Statement
Through painting and sculpture I want to engage the viewer in a reflective visual dialogue that explores what it means to be human, fragile, and simultaneously a part of and disconnected from one’s surrounding environment. I have been painting with encaustic since 2009, the appeal of wax is the living quality of the material. Wax is mutable, subject to climate and pressure, with a sense of timelessness.
I find the intersection of daily life and the ever-growing technological interfaces that track analyze and redefine the human condition fascinating and terrifying. To deepen our understanding of humanity to a level that is so inanely granular and divorced from context are we in fact diminishing human experience?
The collection of work that came out of this line of inquiry reflects a sense of abstract but habitual pressure of self-analysis coupled with unfettered surveillance by private and governmental organizations. When I became a mother in 2020 this came into sharp focus with the available technology and investment in creating a sense of hyperawareness of the experience of pregnancy, childbirth and the care and wellbeing of infants. What comes from this is a series of paintings that vacillate between abstract and surreal figures that anthropomorphize this feeling of watching and being watched. While the figures can be described as monstrous, they gaze at the viewer with seductive piercing eyes in a hypnotic connection that is disarming and entrancing. A sense of internal dissonance is something I have struggled with since adolescence peaking in my early twenties. As an individual who lives in recovery from severe eating disorders, body dysmorphia and OCD, seeing the progression of technology evolve in a direction that unchecked deepens and amplifies this type of mental conditioning is terrifying.
Bio
Kelly McGrath has been a practicing artist since 2007 and Art educator since 2009. She utilizes wax, paper, plaster, wood, clay and found materials in her process driven work. She explores themes that are influenced by biologic process like growth and decay, mutation and evolution. She has been invited to present and teach at R&F Handmade Paints, Women's Studio Workshop, Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Peter’s Valley and Snow Farm. She earned her BFA in Sculpture from SUNY New Paltz in 2007 and her Master’s in Art Education from Hunter College in 2019. She is currently employed at SUNY New Paltz as the Instructional Support Technician for the Sculpture Department.
Exhibitions
Solo
2021 Taking Shape: Transfigurations in Wax | Binney Gallery at Wilbraham & Monson Academy | Wilbraham, MA
Invitational
2020 Hot/Cold Expressions in Wax | Mid-Hudson Gallery | Poughkeepsie, NY
2019 (in)Forming Works | On Center Gallery| Provincetown, MA
2019 Unorthodox Rites | The Church | Troy, NY Juried
2021 Metamorphosis | Tubac Center of Art | Tubac, AZ
2021 Waxing Now Waning Pandemic: A Juried Encaustic Show | Truro Center for the Arts Castle Hill |Truro, MA
2018 Small Works Applicant Online Exhibition | Trestle Gallery | Brooklyn, NY
2017 Strange Figurations | Limner Gallery | Hudson, NY
2013 BAU 100 | Beacon Artist Union | Beacon, NY
2009 Kingston Sculpture Biennial | Art Society of Kingston | Kingston, NY
Group
2021 Keep it Local | Womens.Work.Art |Poughkeepsie, NY
2019 Members Exhibit NYSATA Region 7 | Unison Art Center | New Paltz, NY
2019 NAEA National Exhibition | NAEA National Gallery | Alexandria, VA
2018 Members Exhibit NYSATA Region 7 | Katonah Art Center | Katonah, NY
2008-2017 Staff Show | The Gallery at R&F Handmade Paints| Kingston, NY
Honors, Awards, Accolades
2021 Fellowship | SUNY New Paltz Sustainability Fellowship | New Paltz, NY
2021 Artist In Residence | Habitat For Artists | Kingston, NY
2020 Guest Speaker | Kingston Arts and Action Meetup | Kingston, NY
2021 -2018 Presenter | International Encaustic Conference | Provincetown, MA
2014 Contributor Credit | Encaustic Works: Nuance | Kingston, NY
Credentials
Master of Arts- City University of New York Hunter College 2019
Major: Art Education
NYS Certified Art Educator
Bachelors Fine Arts- State University of New York at New Paltz 2007
Major: Fine Arts- Sculpture; Minor: Biology
Continued Education
Certified Welder (AWS- Structural Level I SMAW, TIG, GMAW) Ulster BOCES, Port Ewen, NY 2016
Digital Design and Fabrication Certification SUNY at New Paltz New Paltz, NY 2015
Teaching Encaustic Training Course R&F Handmade Paints Kingston, NY 2008