Khail Aitken is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist living and creating art from within the current pop culture.

Predominantly working as a tattoo artist creating living walking artworks by drawing on the membrane of his subject with a tattoo machine that pushes a needle into the skin permanently marking the surface with indelible ink.

The exhibition includes a series of paintings titled ‘in our own image’ this doppelgänger iconic image created by Khail is constantly being regenerated, and breathes in the current world culture. Khail challenges the viewer to interrupt and question what they see, then reinterpret their false interruption, knowing it’s not what you see it’s how you interrupt what you see which is constantly changing. This series of works pay homage to the multiples of pop culture icon Andy Warhol, asking the question are these just copies or unique states, is everything unique or not?

His art practice has been heavily influenced by the contemporary cultural heroes of graffiti street artists Banksy, Zephyr, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the message and culture of rap, Hip-Hop, spoken word, championed by 2Pac, Biggie, Mac Miller and list goes on.

Khail is constantly evolving his unique style responding to the ever changing environment around him to make art, his art is like an avatar, a graphical representation of the creator’s alter ego or character. The created imaginings are sampled from popular culture with the juxtaposition of super heroes & villains, logos, mantras and cartoons along with influences from his fellow Australian tattooists who were constantly pushing the boundaries, like Beny Pearce, Matthew Bumer Joyce and Benjamin Laukis.

Khail said this about how he became an artist ‘I grew up around a household of artists so it was a natural progression for me from an early age I was into art especially drawing.  My earliest memories were of attending art exhibitions and painting in my dad’s studio– I started my tattoo apprenticeship at 17 when I finished school- not quite the job my mum intended for me but what kind of son would I be if I made her life easy.’

Recommended Age & Warnings
Some imagery may be confronting