Alison McKenna

b. 1970, United Kingdom

Alison McKenna (Croydon, 1970) uses bold colour passages in sophisticated combinations to express energy, space, weight and movement in her paintings, often defining and anointing her work with a finishing touch in graphite. McKenna’s paintings, drawings and sculptures are consecrated actions she considers magical, and their creation as an initiation. Recent paintings have involved repeated visits to specific places - notably in Sussex, Crete and Andalucia - which she feels draw her in, enabling her to focus and ‘bring down’ the energy of the location. McKenna also has a particular interest in the esoteric history of the Feminine, from The White Goddess and Moon worship to the extraordinary power of the 30,000 women-strong Embrace The Base action at the Greenham Common nuclear air base in 1982. She has worked at sites with specific historic resonance, like Greenham and the Waun Mawn neolithic site in the Preseli Mountains. Paintings are less renditions of form than expressions of locational energy, usually rendered in smooth enamel paints.

Soft pinks, mauve, the ultramarine blue of heaven and the cool greens, yellow, browns and deep reds of Earth combined in elegant passages reflect time and place. McKenna’s paintings, drawings and sculptures are consecrated actions which she considers magical, and their creation as an initiation, with the Land itself becoming a metaphor for time.

CV

Representation

John Marchant Gallery