Keegan McHargue
Increasingly politically and socially charged, painter Keegan McHargue’s tragi-comedies play out in a flattened, seemingly melting, storybook illustrations. Chaotic scenes–drone strikes, nuclear disasters, ocean rifts, and the end of times–are lightheartedly presented in pastel and brightly colored amoeba shapes rhythmically interwoven. McHargue composes his painted collages by rearranging preparatory studies on paper, often transposing, photocopying, tracing and erasing. Once satisfied, he translates the arrangement to canvas in a single thin layer of cleanly applied paint. In this way the artist compresses his worlds into a network of activity that acts on the same plane simultaneously. In
Abyssal Zone
(2014), for instance, sun, ocean, bird, starfish, and mermaid exist in individually colored membranes but without hierarchy–all pushed to the forefront and of similar size, slipping into an abyss together yet alone. Darkly humourous, the artist challenges our visual comfort zones by portraying an out of control world executed in clean and simplified terms as if seen through the eyes of a child.
He has had solo shows at Rivington Arms in NYC, Metro Pictures in NYC, Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery in Tokyo and many others. Additionally, he has been featured in …
Increasingly politically and socially charged, painter Keegan McHargue’s tragi-comedies play out in a flattened, seemingly melting, storybook illustrations. Chaotic scenes–drone strikes, nuclear disasters, ocean rifts, and the end of times–are lightheartedly presented in pastel and brightly colored amoeba shapes rhythmically interwoven. McHargue composes his painted collages by rearranging preparatory studies on paper, often transposing, photocopying, tracing and erasing. Once satisfied, he translates the arrangement to canvas in a single thin layer of cleanly applied paint. In this way the artist compresses his worlds into a network of activity that acts on the same plane simultaneously. In
Abyssal Zone
(2014), for instance, sun, ocean, bird, starfish, and mermaid exist in individually colored membranes but without hierarchy–all pushed to the forefront and of similar size, slipping into an abyss together yet alone. Darkly humourous, the artist challenges our visual comfort zones by portraying an out of control world executed in clean and simplified terms as if seen through the eyes of a child.
He has had solo shows at Rivington Arms in NYC, Metro Pictures in NYC, Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery in Tokyo and many others. Additionally, he has been featured in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Deitch Projects in NYC, The Hole in NYC, Yvon Lambert in Paris, and the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow.
Deste Foundation of the Contemporary Arts, Athens, Greece
Sammlung Lenikus, Vienna, Austria
Judith Rothschild Foundation | Drawing Collection, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Muesum of Modern Art, San Francsico, CA
Soho House Group, London
Massif Central
Fredericks and Freiser Gallery, NY
Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo
