Artists Support

Andie Dinkin's hand-painted mural wraps around the dining and bar area of Gigi's LA

The two artists discuss their shared love for bacchanalian dinner parties, Salvador Dali's cookbook and Hieronymus Bosch.

IMOGEN KWOK Andie, did you study painting?

ANDIE DINKIN I actually studied illustration. I needed more structure than the painting department at RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] had. Illustration offered more figure drawing and figure painting.

IMOGEN KWOK I went to culinary school which a lot of people look down on. Many chefs think it's more practical and badass to work in restaurants and earn your skills along the way but I disagreed with that. I wanted to learn the foundations and the rules before I broke them. It was a time in my life when I craved structure because I was feeling out of control, so I adhered really well to the discipline and repetition of learning at culinary school. Afterwards I worked at Eleven Madison Park which runs a very traditional kitchen brigade in the Escoffier style. I enjoyed being part of that system and I enjoyed the formality of it. It sounds like you had a similar approach to your studies.

ANDIE DINKIN Learning illustration gave me direction. The way I draw the human form comes from illustration, but I left everything else that I learned behind because RISD was so strict on having to follow the assignment. I don't plan my paintings at all. I have a collection of images that I collage sporadically or intuitively. Some images come without thinking, others are more purposeful.

IMOGEN KWOK There are a few things I retained from culinary school but my work now is perfectly imperfect. It’s controlled chaos in a way that allows me to be experimental and forgiving, but also spontaneous. I was recently asked to do a store installation for Arc’teryx which is like the Prada of outdoor gear and equipment. I designed these 3D printed resin apples. I was so stressed, I had never done anything like it before but I have to keep finding new ways to expand my vocabulary and knowledge.

Do you make the dishes that appear in your paintings, or are they aspirational meals? Seaweed Stairs, the painting you’ve donated to support Defenders of Wildlife is very bacchanalian with the oysters, wine bottles, the whole fish and the ham leg.

ANDIE DINKIN The feast in the painting is an aspirational meal! I love the bacchanalia of a long drunken meal that turns into the next morning. I love oysters and I would eat pretty much anything that I paint, but I'm not very good at cooking at all. If I went to a party and the Seaweed Stairs feast was set out, I would be very pleased.

IMOGEN KWOK When I first saw your paintings I was definitely reminded of Hieronymus Bosch

ANDIE DINKIN He's one of my favorite artists. Bosch and Florine Stettheimer.

IMOGEN KWOK I’m constantly trying to figure out the story through all the mini narratives in your works. I find something different every time I look.

ANDIE DINKIN I love to play with the mundaneness of everyday life. I do the same thing pretty much every day, but when I paint I can create a world where anything goes and time doesn't really exist. I made Seaweed Stairs after my husband and I went to Italy last year. I became obsessed with the stairs in Venice that are covered in seaweed. I loved the way the seaweed shines, especially at night. Italy holds so much history and the architecture is so well preserved I felt like I was in another time. That’s also why I added the seashell phone booth with the ghost – I like to play with humor.

We also went to this amazing Botero exhibition in Rome, so I included one of his figures and put a mask on her.

IMOGEN KWOK Do you consider your paintings Surrealist?

ANDIE DINKIN I love the Surrealists. Recently I've been studying Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. I strive to be like them.

IMOGEN KWOK Do your characters ever represent any part of you? Are there recurring people or symbols?

Detail of Andie Dinkin's Seaweed Stairs

"The fish drinking the white wine is sort of a self-portrait," Dinkin told Imogen Kwok. The two-headed figure was inspired by Dinkin's research into the English poet and artist, William Blake.

ANDIE DINKIN I use this one mermaid character that comes from Paul Delvaux, and the nude Botero figure is also a recurring character. I was looking a lot at William Blake when I painted Seaweed Stairs, especially for the two figures at the bottom, which become one person that’s part man, part woman. The fish drinking the white wine is sort of a self-portrait.

IMOGEN KWOK I think I would be one of the oysters or maybe a little scallop.

ANDIE DINKIN I could paint you in a scallop.

Recently I’ve been just painting just for myself. My dad passed away a couple of years ago so I've been trying to figure out how to bring my grief into my paintings and make them a little bit more personal and put myself in them. Not just as a drinking fish!

IMOGEN KWOK That sounds like a really trying and painful process, but also very revealing. I guess it'll take some time.

ANDIE DINKIN It's grueling, but it's where I feel like I need to go next. I've been seeing a therapist who also does art therapy. She puts a newsprint pad in front of me and asks me to paint how I’m feeling. The process allows me to access a place that's so painful, a place that I haven't been able to get to before.

IMOGEN KWOK Something that I find therapeutic is brainless prep work. I can stand and peel carrots for a million years, it really calms me down. I wonder if that's similar to what you’re describing.

ANDIE DINKIN Painting food actually really relaxes me, it’s almost like knitting. Especially when it’s beautiful like the food you make. I look at the Salvador Dali Les Diners de Gala cookbook a lot. Have you ever seen it?

Andie Dinkin, Hunt Breakfast (Ode to Leonora), 2024

This painting was included James Cohan's 2024 show, The Superfluity of Things, a group exhibition that celebrates the enduring vitality of the still life tradition for contemporary artists

IMOGEN KWOK Oh, yes. I love the food imagery in there a lot! People are referencing cookbooks so much more recently, not just for recipes, but for the aesthetics and the presentation and composition of food. It's exciting that people are excited about that.

ANDIE DINKIN I love those cakes in Italy, Saint Agatha’s breasts.

IMOGEN KWOK Oh yeah, the Costanza. Are they Costanza? Casatina? Casina?

ANDIE DINKIN I can't remember what they were called, but they also have something like Cupid's belly button pasta. I just love how they use imagination and history in Italy. I follow this Instagram account called Ecstasy Cookbook which is full of debaucherous fantastical dinner scenes. I want to make my paintings a little more whimsical, with partially eaten food and drinks spilling.

IMOGEN KWOK Have you seen the new Martha Stewart documentary? It's fantastic. She's such a fierce, sociopathic crazy talented woman. I feel like you'd really enjoy her old cookbooks because they have this monumentality in the way food is presented.

Things are tumbling all over the place and there are mountains of strawberries.

ANDIE DINKIN That overconsumption makes me think of our current Trump-era. There’s such a lack of care. That’s why I chose to donate the painting to Defenders of Wildlife, which is a North American wildlife conservation charity that actively helps change laws. Trump doesn't care about what's going to happen to the environment or to animals. The beauty of the natural world is so important to me.

IMOGEN KWOK I feel like we're just wasting away the environment and the world. We all love looking at photos of baby wolves or cute otters but we’re not doing enough to help protect them.