Spy 2, colored pencil, 2020
Oct 24-25 2020
“Only a shadow”
MacQueen’s cool, starkly-constructed compositions let slip a kinetic, searching application of paint. Her take on post-punk, post-impressionism rejects slickness and craftsmanship, citing painters like Kees van Dongen, Florine Stettheimer, or bands like The Slits, who’s instinctive musicianship made for roving, original songs. MacQueen’s canvases go beyond the task of depiction. Though her work is figurative, abstract-er painters like Mary Potter or Sanyu contribute to how she wants her surfaces to behave: with tactility building as the image develops. Lately, her paintings have featured an Agent lurking in cold-war-era sets. Blues, greys and silvers activate a sense of her being elsewhere, as if caught on surveillance video. Her body is “Only a shadow, only is a shadow/ But she looks like you”*.
MacQueen brings this speculation to other subjects as well. The zig-zag bat in Dusk, the ghostly flower in Clipping, each share the impulse to strip back capable representation and claim a stylized, fictional truth.
*Newell, Martin. “Only a Shadow.” Midnight Cleaners performed by The Cleaners from Venus, Man at the Off License Records, 1982.
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