Conor McGrady: Purity
@ Thomas Robertello Gallery
939 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL
Opening Wednesday, August 16th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Saturday, August 19th
Conor McGrady
“Purity”
June 16 – August 19, 2006
Opening Reception: June 16th, 6-9pm. Artist will be present.
Thomas Robertello Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by Conor McGrady. Mr. McGrady will be exhibiting recent drawings and paintings based on military or right-winged control of public spaces and the enforcers of this control.
“The impetus for my practice as a whole is based on situations of violence and military control, largely drawing on, but not confined to, my experience growing up in Northern Ireland. In the drawings of buildings and urban areas I work almost exclusively from memory in an attempt to strip out all extraneous details. The empty buildings and housing schemes in the drawings are often subject to physical control by the military and in some cases were designed and planned with the help of military technicians to ensure containment of an insurgent population.”
Conor McGrady was born in 1970 in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. He received a BA Honors First Class in Fine Art from the University of Northumbria, Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the UK, in 1995. In 1998 he completed an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2000 and 2002 he was awarded a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago. Other awards include the Ragdale Foundation/Union League and Civic Arts Foundation Fellowship, and the Juror’s Award in the ‘15th Evanston + Vicinity Biennial’ at the Evanston Arts Center in Illinois. Mr. McGrady has exhibited widely in the US, Ireland, and the UK, with numerous solo exhibitions in Chicago, New York and Atlanta. Of particular note, Mr. McGrady participated in the 2002 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.
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