Rose Wylie: Lolita's House

Marilyn Monroe, Ronaldinho, and now Lolita ― the layers of newspaper that line Rose Wylie’s studio floor are a frequent source of material for the artist. Drawing from such wide-ranging cultural areas as film, literature, mythology, news images, sports, and individuals she meets in her day-to-day life, Wylie paints colorful and exuberant compositions that are uniquely recognizable. This new limited-edition zine, titled Lolita’s House, puts these larger-than-life works front and center, Wylie’s animated, vivacious strokes now canvassing the page.

Bold, wild, and continually humorous, Rose Wylie creates paintings and drawings that at first glance appear aesthetically simplistic, not seeming to align with any recognizable style or movement, but on closer inspection are revealed to be wittily observed and subtly sophisticated mediations on the nature of visual representation itself. These works make use of an idiosyncratic visual lexicon, the directness of cartoonish figures, and a flattened perspective, but simultaneously betray a deep awareness of art history and painterly conventions.

Published on the occasion of Rose Wylie: Lolita’s House, this zine presents a new series of paintings and works on paper made specifically for Wylie’s second solo exhibition at David Zwirner, London in 2018. Loosely referencing a house that was constructed across the street from Wylie’s residence in Kent, England, Lolita’s House continues the artist’s ongoing fascination with the shifting nature of memory and the multi-layered external associations that become attached to it over time.