Episode 09: Milly Skellington

Milly Skellington (b. 1993, Los Angeles) has gained recognition for his unique approach to image reproduction and painting. Skellington's work is heavily inspired by the art-historical tradition, but his process and content are intentionally minimized to reflect his ambivalence towards the artist's role in crafting work within the broader socio-political and creative culture surrounding artmaking. He has constructed a machine that replicates images in a manner that closely resembles an artist's own hand, yet with obvious technological mediation. The final results are often unexpected and disorienting, blurring the line between human and machine-made.

Skellington's content often mimics celebrity status and historical events, recalling moments in contemporary culture when facts seem manipulated and truth-making produces a society of paranoia. He borrows images from traumatic events of our collective cultural memory, printed from an ink-jet printer and gesso transferred into kaleidoscopic, disorienting interpretations of their originals. Adding his own hand-painted details to these replications further complicates his role in these dizzying compositions. Through his work, Skellington challenges his own authorship and questions the boundaries between autonomy and automation. Skellington has exhibited his work in various galleries, including El Clasificado Space in Los Angeles, New Space Lewisham in London, and Cody Wycoff Space in Brooklyn, NY.