Our team’s creative pursuits don’t stop at the end of the work day. BlackDog’s very own Pete Kirill will have a solo exhibition at Myra Gallery in Miami’s Wynwood Art District from November 4th to December 12th.  The opening reception for the exhibition, titled Communist Dictator Visits Miami, will be held Friday November 4th from 6 to 9pm.

Kirill’s work from his North Korea series will also be featured in the Art Basel edition of Miami Art Guide.

Art Review:

“The Madness of ‘Dear Leader: The subject of ‘dictator worship’ has been probed by practicing artists and craftsmen as early as ancient Persia and the North Americas: kings, pharaohs and emperors have been displayed as gods on Earth, the embodiment of those intangible traits which the ‘masses’ seem to lack against their leaders. Animal sacrifices, epic poetry and strategically-oriented monuments have been offered in tribute to them often with a quiet subversion, a wry wink to onlookers as if to acknowledge that it is the citizen population who ultimately perpetuates the cult of personality. One man, alone, cannot rule by force of arms or will, but those who accept the visual potency of his charisma, his intelligence and his foresight will inevitably spin tall tales surrounding their physical and perhaps, metaphysical capabilities. Miami-based artist and designer Pete Kirill is such an artist who offers this sly hint of dissension in his cartoonish, almost kitschy portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.  Continuing an enduring tradition of visual art acting as a subtle catalyst for social critique pit against a recognized figure from a pointedly anti-aesthetic socio-political realm, Kirill turns politics into comedy and back into tragedy.” -by Shana Beth Mason, M.A. University of Glasgow (Christie’s Education London)