SHANE McGRATH
Parallel Play
20 November - 7 December 2013
You are warmly invited to attend the opening preview and to meet Shane,
Wednesday 20 November, 5.30 – 7.30pm.
Shane will be giving an artist floor talk in the gallery at 12.15pm Thursday 21 November.
Click for big version.
Shane McGrath, 2013, Dystopian Jungle Gym #1, ink, pencil, gouache and holy water on HP Fabriano Artistico paper, 550 x 390 mm
In this exhibition, McGrath continues his investigation of ideology, here foregrounding the utopian and dystopian
oppositions at the heart of such belief systems whether religious or political. His maquettes and drawings reference the
jungle gyms playgrounds of the 1950s and 60s, modernism and Soviet monumental aesthetics questioning and ultimately
toppling any notion of security in such structures.
McGrath, who is perhaps best known for his public artwork in Glover Park Wellington, which has contributed to the
revitalisation of the park, has spent most of the past two years in Melbourne. This year he has had two artist
residencies and has recently secured a commission for a large-scale mural to be installed at Melbourne Airport in early
2014. Earlier this year, he exhibited at Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin and his project, which engaged with the debate
surrounding a proposed hotel development, got art onto the front page of the local paper. Last year, his work was
included in the Bondi Sculpture by the Sea. McGrath completed a Master of Fine Arts at Massey University Wellington in
2009.
ENDS