Kate MacKinnon: Maximum Value
Rosenberg Gallery
Kate MacKinnon: Maximum Value
Nebula 3 2016 oil on canvas over panel 12” x 12”
Maximum Value Maximum value in a cycle is the extreme periphery of transition and change. It is the cataclysmic moment just before normalcy returns. As with most work, this series eventually seems autobiographical. MacKinnon believes the external phenomena start to align with the internal rhythm of her own experience. This three-year project was inspired by solar flares, black holes, and the melting polar caps—very different, yet similarly cataclysmic, events. After studying online satellite images of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and reading about any resulting geomagnetic storms that could bring about the appearance of the auroras, MacKinnon began this project with the six CME studies. These studies then evolved into a grid of 100 1-foot-square paintings that, through color transition, depict the journey of a CME from the sun to the earth. The grid begins with the fiery imagery of a solar flare and ends in the coolness of the auroras. Contrasting the raw, fiery power of the sun with the cool, calm beauty of the auroras is important to the color story she is creating. A related but separate body of work shares the color palette and imagery of the grid, while exploring the trope of the four seasons. The project concludes with ten studies that explore black hole and ice floe imagery.
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TOP L TO R
CME 1 2013 oil on canvas over panel 18” x 18” CME 2 2013 oil on canvas over panel 18” x 18” CME 3 2013 oil on canvas over panel 18” x 18” BOTTOM L TO R
CME 4 2013 oil on canvas over panel 18” x 18” CME 5 2013 oil on canvas over panel 18” x 18” CME 6 2013 oil on canvas over panel 18” x 18”
Seasons 5: Spring 2015 oil on canvas over panel 42” x 42” courtesy of Kristin Atkins
Seasons 5: Fall 2015 oil on canvas over panel 42” x 42” courtesy of Derek LeMont Price
Black Hole 1 2016 oil on canvas over panel 24” x 24”
Black Hole 5 2016 oil on canvas over panel 24” x 24”
Ice Floe 1 2016 oil on canvas over panel 24” x 24”
Ice Floe 4 2016 oil on canvas over panel 24” x 24”
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Amidst the constant stimuli of our times, I seek a moment of quiet in my work. A deep breath that I share with my audience. I build my paintings out of layers of transparent glaze. This meditative process creates luminous color and a richness of surface that references industrial finishes. Working horizontally, I apply layers of glaze to achieve the density of color and surface that I desire, allowing each layer to dry between coats. I use a turkey baster to apply additional color and pattern, working with multiple colors, wet into wet on the final coat. The glaze is a very liquid mixture of oil paint and a high-gloss painting medium. The shiny surface deepens with the color as each layer is applied. The wrinkles that appear in the work result from the amount of paint used on the final coat and shrinkage during the curing period. The bulges of paint occur when the work is turned vertical and gravity interacts with the still viscous under-layers. In Seasons 5: Winter and Summer, gravity won, a result I was not seeking but still embrace as part of the process. These experiments with paint application have become the focus of my practice.
— Kate MacKinnon
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Works in progress: studio 2016
Maximum Value (detail) 2014-2016 oil on canvas over panel 75 of 100 (12” x 12” each) 68” x 268.5”(installed)
Maximum Value 2014-2016 oil on canvas over panel 75 of 100 (12” x 12” each) 68” x 268.5”(installed)
Seasons 5: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall 2015 oil on canvas over panel 42” x 42” each
Kate MacKinnon Born in 1958 in Worcester, MA, Kate MacKinnon received her bachelor of fine arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1992 and her master of fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003. During her graduate studies, she began to experiment with materials and paint application. These explorations led to an innovative and unique process that she continues to develop today. Working mainly in oil on canvas, her most recent paintings are high gloss abstractions that explore formal issues of color and surface. Her work was featured in New American Paintings issue No. 63. Kate’s paintings have been widely exhibited in the mid-Atlantic region and across the United States, and are in the collections of Maryland General Hospital, The Cordish Family Collection, The Bozzuto Group, and the Hilton Hotels Corporation, as well as numerous private collections. Currently an artist-in-residence at the Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD, Kate is represented by Jordan Faye Contemporary, Baltimore, MD.
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Kate MacKinnon: Maximum Value June 14 – August 14, 2016 Artist’s reception • Thursday, July 21, 6-9 p.m. This is a satellite exhibition in conjunction with the Artscape Gallery Network, presented by M&T Bank.
Rosenberg Gallery DIRECTIONS
Baltimore Beltway, I-695, to exit 27A. Make first left onto campus.
GALLERY HOURS
410.337.6477 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays By appointment: 443.286.1749
All artwork courtesy of JORDAN FAYE CONTEMPORARY and the artist. The Rosenberg Gallery is free and open to the public.
www.goucher.edu/rosenberg 20
16533-4813 06/16
The Rosenberg Gallery program is funded with the assistance of grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of Maryland and the NEA, and the Baltimore County Commission on the Arts and Sciences.