Green & Pleasant Land
Friday, February 22, 2008
Green and Pleasant Land
New works by Conor McGrady
Exhibition runs February 23 to April 5, 2008 Opening reception, Saturday, Feb 23 7-9pm (Artist talk at 6:30pm)
New works by Conor McGrady
Exhibition runs February 23 to April 5, 2008 Opening reception, Saturday, Feb 23 7-9pm (Artist talk at 6:30pm)
Saltworks is pleased to present Green and Pleasant Land, a solo exhibition of new works by Conor McGrady. Executed primarily in black and white, McGrady’s paintings take on an ominous tone with their depictions of uniformed officers enforcing the rule of law or menacingly still landscapes and city streets. Beautiful in their elegant use of line, the works have a stark quality as the contrast between purity and darkness pervades the work.
Born and raised in Castlewellan, Northern Ireland, McGrady has experienced first-hand the sense of civil unrest and social tension evidenced in his work. His works are an examination of the role of authority in contemporary society and how power manifests itself in individuals, nation states and through their public and social policies. In his most recent works, McGrady incorporates images of animals that embody the most predatorial aspects of human nature, such as vultures, symbolizing ritual and death; and packs of wolves embodying group mentality and implicit violence.
The title of the exhibition, derived from the poet William Blake’s Jerusalem, expresses the irony of the lengths to which societies will go in order to preserve the integrity of their idealized community. While the poem was written as an indictment of the power structure of Blake’s time, it has since been co-opted by conservative elements in Britain to create a sense of national mythology. In such cases, the abuses of power imposed by nation states are buried beneath the romanticized façade that characterizes the creation of societies built on utopian ideals.
Conor McGrady received his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. In 2000 and 2002 McGrady was awarded a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago. In 2002 he was selected to participate in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 2003 he completed a five-month residency in the Woolworth Building, New York, through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Studio Program. His work was recently included in the Spectral Evidence exhibition at Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn in 2007. McGrady currently lives and works in New York.
Born and raised in Castlewellan, Northern Ireland, McGrady has experienced first-hand the sense of civil unrest and social tension evidenced in his work. His works are an examination of the role of authority in contemporary society and how power manifests itself in individuals, nation states and through their public and social policies. In his most recent works, McGrady incorporates images of animals that embody the most predatorial aspects of human nature, such as vultures, symbolizing ritual and death; and packs of wolves embodying group mentality and implicit violence.
The title of the exhibition, derived from the poet William Blake’s Jerusalem, expresses the irony of the lengths to which societies will go in order to preserve the integrity of their idealized community. While the poem was written as an indictment of the power structure of Blake’s time, it has since been co-opted by conservative elements in Britain to create a sense of national mythology. In such cases, the abuses of power imposed by nation states are buried beneath the romanticized façade that characterizes the creation of societies built on utopian ideals.
Conor McGrady received his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. In 2000 and 2002 McGrady was awarded a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago. In 2002 he was selected to participate in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 2003 he completed a five-month residency in the Woolworth Building, New York, through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Studio Program. His work was recently included in the Spectral Evidence exhibition at Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn in 2007. McGrady currently lives and works in New York.