Quodlibet XXXII

Lucy McKenzie is known for her use of conventional illusionistic effects like trompe l’oeil (French for “deceive the eye”), which aims to render an object or surface so faithfully that it appears real rather than painted. In an ongoing series of still lifes called Quodlibets, she mines source material from social and design history, advertising, and fashion to imagine an alternative history of painting that prioritizes
the decorative, the vernacular, and the domestic.

Quodlibet XXXII presents a tightly clustered selection of pages from the “Riot Grrrl” fanzine McKenzie self-published as a teenager. In the artist’s words, the painted marble background, cool and deluxe, seems to “trap” the products of “youthful spontaneity and naivete” within the dazzling confines of her meticulous method.