It's all about ME, Not You

Open a tall gate and pass through a narrow alley beside a "white trash" house. It is clad in white siding with old windows and an astroturf patio littered with fall leaves. Ruby slippers, at the end of legs in striped stockings, emerge from under the house. Inside, Greer Lankton recreated the Chicago apartment where she lived and worked.

The walls are painted in deep colors. Stars cover the ceiling. The room is inhabited by the dolls and figures Lankton made during the course of her life – Raggedy Anns, one of whom is anorexic, a morphine addict on a cot surrounded by pill bottles. Throughout the room are very personal shrines Lankton has created, to Patti Smith, Candy Darling, to Jesus, and others are for the artist herself.

Several of Lankton's figures were included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and the 1995 Venice Biennale, but she never before had the opportunity to create a large-scale installation. Much of her work is clearly autobiographical, revealing her obsession with her own body. Born male, she became female at the age of 21.

Her work has been described by critic Holland Cotter as "art of a superbly disciplined and unusually distressing beauty." Greer Lankton's It's all about ME, Not You was first shown in 1996. Unfortunately, Greer passed away after the exhibit opening and when the show closed, we put the piece in storage. Now, thanks to the generosity of the Lankton family, it has been donated to the Mattress Factory for permanent display.