David McKeran
dal 7/1/2002 al 2/2/2002
Segnalato da
7/1/2002
David McKeran
Clapham Art Gallery, London
David McKeran is most known for his immaculate renditions in acrylic on canvas of television testcards. He has received a recent burst of publicity in The Sunday Telegraph, Metro and the Daily Star amongst other publications for these works, of which he has been painting now for many years.
Comments & Complaints
David McKeran is most known for his immaculate renditions in acrylic on
canvas of television testcards. He has received a recent burst of
publicity in The Sunday Telegraph, Metro and the Daily Star amongst
other publications for these works, of which he has been painting now
for many years.
McKeran is very much a conceptual painter. His highly finished works are
underpinned by a deadpan sense of observation and are informed by a
strong inclination toward the ‘generic type’. This link runs through
from the testcard paintings to life-size paintings of mass-produced
sofas and armchairs in the style of Jackson Pollock (thus combining two
‘generic types’) and into the works of this show : ‘Comments &
Complaints’ and ‘Space Invaders’.
The ‘Space Invader’ paintings are an obvious appropriation of the
original Atari icons. They refer to a familiar time when the home
computer industry first began to realise its omnipotent place in the
heart of almost every home in the developed world. McKeran presents us
with a subtle re-working of a virtual outer-worldly being that many are
still strangely fond of, probably through a sense of nostalgia for
whiling away the hours sat in front of a repetitive screen playing with
a little black plastic joystick. Or perhaps it is something closer to
being part of the social generation that Douglas Coupland would label
‘X’.
The ‘Comments & Complaints’ paintings represent a more personalised
method of appropriating and editing everyday sayings, statements and
lyrics. From ‘War is Stupid’ to ‘Killed by Death’ to ‘Put Up
and Shut Up’ to ‘We Was Robbed’, McKeran chooses blatant, ironic
and deadpan combinations. These works are highly designed where the
variations of colours and typefaces recall sign writing and advertising.
They are both poignant and whimsical and refer directly to the
artist’s vision of aspects of the society in which he cohabits.
Exhibition Date: Tuesday 08/01/02 - Saturday 02/02/02
Private View - Serving Strawberry Daiquiri:
Tuesday 08/01/02 7.00pm - 9.00pm
Gallery Hours: Tue-Sat 1-9pm Sun 1-5pm
Contact: Zavier Ellis / Aniko Pall - 020 7720 0955
Clapham Art Gallery
61 venn street SW4 0BD, London