Opening Reception: Saturday, 22 November, 19:00 – 22:00

Merry Karnowsky Gallery Berlin is proud to present a two-man exhibition by Australian artist Kill Pixie and American painter Travis Louie.

Kill Pixie (AKA Mark Whalen) began as a graffiti artist on the streets of Sydney, Australia. With themes of futuristic lost cultures and extrasensory communication, his delicate line-work and masterful use of color through ink, acrylic, and watercolor communicate beautifully through his choice of canvas - mostly paper on hand-made wooden boxes.

Kill Pixie’s strong, graphic characters and patterns are delicate, unorthodox, and at times absurd and humorous. His work questions our current customs and urges alternative scenarios for race, industry, communication and spirituality. Like a multi-vitamin, his paintings and sculptures are everything we are lacking - compressed into a concentrated capsule.

Since 2006, Kill Pixie has shown in a constant stream of exhibitions in Los Angeles, London, and Berlin. Izrock Pressings recently published his first book, Kill Communication. It includes 64 pages of fine art paintings and works on the street. Kill Pixie has also appeared in publications such as Juxtapoz, Modart Europe, Arkitip, and Monster Children.

Travis Louie’s paintings come from the tiny little drawings and many writings in his journals. He’s created his own imaginary world that is grounded in Victorian and Edwardian times. It is inhabited by human oddities, mythical beings, and otherworldly characters who appear to have had their formal portraits taken to mark their existence and place in society.

Louie was born in Queens, New York, about a mile from the site of the 1964 World’s Fair. He received a degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. After working for years as an illustrator, he began showing his paintings in local art galleries.

The influences for Louie’s work are many; the genre films, his fascination with human oddities, circus sideshows, old Vaudeville magic acts, Victorian portraits, and things otherworldly, are all blended together to enable him to bring life to the characters and stories he writes in his journals. Louie’s work has shown in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Atlanta, San Francisco, Berlin and Rome.

For Inquiries in the U.S., please contact Merry Karnowsky at [email protected], 323.933.4408

Press Contact: Ellen Thompson [email protected]