Bill McRight
Sketchy Stash
June 5 - June 27, 2009
Opening: Friday June 5th, 7-11pm
AHN|VHS is pleased to present an exhibition of sketch books by Bill McRight.
Primarily a printmaker working in linoleum block and silkscreen, McRight's work is known for its extreme intricacy and for his bold, often absurd figures. These sketchbooks are McRight's place for character and concept development, as well as impulsive composition. The figures in his books are drawn and redrawn with altered and increasingly exaggerated gestures and features, interspersed with pages of striking painterly abstraction and bursts of free associative text or overheard phrases. There seems to be a narrative at work, although the books leave no conclusion but to continue to another page. It is rare that McRight takes a figure directly from one of these books for use in a print; these forms are composed on impulse and are made to retain that immediacy. This looseness and experimentation with material and gesture is a surprising contrast to McRight's rigid sculpting of forms in his prints and lino cuts in particular.
This is the first exhibition of the artist's books since his 2005 MFA thesis exhibition at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
AHN|VHS will produce a limited edition reproduction of one of these sketch books concurrent with the exhibition.
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Bill McRight is a print maker working primarily in silkscreen and linoleum or wood block. In 2005 he received an MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. His prints have been published by Cannonball Press. He lives in Philadelphia and is a current member of Space 1026.
Primarily a printmaker working in linoleum block and silkscreen, McRight's work is known for its extreme intricacy and for his bold, often absurd figures. These sketchbooks are McRight's place for character and concept development, as well as impulsive composition. The figures in his books are drawn and redrawn with altered and increasingly exaggerated gestures and features, interspersed with pages of striking painterly abstraction and bursts of free associative text or overheard phrases. There seems to be a narrative at work, although the books leave no conclusion but to continue to another page. It is rare that McRight takes a figure directly from one of these books for use in a print; these forms are composed on impulse and are made to retain that immediacy. This looseness and experimentation with material and gesture is a surprising contrast to McRight's rigid sculpting of forms in his prints and lino cuts in particular.
This is the first exhibition of the artist's books since his 2005 MFA thesis exhibition at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
AHN|VHS will produce a limited edition reproduction of one of these sketch books concurrent with the exhibition.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bill McRight is a print maker working primarily in silkscreen and linoleum or wood block. In 2005 he received an MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. His prints have been published by Cannonball Press. He lives in Philadelphia and is a current member of Space 1026.
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