Kristen Macy
at Barry Whistler Gallery
by Todd Camplin
Imagine you are driving outside the city. Behind you, all you can see is the glow of light pollution. You are far enough from civilization to see no other soul, yet the stars are not quite peeking out clearly because of the light on the horizon. A light event might occur in this zone of black inky space where the ground and sky can’t be distinguished. Think, Marfa lights, California hills just outside of LA, or a lonely desert somewhere between Salt Lake City and Los Vegas. Kristen Macy captures that moment when you think you may have seen something spectacular out of the corner of your eye, which can be exaggerated by your own imagination.
At this moment, Kristen Macy’s paintings are at Barry Whistler Gallery. As you walk into the gallery, you can’t miss the John Pomara show. A show that makes you feel like you are a cyberpunk character from a William Gibson novel. A stellar show in its own right, but behind Pomara’s show, in the long hallway gallery space near Barry Whistler’s office, is Macy’s group of paintings.
As you take each piece in, you begin to become immersed in each moment in time she captures. The encounters of each painting make you feel you are about to meet some alien ship. The lights in the sky remind me of a movie, and I can easily imagine what comes next in the short she has painted. Alight II, enamel on canvas over panel, depicts paint moving like shooting stars. Unlike a natural phenomenon, these stars fall erratically with hints of colors trailing in the tails of light. The painting’s outer edge intensifies the experience through her references to the colors used in the shooting stars. Self Portrait – Love & Hate resembles a lens flare with an odd white field next to the image. Macy may be simulating someone taking a photo out of a car. Like all these images, I have far more questions than answers. Plenty of room to fill in my own blanks.
The painting, It’s Not Lost On Me, shows an eerie colorful ring hanging over a city’s glow. This piece reminded me of my road trip to California. I didn’t see the light like this, but strange reflections and the clearest of nights sure made something spectacular seem possible. When I saw this group of paintings, I was pulled into that moment with my dad in the car at night, going to the next stop in the middle of nowhere.
I can’t think of another show that has taken me places while remaining so abstract. I felt as if she was rendering realistic images, but in the end, these were really non-objective pieces. Macy has managed to create works that are both abstract and realistic. A painfully hard task to accomplish in paintings, but this show does it with ease.
Barry Whistler Gallery will have the work of Kristen Macy and John Pomara up through November 21st. I can’t think of a better place to social distance and still get something as enriching as these paintings can offer.