Kim Kennedy Austin at Burnaby Art Gallery

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Kim Kennedy Austin, “What Price Salvation?”, 2024, paint on ceramic, 18" x 20" (photo courtesy of the artist)

Stepping into Kim Kennedy Austin’s solo exhibition, Booster Club, at the Burnaby Art Gallery feels like entering a time capsule from the mid-to-late twentieth-century North America.

Upon entering, visitors are greeted by a striking red vinyl logo inscribed with the text KKA, BAG, Booster Club, affixed to the glass door of the main exhibition entrance.

The logo, designed by Austin, serves as both the title and introduction to the show, on view until April 20.

The space is infused with the artist’s distinctive visual language — painted posters featuring bold, high-saturation typography, white and pastel red and blue stripes, and large-lettered slogans. This sense of temporal dislocation and a feeling of “back-to-the-20th-century” is further strengthened by the Burnaby Art Gallery’s location, a heritage building constructed in the 1920s.

Austin invites viewers to critically examine the myths of capitalism, the division of labour within this system, and the typical motifs and icons through which these ideologies are reinforced, often being accepted without doubts in contemporary society.

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Kim Kennedy Austin, “How's Business: 1923-25,” 2024, gesso, acrylic, and flashe on canvas, 20" x 16" (photo courtesy of the artist)

Booster Club unfolds like a book, structured into three distinct sections — or “chapters,” as described in the exhibition text. While the methodologies in artmaking differ a bit in some of the works in each section, these chapters ultimately converge, intertwining in Austin’s critical examination of capitalism, commercialism, and popular culture.

The first two chapters of Booster Club feature a series of painted  posters alongside text-based works on canvas and tiles, each drawing inspiration from the novels of American satirical writer Sinclair Lewis. Known for his critiques of capitalism and materialism in the twentieth century, Lewis is a key reference point for Austin’s exploration of these themes. 

The first chapter, “Chamber of Commerce,” transports viewers to the fictional town of Zenith, the setting of Babbitt (1922), one of Lewis’s most renowned novels. Through a series of painted posters, Austin presents her research into the visual history of Western business, and evokes retrospectives on the typical motifs and icons on how capitalism was advertised back then and even nowadays. 

The second chapter, “House of Refuge & Industry,” shifts focus to Elmer Gantry (1927), a novel adapted into a 1960 film. Featuring a series of text-based works on canvas and tiles, this section highlights the contradictions of organized religion as a profit-driven enterprise.

Austin's research into the nature of commercialism and consumerism has been a consistent focus throughout her artistic practice. She deliberately transfers the 20-century print media into paintings and mix-media works, which can be seen as a way of inviting the viewers to closely examine the visual and text-based icons and consider the messages they convey.

In a 2011 interview, Austin expressed a sense of disorientation in a society increasingly dominated by digital content and mass production. Her response to these concerns is articulated in the exhibition’s final chapter, Futurecorp©. This section explores contemporary anxieties surrounding corporate power, emphasizing the pervasive influence of mega-corporations. Citing contents from 1980s and 1990s science fiction cinema, the works in this section adopt the retro-futurism aesthetics and mimic the typography of 8-bit or 16-bit video games. However, they are meticulously crafted by the artist through intricate hand-stitching.

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Kim Kennedy Austin, “Are You A 100 Percenter,” 2024, coloured pencil, acrylic, and gesso on canvas, 30" x 24" (photo by Blaine Campbell)

Booster Club reminds me of some of Barbara Kruger’s well-known works, such as I Shop Therefore I Am (1987), although the two artists employ markedly different visual strategies. The works in Booster Club is Austin’s research into the realities of production and expansion — two fundamental pillars of capitalism. Austin’s labour-intensive art-making approach is in stark contrast to the mass production and automation that characterize consumer culture, reinforcing the exhibition’s critical stance on commercialism.

In light of today’s globally unstable political climate and the pervasive influence of corporate power — shaping everything from daily life to the broader trajectory of humanity — Booster Club feels especially timely and relevant. ■

Kim Kennedy Austin: Booster Club is on view now through April 20, 2025 at the Burnaby Art Gallery. A public conversation about the exhibition will take place Sunday, April 13 from 2 to 3 pm. Find out more including how to register here. 

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