Jonathan McAfee’s visually stimulating and engaging marriage of two bodies of work is realized under the guise of simple happiness, portrayed through a mixture of oil paint, acrylic, ink, pastel, and spray paint. “Oh! Happy Day” is an emotionally cohesive experience, although it was created over the course of two years in McAfee’s home base of Evergreen, Colorado.

Train Round the Bend. Oil, acrylic, spray paint, ink, and pastel. 24” x 24”

Rather than prompt contemplation, McAfee’s aim is to create paintings to simply enjoy, as the title of the exhibit implies. Instead, viewers can turn off their mind and tune into a visual space of color and feeling. His work is undoubtedly immersive, but not as a result of weighty subject matter. The use of color gives a psychedelic wash to McAfee’s portraits, where soft portrayals of faces and surrealist scenes suspend the viewer above the physical world.

The united display, which McAfee refers to as two exhibits, consists of a portrait series and a more fantastical counterpart. The portraits come from a third-person perspective, with audience and artist experiencing the same distance from the subject. The remaining paintings, an ongoing body of work that began in 2020, exist in not-quite real environments and depict subjects within their personal element. Despite their hallucinatory qualities, the works also have a relaxed familiarity that grounds the viewer amid vibrant depth.

Lost in the World, Pt.1. Oil, acrylic, pastel. 24” x 20”

“Oh! Happy Day” will be on display in the Harrison Gallery for the month of June. The exhibit can be viewed by appointment as well as in our online gallery, where all pieces are available for purchase.