Someone should tell Karen Kilimnik that when she changes the date of birth on her resume, she should also tweak the other dates listed there, lest she end up appearing to have graduated from university at age 14. This is the case with the bio provided by Gallery Side 2, where the enigmatic painter and installation artist is now holding her second Tokyo solo show in three years.
Depending on where you source it, Kilimnik's age is either 37, 38, 44 or 45. The discrepancies, whether intentional or not, are noteworthy because they affect Kilimnik's identity and, more specifically, the impression created of the Philadelphia-born artist and her sensibilities.
Part of Kilimnik's appeal -- and she has been quite popular internationally over the last 10 years or so -- lies in the ambiguity of her point of view. She could be a late baby boomer, like Mike Kelly, mining memories and wondering whither her world is slipping away; or she could be an early Generation X-er, like Sean Landers, doing something of the same but with the distance and indifference specific to that period's subculture of slackness.