The Sketchbook Project Covered in Chicago Art Magazine
October 2, 2010
“Brooklyn-based Art House Co-op’s Sketchbook Project is ephemeral by nature despite its roots in very tangible objects: sketchbooks. The project is designed to engage a number of artists through this versatile medium and eventually create an easily accessible library of innovative and interesting contemporary art for the masses.”
Read the full article at: http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2010/05/the-sketchbook-project-artists-books-at-home-gallery/
McGurk’s sketchbook can be viewed here.
Comments (0) | Tags: publicity, sketchbook
The Sketchbook Project in Time Out Magazine
October 2, 2010
“Seeing the first draft of a work of art often reveals more about an artist’s motives than their final piece does. For the past four years, the Art House Co-Op has asked artists to share bits of their inner creative lives with a traveling exhibition called “The Sketchbook Project.” The rules are simple: Art House mails out a package containing a blank Moleskine sketchbook and one of 30 themes, and participants interpret that theme in their own styles…”
Read more: http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/own-this-city/82875/the-sketchbook-project#ixzz11CvS63sd
McGurk’s sketchbook can be viewed here.
Comments (0) | Tags: artists, contemporary art, publicity, sketchbook
Check It Out at The Sketchbook Library!
October 2, 2010
The Sketchbook Project tour is on!
McGurk’s sketchbook can be viewed here.
More information is available here.
Comments (0) | Tags: art exhibitions, contemporary art, sketchbook
Maura McGurk’s Sketchbook to Tour U.S.
October 2, 2010
New York artist Maura McGurk has created a sketchbook as part of The Sketchbook Project, sponsored by the Art House Co-op, which will tour various cities around the U.S.
McGurk says: ”My sketchbook contains collages, drawings, and writings about my daily life from the fall and winter of 2009. They reflect my individual concerns and adventures during this time–personal relationships, life in New York City, a business trip to the Middle East–and tie these daily observations into larger concerns such as the war on terrorism, and the fight for civil rights and gay marriage. The sketchbook makes the case that the personal is political.”
The sketchbook tour includes stops in Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and Brooklyn. At the conclusion of the tour, the books will be given a permanent home at the Brooklyn Art Library.
McGurk’s sketchbook can be viewed here.
Comments (0) | Tags: abstract art, art exhibitions, contemporary art, gay art, interviews, political art, sketchbook
Maura McGurk Again Chosen as Featured Artist at climate/gallery
October 2, 2010
Over and Out, Acrylic/Pencil on panel, 6 x 6, SOLD
Maura McGurk was chosen as a Featured Artist for the exhibition Paint! at climate/gallery. Her painting Over and Out was selected by juror Jason Andrew, Director of Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts, as one of the ten Best in Show.
McGurk says the painting was inspired by a layover in Salt Lake City, and is part of a series of works on gay rights called The Lavender Menace series.
McGurk explains: ”My girlfriend Mia and I were traveling from California to New York and had a layover in Salt Lake City. We love to travel and wanted to spend time in the city but we were, frankly, anxious about the reception a gay couple would receive there. This was in the midst of the hoopla over Prop 8 having recently been passed, and the facts coming out over the role the Mormon Church had played in that. As we approached for landing, I was spending a lot of time looking out the window of the plane and worrying whether or not we should even leave the airport. We just didn’t know what to expect, and it was the middle of the night, two girls in a strange, possibly unfriendly city…
“But our curiosity and need to make a statement, even if only to ourselves, won out. We walked around for a bit, feeling very conscious of trying to “behave ourselves”. We were very careful to try to look like friends and nothing more, and to not draw attention to ourselves.
“Then, we were surprised to learn there was a gay bar just a few blocks from Temple Square, the headquarters of the Mormon Church. And for some reason, it became our mission to go to this gay bar in Salt Lake City. I think all our anxiety and paranoia turned into a kind of giddiness and we really felt like we’d earned the right to celebrate there at the gay bar. To celebrate being gay in Salt Lake City, of all places. We couldn’t find the bar because it was kind of hidden, and we were laughing at how hard we had to work to get a gay drink in this town. And we felt like rebels, or secret agents.
“So we finally found it, had just enough time to have a quick drink and a gay kiss–and then we were on our way back to the airport or we would have missed our flight. It felt dangerous and exhilarating and silly all at the same time. I mean, what’s the big deal?
“It was a whirlwind trip but very significant. Symbolic. I came home and began painting The Lavender Menace series, which deals with the ongoing struggle by gays for acceptance, and stories that have been in the news recently, and my personal thoughts about that.”
Comments (0) | Tags: abstract art, art exhibitions, art galleries, contemporary art, gay art, Mia, Painting, Places, political art, Road trips
Maura McGurk Selected as climate/gallery Featured Artist
October 2, 2010
Lament, Acrylic/Mixed media on board, 5" x 5", In private collection
Maura McGurk was chosen as a Featured Artist of climate/gallery based on submission of her painting Lament.
This painting was part of the exhibition NEVER THINK small and was judged by Kathy Murphy, publisher of Modern Painters Magazine, as one of the Best in Show.
McGurk said the work was inspired in part by her friend’s grandmother who had recently become ill. The imagery comes from a photograph McGurk took of a shrine in Palermo, Sicily, which was built into a wall near the Vucceria market. The somber color, title, and reference to the shrine suggest a lament for the dead but McGurk asks that the piece not be read only as a requiem.
“Saint Rosalia, whose name is written there in the shrine, is the patron saint of Palermo. The idea of a patron saint who looks out for your interests and offers protection has always been appealing to me, not from a religious standpoint (though I did grow up with people around me praying to Saint Anthony and other saints) but from a superstitious one. You pray to Saint Anthony to bring you the car keys you misplaced and then you find them. That suggestion is pretty powerful.
“So while I was thinking of my friend’s grandmother while I painted it, and feeling sad to hear that she’d fallen ill, I don’t think of this piece as only sad and contemplative. People who knew, or knew of, Audrey (or Big Nana) also know that she was funny, devilish, generous, as well as a lover of sad country songs and good martinis. She’s a person everyone tells stories about, someone people remember. So thinking of this very strong personality at the same time as I was incorporating a reference to a patron saint makes the painting act a bit like a talisman, something with a little strength behind it, something to watch over you.”
Comments (0) | Tags: abstract art, Acrylic painting, art galleries, contemporary art, patron saints, Places
Marion Exhibit Conveys Profound Sense of Place
October 1, 2010
Fratello
“…Ms. McGurk employs a similar collage style, embedding text fragments in jabs of paint, but her take on the technique focuses on unexpected color combinations. Her “Via Settembre” includes red variations of raspberry, rose and tomato. Laid out in a horizontal pattern, these swatches imply a landscape view, especially with the gray-blue rectangle along the top edge. Minute bits of black script locate the foreground with delicate swirls.
In Ms. McGurk’s “Fratello,” brilliant red zaps electric blue. She can also work magic with more sedate combinations; her “Messina” shows a watery world of turquoise with touches of rusty orange and greenish gold.”
Please read the full review here.
Comments (0) | Tags: abstract art, art exhibitions, art galleries, color, contemporary art, Places, publicity
“Amunnini” Featured as Cover Art in Poetry Journal
October 1, 2010
My painting called Amunnini was chosen as the cover art for a poetry journal called Anti-. This work was inspired by teaching for three summers in Italy, and is made with Italian wall posters which I collected in Sicily.
I hope you’ll be moved to check out the poetry, which is fantastic. You can read the poetry journal here.
Amunnini, Acrylic/Mixed media on board, approx 13 x 15 framed, $250
Comments (0) | Tags: contemporary art
Maura McGurk interviewed by SouthCoastToday.com
October 1, 2010
“…Maura is talking about her love for Italy. Besides being moved by the light alone, she has become enthralled with the generosity of the people, the food and the vivacious appreciation for life. Having visited Italy as an assistant painting teacher to Tony Miraglia with UMass Dartmouth’s Sicily program, McGurk, as well as her work, have become permanently altered.”
Read the complete article.
Comments (0) | Tags: creative process, interviews, Painting, Places, publicity, Road trips
Equality on Trial: Prop 8 Reenactments
September 27, 2010
Wait No More NYC, a group of New York City activists working for LGBT rights, reenacts testimony from the Prop 8 trial in Washington Square Park. Featuring Maura McGurk, Kris Lew, Eddie Jones, Mia Grottola, Tom Crockett, and Michael O’Day.
Kristin Perry testimony, Part 1:
Kristin Perry testimony, Part 2:
What if a historic trial happened and nobody could see it? This year, Americans could not watch the Proposition 8 trial—Perry v. Schwarzenegger—because Prop 8 supporters successfully appealed to block cameras from televising the trial.
Wait No More NYC, a group of activists lobbying for full equality for LGBT people, brought testimony from the trial to Washington Square Park, with actors embodying the roles of the real-life plaintiffs, lawyers and other witnesses.
Conceived of by Cleve Jones and the Courage Campaign, Equality on Trial allowed everyone to bear witness to the moving testimony that reveals discrimination, but ultimately speaks of love, the hope for equality, and full recognition of the importance of all our lives.
Marisa Tomei, Josh Lucas, Alan Cumming, Patricia Clarkson, and other supporters of gay marriage all over the country have reenacted their own scenes. See the Equality on Trial website for more information, and to view other reenactments.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art installations and performance, gay, Mia
Maura McGurk Quoted on Prop 8 Decision
August 24, 2010
…Maura McGurk was among protesters in New York City who turned out within hours of the historic victory. “I’m so thrilled,” McGurk said. “I feel validated. The right thing was done, and now people realize it. My blood is pumping, and another hurdle is cleared. I’m one step closer to marrying my girlfriend Mia.”…
Read the complete article.
Comments (0) | Tags: gay, interviews, Mia, publicity
Artist’s Grant and Vermont Studio Center Residency
August 23, 2010
Maura has been awarded an Artist’s Grant by the Vermont Studio Center, to fund a residency there in Fall 2010. Maura will be in residence as a painter from October-November. Stay tuned for more information, and to follow her blogging from Vermont.
