MICHELLE MACKEY
Lives and Works
in Dallas, Tx
Looking intently at the surface of one of Michelle Mackey’s abstract landscapes, the viewer may find portals leading into the earth itself, feel the unseen forces churning beneath, and trace the unfolding story of the land stretched over the geologic time scale…(Sherry Cheng, artsandculturetx .com - january/ february 2023)
Statement
My paintings explore time and memory through the exploration of place.
In my past work, I researched sites containing remnants of a buried past, such as the former dead zone of the Berlin Wall, the 9th Ward in New Orleans post-Katrina, and the Clyde Barrow family gas station in Dallas.
After a 2017 trip to Iceland, my focus moved from abandoned architecture to the rocky and extreme landscapes of Iceland, Wyoming, Texas and Arizona. To understand a geological story, which happens over eons, not days, we must enter the “deep time” that writer John McPhee discusses in his book, Basin and Range.
In my current paintings, I am using the specific colors, curves, and unique shapes of Enchanted Rock, Grand Canyon, volcanic formations in Iceland, and uplifts in Wyoming to peer beyond one life span into the deep time that stretches before and after all of us.
Bio
Throughout the last decade Michelle Mackey has had solo exhibitions in Berlin, New York City, Brooklyn, and Dallas and participated in many group exhibitions from Cologne Germany to Marfa, Tx and all across the country. Michelle’s work has been reviewed in publications like The New York Sun, Huffington Post, New American Painting, DMagazine and Texas Arts Culture. She was recently interviewed for episode 34 of The Large Glass (an arts program on YouTube).
Mackey has studied in Cortona, Italy and Taos, New Mexico for extended periods, and has been a resident at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts in Wyoming, Vermont Studio Center, and 100 W Corsicana in Texas. Mackey received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman University in Greenville, SC.