendering them in such ways that make them look pixelized or digitally manipulated.
“Imagine a photo of a person, and it has gone through the shredder to be discarded,” she described her work in an interview with Interlocutor, explaining that “this is the visual foundation for the sliced works.” According to King, through her manipulated work she hopes to elicit a strong response. The message being, she explains: “if it upsets you so much to see me destroy this luxury item—an object—why does it not upset you to see a person being destroyed in life?”
Naturally, her dramatic portraits (sliced or not), haven’t gone unnoticed. With some 333k followers on Instagram alone, King has received recognition both online and offline, having won several awards for her hyperrealistic portrait paintings. Her paintings have also been the subject of solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums internationally, showcasing throughout Canada and the United States, as well as countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates. Her portraits are also found in both private and public collections worldwide including the MET’s publication collection.
According to King, her journey to becoming an artist doesn’t have a defined starting point. “I’ve been painting from before I could walk or talk,” she recalls. “While I was growing up you could see the art follow the lead of realism. My scratchy kid drawings started to become more refined the more I drew or painted. Hyperrealism was just the natural evolution of that refinement.”
Take a look at some of her incredible pieces in the gallery below, and follow her Instagram page for more.
