NYAB Event - Shona MacDonald Exhibition

Shona MacDonald Exhibition

CYNTHIA-REEVES

This event has ended.

Shona MacDonald, a Boston-based artist originally from Scotland.
MacDonald’s recent work uses a form of collage to expand on the semiotic similarities between maps and fractals and to address issues of place, location, memory and land. By employing finely cut up envelopes, almost sliver-like, MacDonald attempts to find ways to decode the signs and myths inherent to maps and re-invest their utilitarian function with personal narrative. She is interested in the tension between place that is longed for and place that is actualized. This tension is investigated through imagery that is fragmented then seamed back together.
MacDonald uses plain canvas as her backdrop; there is no paint in these collaged works. The fluid lines and marvelously detailed patterning is all accomplished through the careful application of recycled, shredded envelopes.
This current series continues an investigation she began several years ago, and which follows a series of paintings and drawings that refer exclusively to land mass, islands, and the mapping of shorelines and topographies. One can see how this inquiry into the land-lines lends another level of sinuous fluidity to the current ‘envelope’ paintings. MacDonald refers as well to the work of Beth Galston, who is showing concurrent with MacDonald at Reeves Contemporary; and in sympathy with Galston’s untethered ‘flower’ installation, MacDonald has created tendril-like collages mimicking the life and color evident in Galston’s conceptual work.