Kit King is a Bahamian Canadian contemporary artist known for her emotionally charged hyperrealistic portrait paintings. Her work is not only visually striking, but also thought-provoking as it delves into the cultural layers that shape identity and worth within society. Her subjects challenge norms and deconstruct preconceptions of the many roles within cultural levels.

In her work, King uses traditional materials in innovative ways, often with a destructive nature, mirroring the destructive nature of mankind. This is evident in her recent works where fully rendered paintings are cut up, deconstructed, and reassembled. This further highlights the idea of destruction and reconstruction, and the constant evolution of identity and worth.

Please briefly tell us about your background. Who is Kit King?

I'm a Bahamian Canadian (first gen immigrant). Born of two artist parents. Painting since I could hold brushes (though newer to oils). The really juicy answer to why I am the artist I am would be a mini novel. Coles notes- homeless turned hermit. An insane life that resulted in emotionally fueled works and the very reason I create art as a living.

Tell us about the process of developing your personal style and its evolution.  What do you enjoy most about the process of painting? 

I was always captivated by my fathers ability to render people and form, and looking up to him (like most kids do with their parents), I wanted to do as he did. So realism was a natural course for me, and being obsessed with art as a journey, the progression to hyperrealism just happened. However I've been a little bored with hyperrealism, and craving that journey, that growth. My favorite part about the process is discovery.... so more recently I've been having fun with the process and trying new ways to keep the artistic juices flowing after I've painted a piece, by deconstructing the piece and reconstructing it in new ways. 

When you create your hyperrealistic paintings, do you consider them as individual works unto themselves, or do they belong to a larger group of works?

They sort of stop becoming anything after I've stopped working on them. All that exists is the process in that moment. When I'm not creating, I'm oddly detached from the work. I feel like the different bodies of work I've done have been the evolution of one piece to the next where a narrative or style sort of pours over into something new, and I'll have these hybrid works that bridge them together. I don't know. They are neither separate or part of a larger whole. They just ARE. 

You are a well-known figure in this field and an inspiration for many young artists. Who or what inspired your photographic style and how would you describe your photography?

Thank you so much. Well, I actually just realized my photography inspiration stems from early childhood engrained influence. My childhood home was filled with figurative art, and recently my mom showed me a photography piece by Herb Ritts we used to have hanging in our home before it was damaged by a flood when I was a kid, and it looks like it could be from the same body of work as a photo set I had done a year ago. 

It was so interesting to see that the figurative art I grew up with in my home in those early years found its way into my photography psyche. 

Not only do I have a fixation with the human form, but I have this obsession in photography to capture form in ways we don't usually see it. Photography- unlike painting- is fixed, so I'm drawn to capture something fixed (like form) in a malleable way that shift our perceptions. Just to see something so familiar in a new way where for a moment it feels foreign... alien... structural... object. I just love it. I could photograph the same body part hundreds of different ways and each time see something new and exciting.

Typically, how long does it take you to finish one of your hyperrealistic pieces?

Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

We admire the exquisite level of detail in your works. What particular work in your entire production did you enjoy the most and why?

There's a few works that stand out to me but for varying reasons. I don't connect to my work like most artists do where they are only happy with a piece if it turns out well. I'm not caught up with the end result. So my most beloved works are the works in which the process gave me something wonderful. Whether it was the piece where a technique finally clicked, or painting it brought me closer to the subject, or a piece I learned something about myself through. These are the things I hold in high regard, so the works that correspond to those moments are the works I enjoy the most.

What has been the biggest obstacle that you have encountered in your creative journey?

Finding the balance between painting what I want to paint, what paintings are asked of me, and what paintings pays the bills. 

What do you hope the viewers will experience when meeting these works in  person?

Honesty. Not necessarily my truth or my narrative, but I hope they look at the work and something honest is revealed to them. 

If you could work within a past art movement, which would it be?

Fuck art movements. 

Do you believe there are certain academic degrees you need to become successful in this field? 

I hope not since I have zero.

Do you have anything you would like to tell our readers about what you are working on now and what you have planned for the future?

Aside from being booked with solo shows and art fairs that can be found on my website, I'm just focused on that creative journey and pushing my process, loosening the reigns, and see where art takes me. 

Kit King | Website

MOST READ