Monday, January 2, 2012

"Spraying Global Occupation" New work for 2012

2012 is a year of great creative possibilities and about time to start updating my blog with the most recent work that has come out of my studio. One of my most recent paintings is titled"Spraying Global Occupation". It is a triptych I painted with oils on a small altarpiece "retablo" I commissioned in Antigua Guatemala  last year. I just wrote a brief description about the work. I'm very pleased to share this one with you all. Enjoy!

Spraying Global Occupation (2011) Oil on triptych panel 18” x 25”

Inspired by recent Occupation movements that started to spread globally by the end of 2011, I created this triptych altarpiece to connect some historical events with the present moment. The use and appropriation of Roman Catholic imagery creates another level of spiritual complexity to the historical narrative. In the centerpiece a representation of Saint Michael the Archangel is defeating the devil this time not with sword and scales in hand but with a police baton and pepper spray. 

"Spraying Global Occupation" (detail)
In the background a cupid has just sprayed the word “Revolution” on a wall.  Nearby camera men shoot their cameras at a police handcuffing Jesus.  


"Spraying Global Occupation" (Detail)

On the left wing a representation of Charles V Holy Roman Emperor stands proudly with a banner displaying a cross and corporate logos. This character is an embodiment of supreme Imperial power from the time of the conquest and colonization of the New World. At his feet a skull masked indigenous character points out to the right. On the right wing I have appropriated the female allegory of Liberty guiding the people from a painting by Delacroix. This time she carries a new banner while confronting an anti-riot police at the bottom. 

"Spraying Global Occupation" (doors closed)
The inscription on the lower segment of the piece translates from Latin to English as: “Occupy Government, Church, Corporations and Media”. The symbols depicted on the closed doors are those of the planetary signs of Uranus, Saturn, Pluto and Neptune. These as well as the imagery used in this painting respond to the study of archetypal astrology and the planetary alignments associated with the French Revolution and the Occupy Global movement. Interpretation and meaning of this piece is open and multivalent as in archetypal astrology.

"Spraying Global Occupation" is available at Jane Sauer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. It will also be in display in the gallery booth at Art Palm Beach in January 20-23 2012.

3 comments:

  1. Patrick, I saw your work yesterday at the ArtPalmBeach, and now I am obsessively googeling you. I have recently return to the fine art world and you have made a deep impression on me, as your craftmanship and message are a perfect and disturbing combination. I have become your biggest newest fan! Alex Pardo DeLange

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  2. Thank you Alex! It is my pleasure to share my art with you. You can also visit my website at http://www.patrickmcgrath-art.com/. Feel free to post any question and thanks for your comments. It is deeply appreciated :-)

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  3. Your work is more than “meet the eyes”, the use of images of the past make us feel that we humans had not changed that much in one thousand years. People might have lived with double standards and hypocrisies to protect them and even their loved ones from being damage or persecuted by those who ran the law, the society’s moral ways of life style and so forth. On the other hand, your work is a constant regeneration not only of how much we are in compare with what have been done socially and financially way back, compared to our present way of living, (which is not any better or worse than in the past), but far more complicated to hide and easier to persecute and track down those who are consider subversive or do feel that systems are not fair to the working class or to the most disadvantageous one! Your work does bring up all sorts of thoughts about human endeavor, spiritual or emotional condition and the wrong doings of those who run the circus by holding on to excessive wealth and power! Miguel Conesa Osuna, Visual Artist

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