Karen Kilimnik blends elements of fairy tales, history, myths, and reality to create whimsical scenarios —often infused with references to popular culture or the painterly traditions of Dutch still life. Kilimnik’s view of the natural world is deeply romanticized, with birds playing a recurring and prominent part. These feathered friends animate Kilimnik’s universe like performers on a dreamlike stage, as if a concert were unfolding within her studio.

Whether through painting or delicate bird nests, Kilimnik procures components from a wide array of sources: magazines, museum postcards, and inner imagery, filtering them through the lens of her imagination. Animals in her work seem to act as surrogates for society’s beau monde: they stand in for princesses and movie stars, enacting scenes of benign drama or pastoral reverie.

While Kilimnik often appropriates the compositional structure of Old Master paintings, her titles and painterly touch transport these references into a fantastical world of her own making, far from mere homage to her predecessors. In guarding the flowers and lunch, birds inhabit a riveting reverie of heightened stillness and charm. Rendered in a circular format reminiscent of Renaissance tondi, the painting suggests a fairytale unfolding in a miniature. These songbirds are surrogates who share the enchanted world Kilimnik so masterfully conjures.