Ted Mcgrath “1000 & 1 Deadly Wipeouts”

Ed. Varie

poster for Ted Mcgrath “1000 & 1 Deadly Wipeouts”
[Image: Heatwaves (2014) Ink, oil, crayon, spray paint on paper, 30 x 22 in.]

This event has ended.

Ted McGrath’s work draws from a lengthy personal iconography and an interpretation of the traditional roles and signifiers in the history painting. McGrath’s works on paper are created spontaneously, in less decisive manner than his larger works on canvas. Compositions are often repeated many times over, with materials, colors, surface, varying from piece to piece. While parts of these works on paper go on to inform larger works on canvas as if referencing a prior conversation, each work is it’s own ‘finished’ piece. His unique language and recycled symbolism form a path of investigation of his subjects and a map of the relationships between those subjects, predominantly in an attempt to come to grips with a terrifying and uncertain present.

Recent works, often prefixed with the phrase ‘Marat Moods’, move David’s complicated, tragic revolutionary forward in time, his head wrap metastasizing into full-blown bandages and cheap sunglasses. Through these damaged, semi-self portraits, McGrath exhorts and rails against the American present-tense in all its menace. Surfers, who’s appearance seems mapped from these earlier groups, struggle to stay upright and cling to their ride for dear life. Earlier abstract works radiate a sort of tropical heat, evoking both urban and natural landscapes lit from within by the same swampy furnace. ‘Fantastic’ shadowy police cars, and stoic, blurry creatures from myth and pop-culture are rendered like icons. They jockey for the camera, real-time markers and monuments to a new, still-nascent Ozymandias.

Ted McGrath b. 1980 near Philadelphia, lives and works in Brooklyn, and makes music as The Flag. McGrath holds a BFA in Communications Design from Pratt. He has been a participant in the Visiting Artist Lecture Series at SUNY New Paltz MFA program, in the 24x36 Artist Residency at the Ace Hotel, New York, NY, as well as an Artist In Residence, Denmark Arts Center, Denmark, ME. Group exhibitions include Black Ball Projects, Calico, Cinders Gallery, Death By Audio in Brooklyn; Civilian Arts Projects in Washington DC; and Future Prospects Gallery in the Philippines. McGrath has had solo shows in Brooklyn and Baltimore, 1000 & 1 Deadly Wipeouts marks his first solo show with Ed. Varie in Manhattan.

The book to be released alongside the exhibition, also titled 1000 & 1 Deadly Wipeouts, and is a survey of McGrath’s drawings from 2013-2018. Printed in NYC in collaboration with Ed. Varie, 8.5 x 11 inches, 48 pages, full color, perfect bound, an edition of 100 will be available for purchase at the opening reception.

Media

Schedule

from May 17, 2018 to May 31, 2018

Closing Reception on 2018-05-27 from 12:00 to 17:00

Artist(s)

Ted Mcgrath

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