Keelan McMorrow: Endless Struggle
@ Elephant Room Gallery
704 S Wabash Ave. Chicago, Il 60605
Opening Friday, October 14th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Saturday, November 26th
“Endless Struggle” marks the artist’s 3rd solo exhibition with the gallery. Keelan McMorrow paints like a classically-trained artist weaned on outlaw poetry and pre-millennial punk rock… Exquisitely rendered bodily forms exist alongside corroded iron tools and archaic weaponry, symbolic and literal extensions of human labor, cost, defiance, and toil. Each piece yearns to speak of stories and truths intensely personal to the artist, but an enigmatic surrealism encourages the unique perspectives of individual viewers. “Endless Struggle” is a reflection on themes universal to the human condition, and deeply relevant to our current times.
“Without struggle, we could never evolve; we could not triumph, nor hope to overcome. Because of this, my paintings are depictions of hope. Death doesn’t frighten me when it’s rendered into symbol – it’s memento mori, a reminder to carry on. Human limbs and torsos, trapped in the stasis of hyper-realism and trompe-l’œil, are postmodern hieroglyphs, faceless entities and heroes and gods. These portrayals share stories, but also secrets – some pint-sized hopes and bottled-up tears – the stained glass parables to the church within my mind. I don’t expect every picture I paint to be relatable, let alone translatable, to every viewer of my work – there are mysteries in art that should remain elusive even to the hand that depicts them. Not every struggle is universal, but the struggle itself is – and that’s the whole point.” – McMorrow
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Tags: Chicago, Elephant Room Gallery, Endless Struggle, Keelan McMorrow, Loop
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