Diane Kotila

Boy Kings

March 13 - April 17, 2021

de boer gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition and limited edition publication of new paintings by Diane Kotila. In Kotila’s first exhibition with de boer, New York based Kotila presents oil on linen paintings paired with sketches and works on paper. 

In this series of paintings Kotila depicts Pharaoh Tutankhamun, often referred to as the ‘boy king,’ and images of the young Egyptian water boy Hussein Abdel Raasoul who is tied to the discovery of Tutankhaman’s tomb.  Writing about her approach, Kotila has described her painting as “an exploration of historically and culturally familiar portraiture.” A research heavy examination similar to the excavation of tombs; dirty and messy with moments of clarity and discovery.

In one painting, the young boy king is represented with black eyes and a gaze as dark and uneasy as the rudimentary set of marks it is treated with, a gaze that evokes the full range of human emotion. No absolutes exist in this realm of interpretation, isolating figures whose sexual ambiguity is slippery and deceptive. The coarseness of Kotila’s brushwork creates an absence of the  idealization of this historical event. The end result is a richly varied handling of paint, deeply layered and often intentionally haphazard, which suggests form and space in both an illusory and highly individual manner.

Matthew Higgs has described Kotila’s paintings “as distinct as Philip Guston, Leon Golub, Bruce Nauman, and Joyce Pensato, among others, Kotila’s work ultimately seeks to both illuminate and interrogate the violence – emotional, psychological, and societal – that continues to shape and condition La Comédie humaine.” Rupture and fragmentation prevail in these visceral works that are characterized by oppositional formal devices, with a sharp emotion that actively explores uncomfortable truths. 

Diane Kotila (b. 1965) Studied Fine Art at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo graduating in 1986. She lives in Seattle and New York and has exhibited at Sotheby’s S2 in London and White Columns, New York, NY. Her work has also been presented at Miart, Milan by Anthony Reynolds Gallery (2018); S|2 London gallery, Sotheby’s, London (2019); and by Kenny Schachter at the Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles (2020.)

Press

Selected Work

Installation Views

Exhibition Catalog

Artists