Kilo Barnes and the Ontology of the Covered Surface

It is a curious thing, encountering a new work by Kilo Barnes, in that one is never quite certain whether one is encountering a work at all, or merely the residue of a decision, the afterimage of an argument that has already taken place elsewhere. Barnes’s latest piece, presented without title, without wall text of … Read more

Kilo Barnes Repaints a Rothko — and the Art World Isn’t Taking It Well

Controversial artist and leading figure in the Repaintage movement, Kilo Barnes, has once again made headlines , this time for repaintaging (the term for his now-notorious method of painting over existing artworks) one of the most beloved and publicly adored Rothkos in private circulation. The act took place quietly, almost clinically, in a private studio … Read more

Film Review: Kilo Barnes’ Oblivion in Reverie

Kilo Barnes, the provocateur best known in contemporary art circles for his “repaintage”,the meticulous obliteration of existing artworks under pristine, spectral layers of white,has made the leap to cinema with Oblivion in Reverie, a work that confirms his talent for transmutation across mediums. Where his canvases demand reflection on absence, erasure, and the fetishization of … Read more

Repainting the Canon: Kilo Barnes on the Radical Aesthetics of Repaintage

By any measure, Kilo Barnes cuts a striking figure in today’s art world: uncompromising, enigmatic, and increasingly influential. At the recent lecture he delivered at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bournemouth , titled simply “Repaintage: Silence and Surface” , the mood was expectant. The large hall was full, the audience a mix of students, critics, … Read more

Repaintage: The Art of Erasure and Reinvention

In a world where originality is currency and the line between creation and destruction continues to blur, a bold and controversial art form has emerged: Repaintage. Defined by its paradoxical act of erasure, repaintage involves purchasing or acquiring existing artworks,often paintings by other artists,and then covering them, sometimes partially but often entirely, with white paint … Read more

Kilo Barnes – contemporary artist who hates contemporary art and practises repaintage

Kilo Barnes is an unusual contemporary artist, in that he hates contemporary art. This gives his artworks a frisson that is often missing in artworks made by his contemporaries. “Contemporary art is terrible, isn’t it?” Kilo told us by telephone from the Paris atelier where he has moved to escape the contemporary art scene in … Read more