The large vibrant pieces in this exhibition for PMA spring from the imagination of artist Frances McCormack, who wonders on canvas what life pops up and thrives in contained outdoor spaces. Her images unfold in a drama of botanical growth, landscape design and architectural elements, resulting in her own version of Paradise, a concept which originally meant "walled garden," and serves as her traveling muse:
"I have sought out these spaces or walled gardens in Rome at the Villa d”Este and Villa Lante, at the Alhambra in Spain, the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, in Mexico at the houses of the architect Luis Barragan, or in Santa Barbara at Ganna Walska’s LotusLand. These places provide a container where the urgency and noise of everyday obligations fall away and the visitor has access to other dimensions of thought and feeling. My hope is that my paintings can function in a similar way."
“Part of what makes McCormack’s works seductive is their abundant passion for the craft of painting. Some of the pleasure of looking at them is in the details: her graceful definition of line, her ability to create a form and make it fade from view. Another of their prime qualities is a finely tuned tension between exuberant form and structure." - Art critic Robert Pincus, The San Diego Tribune.
Above and Below by Frances McCormack
Frances McCormack was born in Boston and received her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley. She is Associate Professor at the San Francisco Art Institute. McCormack was the recipient of the first SFAI faculty residency at the American Academy in Rome, three Buck Foundation individual artists grants, a Djerassi residency and Willapa Bay Air residency. In October of 2012 the video she produced for the multi-media work: “Artifacts” a collaboration with the composer Kurt Rohde and writer Sue Moon, premiered at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The R.B. Stevenson Gallery in La Jolla, CA and the Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, CA represent her work.