2013 Catalogue Archive

John McAllister’s works show a uniquely post-Modern awareness of the history of painting, as well as the complicated relationship between painting and photography. In Some Nights Lusterlike, the artist offers up a floral still life, presumably seen at night, where we see a painting of flowers resting next to a bowl of fruit, all against a pattern that resonates both as wallpaper and abstract surface. McAllister’s brushwork feels loose, but his tightly controlled color palette and compositions vibrate with optical intensity and a tension between flatness and depth. In describing McAllister’s well-honed use of color, New York Times critic Roberta Smith said, “In the best paintings the palette takes a farther step toward the present by concentrating on a close range of colors (often lavenders, reds and purples) that have a monochromatic, irradiated and even, if vaguely, Op Art effect.” John McAllister is based in Los Angeles. His work has been shown around the US, and he is a 2007 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant.