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Sam McKinniss

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Sam McKinniss
100kBytes
White Roses in a Short Glass (after Fantin-Latour), 2016, oil and acrylic on canvas, 9” x 12”
Born1985 (age 38–39)
Northfield, Minnesota
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting

Sam McKinniss (born 1985) is an American abstract and figurative postmodern painter.

Education

Sam McKinniss was graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland in 2005, he received a BFA in painting from the Hartford Art School in Hartford, Connecticut in 2007, and an MFA from the Steinhardt School at the New York University.

Work

Sam McKinniss's work has been shown in galleries and museums since 2005. McKinniss paints in two visually disparate but complimentary practices: representational works which are both seductive and funereal; and grey-scale abstractions. The two styles provide tension and counterpoint within his oeuvre.

With the figurative paintings, McKinniss works from photographs – both found images and pictures he has taken himself. His subjects range from reclining male nudes, floral still lifes, to images from popular culture. McKinniss develops a symbolist vocabulary for contemporary figurative painting; he sources material primarily from online image searching.[1]

The artist is interested in moments of unexpected emotional conflict, aggression and sexuality, defensiveness and vulnerability, pathos and humor. Seemingly disparate pop cultural icons are portrayed without cynicism in the artist’s fluent painterly style. McKinniss’ work is influenced by the history of painting – from Baroque and Mannerist painting to Imagism and Abstract Expressionism.

Of particular importance to McKinniss’ practice are the works of Henri Fantin-Latour, a figurative French painter of the 19th Century who is known for his floral still-lives. Both McKinniss and Fantin-Latour work seek to access and distill the magic and pathos of Symbolism while limiting themselves to the knowable world: each is at once consumer and creator, curator and originator, spectator and carnivore.

File:McKinniss studio.jpg
Sam McKinniss in his studio

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
Selected group exhibitions

Awards

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Bill Powers, "‘It has to be tragic or somewhat manic-depressive’: A talk with Sam McKinniss", ArtNews, October 13, 2016
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