We know her best as the flaky, irreverent, reckless Jessa on the HBO series Girls. But the 29-year-old British-American actress Jemima Kirke, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, insists she is an artist first, an actress second, an assertion that’s backed up by her second solo art show, “Platforms.”
Running through May 10 at Fouladi Projects in San Francisco, the show features a series of striking female portraits. These are “girls” that belong to Kirke alone—female subjects ranging from her little daughter to her personal trainer—and depicted in all their humble humanness. Deliberate brush strokes reveal them as contemplative, physically imperfect beings, often with dour expressions and lost gazes that Kirke has described as being “part of their individuality.” It’s clear that the artist sees them in terms of their unique relationship to her, and her admiration for each shows in her determination to scratch away at the surface and uncover their most beautiful quirks and deepest vulnerabilities. If the Girls writers continue peeling back Jessa’s layers in the same fashion, perhaps we’ll see Kirke’s TV alter ego in a similarly empathetic light.
For more Girls coverage, see Gail Goldberg’s story, Hannah & Me.
Kirke, second from left, in Girls’ first season. The actress calls herself “an artist first.”
2014/05/03 at 11:31 pm
Yes, but would she have gotten the art show if she weren’t already famous? I think she has talent, and she is a trained painter, but given the highly competitive nature of the art world, it’s just curious to think about whether she would be getting this kind of attention for her artwork if she wasn’t on a hit TV show. Still, I’m intrigued and will try to catch the show before it closes. Good for her that she’s nurturing both careers.