Approaching the quiet landscapes of Ash Mckean, one does not anticipate its darker passages, yet the confluence of somber lyricism and mysterious narrative is where Mckean’s artistic power resides. In...
Approaching the quiet landscapes of Ash Mckean, one does not anticipate its darker passages, yet the confluence of somber lyricism and mysterious narrative is where Mckean’s artistic power resides. In this selection of recent paintings by Mckean, solitary figures roam the desolate hills while storm clouds gather, witches congregate as churches are consumed by fire, and hooded figures float in a vast sea. Mckean's work challenges the timeless themes with which it explores. Through utilising ambiguity as a material, his paintings allow multiple visual and narrative associations. In this way, the bleak, isolated, and personal meshes with the romantic, historical, and mythical.
Ash Mckean (b. 1992, Winchester, England) was born into a military family, and has lived and worked in London since 2013. Mckean is a self-taught painter whose work derives from a number of subjects including loneliness, horror, sex and death.