I had a friend named Bob Hendricks in the mid-eighties. Bob, who was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known, was an emerging artist, and had he lived, I’m certain he would have gone far. He was known for making gorgeous, outrageous puppets of famous people, but shortly after his first NYC gallery show in 1986, he died from AIDS-related pneumonia. The world lost a lot of bright lights that way. Since I can’t find a single reference to Bob on the internet, and I don’t have any photos, I thought he was gone forever. But then I happened across an amazing transgender artist named Greer Lankton, whose sculptures remind me very much of the lovely Bob’s work. Though the mood of their art differs by quite a bit (Bob’s work was whimsical and funny, while Lankton’s work is darker and more cynical), their styles and talent for capturing characters are both very similar.

A native Michigander, Lankton moved to NYC to study art at Pratt, and became a big part of the East Village art scene in the 1970s and ’80s. While still a student, she underwent affirmation surgery in 1979 at the age of 21. I didn’t even know that was possible back then. How brave she must have been!

Lankton’s art dolls, which range in size from miniature to life-sized, explore ideas of gender, sexuality, and beauty. Like my friend’s art, Lankton’s works featured celebrities, drag queens, circus acrobats, and other “freaks.” Her talent for combining the glamorous with the grotesque make her dolls true works of caricature art.

“Beautifully sewn, with extravagant clothes, make-up and hairstyles, they were at once glamorous and grotesque and exuded intense, Expressionistic personalities that reminded some observers of Egon Schiele. They presaged many of the concerns of ’90s art, including the emphasis on the body, sexuality, fashion and, in their resemblance to puppets, performance.” – Roberta Smith, The New York Times

Though she died in 1996, you can still learn more about Greer Lankton on Artnet.