Masks and Reveals by Ken McMahon

November 6-25
Masks and Reveals by Ken McMahon in the Lower Gallery
Opening reception: Friday, November 6, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM & Saturday, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
The Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902

Masks and Reveals by Ken McMahon in the Lower Gallery

When working on developing a new vocabulary of forms for my paintings I will often use photographs that I have taken of various objects or events that seemed unusual or surprising at the time. I came across some photos that I had taken in 2020 of cloth masks that were washed and hung up to dry outside. I have been working toward creating some forms that were less geometric, and more irregular and amorphous than my previous work, and these seemed to contain many of these qualities. I enjoy the quasi-figurative aspect of the forms, and the idea of masks in general seem to carry a variety of uses, nuance and history in our culture. Friends donated additional masks which I used to make more photographs, and from these I developed the abstract paintings in the exhibition.

For the past fifty years my studio work has primarily focused on exploring the construction of abstract narratives; creating a dialogue, interaction and improvisation using non-representational elements, in a variety of spatial constructs. The tension and movement between figure and ground are emotionally engaging for me. Much of the formal vocabulary in the paintings is developed from observation and abstraction of objects and their environments.

Ken McMahon was born in Knoxville, TN, 1955. Studied at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. I then studied at the State University of New York in Buffalo, receiving a Master of Fine Arts Degree. Following graduation, I taught for a brief time at SUNY in Buffalo, and then moved to New York City, working as an artist, for the next fifteen years. I then relocated to Knoxville, and in the past few years I have established a studio and have been able to devote myself full time to making work. McMahon has had four solo exhibitions of work and participated in various group and juried exhibitions. My work is in multiple corporate and private collections.

Artist Website: kenmcmahonstudio.com