Upcoming
circles become spheres
Michael Jones McKeanMay 19, 2012 – July 14, 2012
Opening: May 18, 2012
Gentili Apri is pleased to present Michael Jones McKean’s circles become spheres - the first solo exhibition in Germany by the American artist.
Two photo backdrop stands holding sheets of muslin in gray, black, muted pearl and chroma-key green. A set of delicately rendered hand-made potted plants. A pair of levitating eyelashes. A shell from the bottom of the Pacific. A meteorite from the most distant reaches of space. A hovering, disembodied beard. An inchoate raw clay sculpture atop a diesel generator. A selection of antique vernacular blankets. A small cut hole in the gallery’s wall revealing sunlight and light breeze…
circles become spheres compresses McKean´s ongoing development of object-oriented philosophies along with the possibility of forging a poetic, mythic and metaphoric language of materials, shapes and structures. Through his eclectic yet specific ordering of objects, styles and techniques McKean builds a densely charged narrative space that rejects linear causality in favor of a more circuitous, elliptical style of meaning-making. His objects and sculptures fluidly cycle from their lives as material – things without us – locked in a separate, parallel continuum of events and deep time - to objects with us – things that visit us momentarily as we search for meanings within.
Speaking about the objects harmonics the artists states: “As we move around, we travel through object-fields. These fields are bounded by their functions as much as by the limitations of our vision: a table after dinner, a bookshelf, a primeval forest floor, an unmade bedroom. In each of these spaces, there’s an invisible valence generated by the objects contained in the field that also claims hold on them and, momentarily, on us. The valent pull is liminal and delicate, but the tonality and distinct character of each field would be demonstrably altered if something was removed or even repositioned slightly—the magnetism recalibrated, the poem rewritten.”
In over 30 solo exhibitions McKean has become known for his operatic and epic sculptural installations and delicate sculptural tableaux. In both, he builds spaces composed of real and represented cultural talismans stretching to encompass a full spectrum of meaning and human sentiment. Through his specific yet eclectic ordering of materials and techniques - spanning ancient meteorites and vintage boom boxes, to papier-mâché and auto body finishes - his work roams in the margins of theater, folklore, science, architecture, mysticism and sculpture making itself. For McKean the gaps between these coordinates become poetically charged spaces, harnessing an unseen valence momentarily bonding disparate objects in crystalline unison. The results of this process form a psychic bridge allowing entrance to a world flickering between complexity, representation, meaning and materiality.
Born in 1976 on Truk Island, Micronesia, Michael Jones McKean has exhibited widely to acclaim both nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Nancy Graves Foundation Award and an Artadia Award. McKean has been in fellowships at The Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York City, The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.