Visual Grant
2021 Spring Grantee
Vince MacDermot
Vince MacDermot - Artist
Vince MacDermot was born in Montreal on June 14, 1957. He came to the United States as a child with his family in 1964 and they settled in Staten Island, New York. MacDermot grew up in a musical household. His father Galt MacDermot is the composer of 'HAIR'. Vince MacDermot lives and works in Staten Island, NY.
CURRENT AMERICA, the newly completed group of paintings is a part of MacDermot’s 'BIG RED NYC' series and focuses on the unusual events of this time coexisting with the continuing affection America has for the automobile. CURRENT AMERICA is the combination of new events and the reassurance of the old.
Vince has exhibited at Juno Gallery, Canvas Institute Gallery, MvVO Art Exhibit at Oculus, and has been included in Art Folio 2021 and Capsules 2020. He will have three paintings in the upcoming XIII Florence Biennale, Florence Italy, theme: ETERNAL FEMININE opening in October 2021 and on December 18, 2021 he will return to Canvas Institute Gallery in his home town of Staten Island with CURRENT AMERICA.
“About red. It’s the opposite of a complicated color strategy. ‘I like red,’ MacDermot says. ’It’s about impact.’ He’s aware of the red + white, one-two punch, as in the Red Cross logo and Campbell’s Tomato Soup (Warhol). For MacDermot, red is the heated springboard of a narrative relayed in white. ”
THE WEIGHT OF THINGS
Our community finds itself absorbed in Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Google. THE WEIGHT OF THINGS draws a contrast between the ‘Big 4’ of technology on one hand and Love on the other.
“Clearly, Pop Art speaks to MacDermot, as it does to many artists of his generation. Roy Lichtenstein, master of comic book appropriation, enjoys special status in his personal image bank, so do some others — Basquiat, Keith Haring and Chuck Close among them; all digested the lessons of Pop Art, but put what they learned to different uses. ”
On December 18, 2021, Vince’s "Current America" opens at Canvas Institute Gallery in his home town of Staten Island and will run for several months.
Please visit Canvas Institute Gallery for more information.
Please visit Vince MacDermot’s Instagram and website for more information.