JAN. 30 – FEB. 5 MEGAN ELLEN MACDONALD: “UP IN THE CLOUDS”

The winner of our Best in Show at the “Cat’s Meow” show, Megan Ellen MacDonald, joins us at #Hashtag Gallery for a week long solo show starting January 30th.

“Up in the Clouds” is Megan MacDonald’s newest series of work and is an eclectic mix of Baroque-style portraiture and romantic 19th century landscape painting. The series highlights the fantastical and exaggerated nature of painting by appropriating specific themes and subjects from 17th century Dutch Golden Age portraiture and the highly romanticized landscapes from the 19th century Hudson River School.

Through her practice as a painter, MacDonald expresses regard for the history and tradition of painting while parodying the kitsch and fantastical elements of traditional painting genres. The main subjects of MacDonald’s works are the iconic cats, who are present, dignified, and invasive within traditional backdrops and frames of the paintings. In “Up in the Clouds”, MacDonald relays the narrative of the cat portrayed as an omnipresent being within the romanticized landscapes. The repetition of this subject throughout the series echoes the iconography and symbolism that was overtly placed throughout 19th century landscape works produced by the Hudson River School. The craft of each piece and the ornate framing that accompanies each portrait in the series begs to be taken seriously, only to be undermined by the subjects within them.

Show runs January 30th – February 5th