Sam McKinniss

Sam McKinniss’s vivid portraits immortalize pop culture icons in cinematic detail. He works from sources such as album covers, movie stills, paparazzi photos, and other images pulled from the internet. McKinniss’s sardonic canvases turn overexposed tabloid images gleaned from tabloids into finely rendered works of art, both participating in and commenting on our obsession with celebrity. After earning his MFA from New York University in 2013, he has since exhibited in New York, London, Brussels, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Miami, and Boston. McKinniss painted a portrait of Lorde for the cover of her 2017 sophomore album, Melodrama.