out(side) of time

kathleen mcshane

august 26 –

november 10

Reception: September 5, 5–7pm

My work is built up slowly through process, using a now-distilled visual vocabulary, and in response to material language and formal/poetic relationships.

—Kathleen McShane

Kathleen McShane’s new exhibition OUT(SIDE) OF TIME showcases the artist’s approach to drawing, a medium she explores through her distinctive use of materials and techniques. Her works take on a variety of experimental forms. Elements within her drawings, for instance, often occupy a strange and suspended kind of space with multiple implied ground planes. In this way, they function like abstract, speculative landscapes, often incorporating collage elements that invite the audience to consider the tensions she creates between flatness and three-dimensionality.

McShane’s experience as a draftsperson for site-specific installations with artists Pat Steir and Sol LeWitt imbued her with a profound understanding of how the architecture of a space can influence the character of the work. For McShane, the exhibition space itself is an integral collaborator. In this exhibition, she transforms the gallery into a strange tableau of forms—her drawings and painted objects interact in deliberate configurations, from corner pieces to mobiles, creating a dialogue between form and context.

The artist’s collaborations with Steir and LeWitt also enhanced her appreciation for the emotive potential of the simplest actions on paper. Characterized by gestural, seemingly spontaneous acts of mark-making, her own works push the limits of traditional drawing while maintaining a deep commitment to the discipline. More than drawings and paintings alone, the works represent ideas about drawing and painting. “If thought occupies space,” she writes, “the works give form to some sense of that fleeting placeness.”

Kathleen McShane earned her BFA from New York State College of Art and Design at Alfred University and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her artistic career has spanned New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and currently Texas, where she recently retired from teaching drawing at Texas State University. McShane has been an artist-in-residence at MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony, and international centers such as the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland and Cité des Arts in Paris. Her work has been featured at the Aldrich Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Weatherspoon Museum, Drawing Center in New York, SOFA, Mass Gallery in Austin, Drawing Biennial in San Antonio, Rogers Gallery, and Bill Davenport's Optical Projects Gallery in Houston. It is also included in prominent collections such as the Weatherspoon Museum, Rose Art Museum, McNay Art Museum, Portland Museum of Art, and elsewhere.