Nina Childress: 40 Years of Painting at Frac MÉCA Bordeaux

The exhibition 'Body Body' at Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA in Bordeaux celebrates forty years of Nina Childress's artistic production, featuring over 100 paintings, four videos, five sculptures, and a catalogue raisonné. Childress, born in 1961 in Pasadena, USA, began her career as a punk singer in the 1980s with Lucrate Milk and Fratelli Ripoulin before dedicating herself entirely to painting. She was recently named a Knight of the Legion of Honour. The show is co-curated by Childress and director Claire Jacquet, with works selected solely on their adherence to the title 'Body Body'—a play on 'body of work'—without chronological or thematic order. Childress's practice is characterized by obsessive cataloguing (every painting numbered since August 1980), series exploring Tupperware, candy, soap, portraits, and 'Hair Pieces', and a style she calls 'conceptual and idiotic', prioritizing sensory pleasure over intellectual intent. Her current focus is large-scale portraits of glamorous female idols like Sylvie Vartan, Kate Bush, Hedy Lamarr, France Gall, and Jane Birkin. Controversial works include a candy 'testa di moro' and a giant portrait of Sharon Tate. The exhibition runs until August 20, 2022.