The Kingpins

Australian four-woman collective The Kingpins first hit the big time when they won a drag king contest in a Sydney nightclub with a beer-spitting, stage-diving impersonation of Guns & Roses. Connoisseurs of pop style and graphic design, The Kingpins throw everything from electro pop to death metal to riot grrrl into the visual mix to create live performances and videos that both pay tribute to, and comment incisively on, pop culture, mass media and corporate hype. Their filmic journey through Liverpudlian culture and history swirls between William Hesketh Lever’s famous creation, Sunlight Soap, and the fantasy-world of Liverpool’s hedonistic club scene. The Kingpins ask: what’s lurking under the glittering surface? How far apart are control and chaos?  

Selected Exhibitions and Performances

2006
Nuit Blanche, Parket Pagole, Paris

High Tide, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw and Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania

Notre Histoire, Palais de Tokyo (performance program), Paris

2005
O.K Video Festival, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta

2004
Taipei Biennial: Do you Believe in Reality?, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan

Gwangju Biennale: Grain of Dust, Drop of Water, Gwangju, South Korea

I thought I knew but I was wrong: Australian Video Art, Ssamazie Space, Seoul and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore

2004: Australian Culture Now, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne

2003
Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

2002
13th Biennale of Sydney, The World May Be (Fantastic), Art Gallery of New South Wales (public screenings program), Sydney

Selected Publications and Reviews

2006
'Emerging Artists', Daniel Palmer, Frieze, Issue 96, p. 123
'The Kingpins', Penny Craswell, Flash Art, January- February Vol. XXXVII, No. 246


2005
‘The Kingpins and Monika Tichacek’, Dougal Phillips, Art & Australia, Vol.43, No. 1, Spring, p. 121
‘Full-throttle pranksters show the live to deride’, Sebastian Smee, The Australian, April 26, p. 13
‘Dragging Wild Angels, Fat Hogs & Cycle Sluts Down to Hell’, Philip Brophy, Artspace, Sydney
‘The Kingpins: Am I ever gonna see your face again?’, Alexie Glass, Photofile, Issue #74, p. 58-61
‘50 of Australia’s most collectable artists’, Andrew Frost, Australian Art Collector, Issue 31, Jan.-March, p. 92

2004
‘Gwangju Biennale 2004’, Craig Judd, Eyeline, No. 56, p. 18-20
‘Primavera 2003’, Tracey Clement, Artlink, Vol. 24, No. 1, p. 86