Sandra McRae
Pulse of Abstraction
June 12 - July 3, 2012
Reception:
Thursday June 14, 2012 6-8 PM
Press Release
Sandra McRae’s multi-layered, highly reflective acrylic-and-paper collages explore the artist’s passion for pattern, rhythm, and the visual flexibility of depth. Through the deliberate, delicate fragmentation of shapes and a carefully chosen palette, often of contrasting hues, McRae probes the deep-rooted ways in which shape and texture evoke emotional responses and conjure sense memories in her viewers. Her specialty is creating the paradox of an organic-looking grid: her imperfect rectangles and triangles clearly bear the trace of a human hand, yet are never explicitly anything more than geometric constructions.
This tension comes from the artist’s own inspiration, which ranges from silhouettes of winter tree branches to city skylines. Born in Australia and now living in the United States, McRae has also spent ample time aboard planes studying topography from an aerial perspective. The resulting imagery provides a feast for the brain while declining to give any conclusions. As McRae explains, “By looking ‘into’ the shapes and marks on the canvas, the viewer is free to imagine any possibility.”
Artist Statement
Building on formal training in drawing, painting and design, my art has evolved to use contrasting colors, abstract shapes and textures to evoke visceral responses in viewers. Inspiration comes from several sources – an interest in aerial land patterns, watching trees dance in the wind almost as if they are anthropomorphic, and, since moving to New York, seeing building shapes interlock, and change according to the day or night lights. My use of figurative and abstract forms, together with multiple layers of paint and a sophisticated use of color and classical glazing, makes the images come alive. By looking at the canvas and into the forms the viewer becomes engaged in the artistic experience, since the images vary depending on lighting and perspective. Combining traditional techniques of visual balance with non-figurative forms engages the viewer's own perceptions of the image and, to me, that is what the artistic experience is all about.
Invitation to the exhibition
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Artists in this exhibition
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