Renee McGinnis’ Empirical Eternity presents the ominous and its positive aftermath, the overgrown. Impending disasters, painted with a luscious hand, confound the viewer. What is made in that factory and what event led to this huge billowing cloud of smoke? Why do these power plants look like they are about to burst into flame? And who set the wheels in motion for all of this to happen? These are the questions McGinnis sets in motion with these allegorical paintings. They serve as beautiful warnings to us all, speaking visually about humanity, triumph, and tragedy and how these conditions co-exist.
The Palace Floor series takes this ominous tone and turns it on its head. She shifts to the future long after a cataclysm has occurred. Organic topiaries now surround obsolete man made monoliths. A lush hyper-green landscape, with cracks like mud cracks in a drought, is painted like a seductive mosaic floor. This is the antidote for the disasters, covering these segments of earth in all manner of lush vegetation, growth and hope. Once useful and glorified temples of progress, they now seem to haunt us with their mysteriously manicured grounds.
BIO
McGinnis grew up on a farm in central Illinois and attended Illinois Wesleyan University, earning a BFA in 1984. McGinnis did graduate work in sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited widely in Chicago and has also been shown in Germany, Australia, New York City, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Md. McGinnis was selected by jury for inclusion in "The Artist Project 2007", a show running concurrently with "Art Chicago" Merchandise Mart West, Chicago, IL. Her curatorial debut was "The Chicago Solution Show 2003" with the late Ed Paschke as juror, then again in 2005 with Art Institute of Chicago curator of contemporary collections, James Rondeau.
Exhibition Dates: November 30 to January 5
Artist’s Reception: Friday, November 30th 6 – 9 PM
942 W. LAKE STREET , CHICAGO, IL www.packergallery.com
this event is free and open to the public.