Symbolically Depicted, Works on Paper by Anne McGuire
Date: September 22. 2023 thru November 4
Opening: Friday. September 22 from 6 to 8pm
Anne McGuire’s ink and color pencil drawings take on the universe through symmetry and symbolism. These new ecstatic works originate from postcard-sized studies in her ongoing mail art practice. McGuire is directly inspired by the art of Achilles G. Rizzoli (1896-1981) the San Francisco draftsman who (in his spare time) created highly detailed architectural “sketches, portrayals, recapturings, and representations” of people such as his mother, father, neighbors, and friends.
The indelibility of her drawing tools does not allow for easy alteration and the mark making becomes a coded communique for her feelings. The unattainability of perfection or perfect symmetry is seen in the form of ink smears, mistakes, and occasional Rorschach-ness of the work. McGuire captures her subjects as various modes including geometry, persons, feelings, influences, and spirits. Like Rizzoli, the act of depicting a person, taking a portrait, does not depend on getting someone to sit for them but on inherent knowledge plus a bright imagination. McGuire also notes the band Matmos’s song Y.T.T.E. (Yield To Total Elation) from their 2003 album The Civil War, as an influence. The term Y.T.T.E. was coined by Rizzoli and can be seen in many of his drawings.
McGuire studied video art and photography at the Kansas City Art Institute and moved west to continue her art education in the Performance/Video department at SFAI, earning an MFA. Her artwork, videos and performances have been included in solo and group exhibitions locally at SFMOMA, David Ireland House, Asian Art Museum, Gregory Lind Gallery, 2nd floor projects, et. al. gallery, Exploratorium, BAMPFA, Cafe du Nord, ATA, Hemlock Tavern, SOEX, McEvoy Foundation, Wattis Institute, SFIFF, Right Window, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Queens Nails Gallery, Krowswork, SFMOMA Openspace, Altman Siegel Gallery, Center for the Arts Yerba Buena, Cinematheque, and New Langton Arts, and nationally and internationally at Academy Film Archive LA, Guerrero Gallery LA, House Mödrath Cologne, Gene Siskel Theater Chicago, Ron Howard Screening Room at Zemeckis Center USC, Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburgh, MoMA NY, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, NY Underground Film Festival, NY Film Festival, Nelson-Atkins Museum Kansas City, Impakt Festival Utrecht, Viper Festival Lucerne, MOMA Stockholm, White Chapel London, Red Room Baltimore, Transfest Baltimore, Zebulon Brooklyn, Temple Bar Gallery Dublin, Robert Beck Memorial Cinema New York, Glasgow Film Theatre, The Getty LA, and others.
ANNE McGUIRE REVIEWED IN 48 HILLS
Googly-eyed creatures and underground spirits in Anne McGuire’s ‘Symbolically Depicted' By Genevieve Quick, October 10, 2023
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Curated by Larry Rinder
Anne McGuire recently participated in Mindfield, a group exhibit at Guerrero Gallery LA. The group exhibition considers how basic formal elements such as shape, line and color can evoke a vast array of psychological and mental states. From clay to textile, black and white drawings to brilliantly colored carved relief painting, the works within Mindfield veer between the bodily and cerebral, and from darkness to effervescence, portraying simultaneously the beauty and darkness of the human mind.