Kim Dingle
Kim Dingle (born 1951) is a Los Angeles based contemporary artist working in paint, sculpture and installation.
Dingle grew up in Pomona, California. In 1988 she earned a BFA from Cal State Los Angeles and in 1990, an MFA from Claremont Graduate School.
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[edit] Overview
Kim Dingle's work characteristically depicts stout young girls dressed in patent-leather maryjanes and frilly party dresses that are involved in stereotypically masculine acts full of aggression and violence. David Winton Bell Gallery states, "her art illuminates the role that race, gender, stereotype and myth play in defining identity."[1] Ana Honigman states, “Dingle’s girls strength does not lie in the ability to get grown-ups or men to protect them, but in their ability to be strong for themselves.[2]
[edit] Series of Works
Her first solo exhibition, “Portraits from the Dingle Library” combined images of her mother, Cram, with portraits of iconic figures like George Washington, Queen Elizabeth[disambiguation needed 
] and George Foreman. Her inspiration for these works began with her mother’s belief that she is related to both George Washington and Queen Elizabeth[disambiguation needed ].[1]
Shortly after the Cram portrait series, Kim Dingle began a critique of girlhood innocence with the character, Priss. Dingle’s niece Wadow, who exhibited very violent behavior as a result of prenatal brain damage, was a major source of inspiration for the Priss character.[1]
Dingle often inserts Priss and her cohorts, the Wild Girls, into celebrated historic scenes. These images reclaim famous American myths like George Washington and the cherry tree for her fleshy heroines and question the semiotics of patriotism. For example, in Untitled (Girls with the dresspole), 1998 Dingle’s leading ladies raise a dresspole in a pose reminiscent of the famous photograph of soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima.
The Priss works led to another series of work for Dingle, this time employing the characters Fatty and Fudge. Fatty, a white girl and Fudge, a black girl, partner up to enact their diabolic whims. Their exploits and frustrations often turn on themselves, and Fatty and Fudge inevitable resort to attacking each other. In the “Never in School” series, Dingle introduced anonymous school mates, whom Fatty and Fudge blissfully dominate in the absence of adults or boys.
Dingle's work has also been a topic of concern due to her inclusion of the "Black female" body and its increasing role of "entertainment" in her work rather than challenging or proposing the "Race" question that her earlier work attempted.
[edit] Honors and Accolades
Kim Dingle was a participant in the 2000 Whitney Biennial.
Dingle's works are included in the collections of MOCA LA,[3] the LA County Museum of Art, MOCA San Diego, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, the Norton Family Foundation among others. Kim Dingle’s work has been reviewed in Art in America, Arts Magazine, Art Issues, Artscene, Frieze and Artforum.
