Jack McConville

Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
Jack McConville
The Modern Institute, 14–20 Osborne Street, Glasgow
23/01/2016—23/03/2016
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • Total Package, 2016, Oil on canvas, 160.5 x 130.5 x 4 cm
  • Automatic Deluge, 2016, Oil on canvas, 200.5 x 170.5 x 4 cm
  • Approach, 2016, Oil on canvas, 120 x 110 x 4 cm
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • Unchecked Growth, 2016, Oil on canvas, 160.5 x 130.5 x 4 cm
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • The Yield, 2016, Oil on canvas, 3 parts: 110.5 x 90 x 4 cm each
  • Multiple Bonds, 2016, Oil on canvas, 160.5 x 130.5 x 4 cm
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • Receptive View, 2016, Oil on canvas, 200.5 x 170.5 x 4 cm
  • Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2016
  • End of the Line, 2016, Oil on canvas, 120 x 110 x 4 cm
  • Downpour, 2016, Oil on canvas, 200.5 x 170.5 x 4 cm
  • Handover, 2016, Oil on canvas, 160.5 x 130.5 x 4 cm

Jack McConville creates paintings which respond to the fluidity of the content of digital culture with a strong awareness of art history and a carefully calculated gestural, bodily approach to the process of painting itself. His works are often concerned with the blurring of the private and public personae of individuals as a result of the growing influence of digitization. Shifting between figurative and abstract positions, McConville’s paintings create graphic signs stripped of expressive or descriptive intentions. This painterly approach emphasises the unique object status of the paintings and their placement within a culture of mass reproduction and proliferation of information.

Recent works have been influenced by the writings of the 16th century philosopher Giordano Bruno and his analysis of the erotic operation of signs, described in his work, ‘De Vinculis In Genere’ – as well as the traditions of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Turkish baths, Henri Matisse’s interiors, and the scenes of Suzuki Harunobu. His works are often directly inspired by events mined from online sources, which range from academic scientific journal articles to the ‘lowbrow’ culture of video games, advertisements and celebrity scandal.
Tracing their subsequent influence and relevance to the iconography of mass culture,
McConville’s work re-examines the beliefs and historical myths which permeate the present day societal constructs that inform our perception.

Jack McConville (b. 1984, Edinburgh, UK) lives and works in Glasgow. He studied at the Academy of Fine Art, Vienna and the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2008.

McConville’s recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Authentic Spiritual Spray’, Ibid Gallery, Los Angeles (2014); ‘The Effects of Sugar’, The Still House Group, New York (2014); ‘Tutti Fertiti’, Tramway, Glasgow (2013); ‘We Have No Bananas’, Intermedia Gallery, CCA Glasgow (2012); ‘New Work Scotland’, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2012).
Selected group exhibitions include: ‘Full of Peril and Weirdness; Painting as a Universalism’, M WOODS, Beijing (2015/16); ’24/7’, MONTE CARLO, 6551 Collins Avenue, Apartments #1206 & #606, Miami (2015); ‘Service Entrance’, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2014); ‘All Masters at the Swing Door’, ReMap4, Athens (2013); and ‘Public Displays of Affection’, Glasgow (part of Glasgow International 2012).

A new publication titled ‘Jack’ will be launched at the opening of the exhibition on 22 January 2016. Published in 2015 by The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, ‘Jack’ comprises 106 drawings printed in colour risograph in a signed, limited edition of 150 books.