Mary King
Lifescapes: Drawings and Paintings
10 May through 12 July, 2008

The Opening Reception will be held Saturday, May 10 from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
The public is invited.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday 10:00 – 5:00 P.M. Saturday 12:00 – 5:00 P.M.

“In this suite of paintings and drawings I reference the work of lesser-known American abstractionists from the 1930’s and 40’s with their Cubist-inspired shapes. At the same time, I incorporate contemporary cartoon-based graphic design. I aim to have it both ways: serious and fanciful, elegant and brash.” Mary King, April 2008.

Color and shape are carefully considered and strategically arranged in these new works. Idiosyncratically, King allows playful images (perhaps a fanciful goose or an intentional finger smudge) to define and contrast with the arrangement of the feature composition upon which the viewer is meant to focus. King likes to begin her works outdoors where, in nature, she discovers shapes and lines which she believes are not easily given to human invention. Her resulting pieces suggest specific sites, but in no way attempt to resemble anyplace in a literal sense —other than out of doors. In doors (in a tamer setting?), the viewer is welcomed to experience how the works are infused with the excitement and spontaneity of working outside (what with the bugs biting and the paper in danger of being blown away!).

King’s figurative works portray actual experiences with “real life” individuals. These painted drawings are an expression of a metaphor for life dichotomy, control versus/and freedom. Though skillfully crafted, these works are not restrained; candidly, they speak of drama, emotion, and interpersonal difficulty and joy.

Since childhood, Mary King has created art. She began by writing curly lines in old receipt books her mother used when people came out from town to buy eggs. Later, King graduated to producing life-sized paper dolls which she kept rolled up in her desk at school.

King has exhibited her work professionally for thirty-six years. National venues hosting prior Mary King one-person shows include New York and Chicago. For the past 12 years, for instance, King has regularly exhibited at New York’s Denise Bibro Fine Art. Other solo exhibitions have been hosted in the Michigan cities of Ann Arbor, Saugatuck and Battle Creek. In group shows, King’s work has been exhibited at The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Butler Art Institute, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Detroit Focus, The Detroit Artists Market and The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Her most recent show, “Distinguished Alumni,” was exhibited at the New Richmond Center of Western Michigan University.

King has received grants from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo and from Education for the Arts of Kalamazoo County. Just two months ago, in February 2008, she was awarded a four-week residency at the Kimmel Nelson Harding Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Currently, King’s work is on exhibit at the Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, and here, the Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit.