Current
Sacred Profanities
Artist - John McGarity
Statement
The work that I’ve been producing recently is based on a constructed, provincial folklore. I have created a small village (Mallet Creek) that acts as a microcosm of cultural norms as well as oddities. My approach is one of curiosity for the “common threads” of our allegories. Localized perspectives and shared history create specific ritual, dogma, and ethos within communities and tell the story of ones journey to sacred knowledge and spiritual redemption. Over the years, I have developed a system of symbols and visual cues that are defining a particular language predicated on collective experience. Much of the work has been produced as paintings, but over time, the concept has expanded to further exploration and experimentation beyond paint and into video and installation elements. I collect, process, and make work based on research done at a local level.
Biography
John McGarity is an interdisciplinary visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He has a BFA in film, video, and photography from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. Through painting, multi-media installations, video, and fabricated artifacts, McGarity explores themes of identity, memory, and the human experience. He has had solo exhibitions in North America and Europe and has also participated in numerous group exhibitions. McGarity has recently completed several artist residencies, including the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture in Kefalonia, Greece, iM KONSTHALL in Moskosel, Sweden, Copperleg Artist Residency program in Vaskjala, Estonia and UNAGE residency program in Iasi , Romania.
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Website - www.jbmcgarity.com/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/the197/?hl=en
Facebook - www.facebook.com/john.mcgarity1