Claremont, Calif. (July 31, 2013)—Pitzer College Associate Professor of Art Jessica McCoy’s latest show, Reconstructed, opens Thursday August 1 at the Square i Gallery in Claremont. McCoy is the gallery’s featured artist for the month of August.
McCoy’s oil paintings often evolve from photographs she takes of a space, whether of a single room or an entire neighborhood. She then paints portions of those pictures, which she describes as similar to film stills, creating a collage of images that allows a viewer to see both the detail of a place and a whole world within the same frame. The paintings on display at Square i Gallery are intimate snapshots of ordinary life made extraordinary by their re-composition and color.
“The fragments of the paintings are composed in the way that I would choose to look around the room,” McCoy said. “The fragments also serve as an obstacle for the viewer, not only limiting the visibility, but the coherent progression of time. It is not a single moment, but a compilation of moments.”
Earlier this year, McCoy created a poster celebrating Claremont for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Through the Eyes of Artists series, which highlights destinations accessible by Metro trains and buses and illustrates the uniqueness of Los Angeles County neighborhoods. Last year, 16 of McCoy’s murals were put on permanent public display at the Expo/Vermont Station of the Metro Expo Line.
McCoy’s paintings have been exhibited at venues across the country, such as the Ontario Museum of Art, Columbus College of Art and Design and the Porter Butts Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant and a University of Wisconsin-Madison Vilas Fellowship.
The opening reception for Reconstructed will be held on Friday, August 2, from 6-8 p.m. at the Square i Gallery.
