Today must be world leaders day. Pol Pot, pictured above, is one of painter Annie Kevans‘s portrait subjects, depicted not as a dictator but in his younger, cuter years. Kevans and her brand of “weirdly unsettling portraiture” play with celebrity perception, rendering genocidal dictators benevolent and starlets menacing in their come-hither expressions. Her work has recently become a hit with collectors — none other than John MacEnroe snatched up three pieces at Art Basel Miami in December. Kevans’s solo show at Chelsea gallery Perry Rubenstein opens February 16; in the meantime, check out her imagined portrayals of Brooke Shields, George Bush, and the Olsens, after the jump.
George W. Bush, left, and the Olsen twins, right.
Brooke Shields, left, andNicolae Ceausescu, right.
Michael Jackson, left, and Monica Lewinsky, right.