Edward Lane McCartney: Chromatic Fantasy

November 1st - December 3rd, 2016

Artist Reception & Book Signing
Saturday November 12th, 2016
6:00pm to 8:00pm
McCartney and his art are featured in the just published book "The Art of Found Objects".  Both the author Robert Craig Bunch and artist will be in attendance to sign books.  Facebook event link HERE.

EAST Austin Studio Tour Events
This exhibit is an official part of the EAST Austin Studio Tour and will be open all four days.
November 12, 13, 19, 20 - 11am - 6pm each day

Location
2832 E. MLK Jr. Blvd., Suite 111, Austin, TX 78702

Edward Lane McCartney is a true creative; living a creative life – made to create – driven to create.  Given this drive and ability, one might expect, and would be correct in assuming, that McCartney has a broad visual and creative aesthetic. There are however many common threads among all of his creations, not least of which is his propensity to build his artwork.  Even his most two-dimensional art can be seen as built works.

For the current exhibit, Chromatic Fantasy, we find non-representational geometric abstract artworks that deal very specifically with visual runs of color, creating rhythm and harmony.  Using this language, his craftsman’s hand, and his attention to detail, he creates artwork in a wide range of scales; from large wall works to miniature wearables – in all using their materiality and movement to evoke a sense of play.

As the viewer moves around the artworks and the rhythmic pattern of the materials are unveiled, the playfulness of the artwork becomes apparent.  This self-guided rhythm is engaging, absorptive, and hypnotic.  We get lost in the song and beauty. We forget the commonality of the artwork’s materiality and begin to think of it as otherworldly.

 

Artist’s Statement: 

When I was 16 the first musical composition I ever penned was a Fantaisie Chromatique. I had been attempting to play one by J. S. Bach and I was fascinated by the half tone runs, that with performance velocity, almost a glissando effect could be achieved, a blending of the most proximate of notes struck on the piano. With, Chromatic Fantasy; a complement of color, the frequency of tone has been supplanted by the frequency of color and light.

I have been interested for some years in works that are visually kinetic, the perception of reality, of experience, and the transformation of accessible media. In the proximity of small bits of color placed adjacent to one another the viewer perceives colors that only exist in his or her own reality. While moving past in physical space, these artworks become mutable and colors and tones are distinguished, emphasizing the their lack of stasis. They exist multi-dimensionally transmuting in time and space in an ever-changing environment of movement and light.

In their making I have taken up the mantle of scale and site. Similar in nature and construction these pieces exist in varied sizes from feet, to inches, to fractions of inches. Much of my practice encompasses the placement of works on the body. As my concerns are of kinetics and experience these works can be encountered in symbiosis between site and observation.

 

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE ARTIST CLICK HERE.