Heather McGill
New Mixed Media Paintings and Collages at David Richard Gallery
By David Eichholtz
David Richard Gallery is pleased to debut a new body of mixed media artworks in which everyday, readymade materials such as lace, textiles, beads, Japanese printed papers and thread are transformed into intricate patterns and stunning compositions. This metamorphosis from common to uncommon occurs through McGill’s highly skilled process of laser cutting painted supports, airbrushing detailed patterns, stitching and beading these materials together then layering and sewing them into dense collages that reference Pop culture, psychedelia, the Pattern and Decoration movement as well as primitive cultures and modernism.
A hallmark of McGill’s work is her unique ability to bring together disparate and often polar opposite concepts and aesthetics into one seamless work of art, such as the combination of craft and fine art, machine-made and hand-made, feminine and masculine, as well as the natural and high-tech worlds.
Please take a look at these original, unique and stunning constructions and some detailed images. A brief artist bio is also attached. Please visit the exhibition page at the following link:
Heather McGill Faithless Love, 2018 Paper, pigment, beads 34.5" x 31.5” (artwork size)
Framed
Detail:
Heather McGill
Untitled (Circles), 2017
Paper, pigment, beads
30" x 20” (artwork size)
Framed
Detail:
Heather McGill Untitled, 2017
Paper, plywood, pigment, beads 28.75 x 38.5 “ (artwork size)
Framed
Detail:
Heather McGill Untitled, 2018 Paper, plywood, pigment, beads 54.25" x 21.75” (artwork size)
Framed
Detail:
There is an equally stunning companion piece to this one where the vertical structure is in white. They are sold separately, but make a terrific pair.
Heather McGill Untitled, 2018 Paper, plywood, pigment, beads 54.25 x 21.75 "
Framed
Detail:
All Artworks: Copyright © Heather McGill
About Heather McGill: Heather McGill received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, but some of her greatest influences were from her earlier studies at UC Davis where she studied with Robert Arneson, Manuel Neri, Roy De Forest and Wayne Thiebaud. A little further south in California, the Finish Fetish group in Los Angeles also had a significant impact on her work— especially the Dento series by Billy Al Bengston—particularly regarding her sculptures and work with acrylic plastic. McGill was trained in sculpture, so her hands-on approach with various materials and mechanical processes comes naturally to her. The artist's works, whether three-dimensional sculptures or two-dimensional wall pieces, are concerned with the formal properties of “pattern, color and space”. McGill’s 26-year teaching career at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit where the automation and mass production of automobiles, development of novel plastics, resins and other materials along with the spectacular autobody paint colors and lacquers has had a long-lasting impact on her work and become a recurring theme influencing her processes and work.
Exhibiting in museums and galleries nationally and internationally since 1984, McGill’s artworks have been reviewed in Artforum, Art In America, ART News, ART PAPERS, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe among numerous other publications. Her artworks are included in the permanent collections of Albright Knox, Buffalo, NY, Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, MI, Miami Art Museum, FL, Hood Art Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, The Kresge Art Museum, The Progressive Art Collection, Daimler Chrysler World Headquarters, Auburn Hills, MI, and Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA among numerous other public and private collections.