beafterfore

For the month of January, the Harrison Gallery is hosting Johnny McKee’s latest body of work. McKee has been an artist at the Harrison Center for 10 years. The show titled beafterfore includes several series of recurring motifs that McKee is known for; clouds, dots, and nebulas that invoke mystery and explore the concept of time.

Mckee found the title of “beafterfore” (while watching the 2019 mystery film Knives Out) to be a word that envelops the feeling of confusion in day-to-day life. McKee reflects on the title of his show: “‘Beafterfore’ is a fun word. The more I try to put meaning on it, the more I feel like the word is resisting. It's a nonsense made-up thing I heard in a movie and I don’t know what it means, but through making, I’m trying to figure out what I like about it. In a sense, it’s a word meant to confuse but also means now; it’s before and after.” The word is all-encompassing of McKee’s work and also invites viewers to explore their own responses to the work.

Beafterfore

acrylic, tempera

144x96"

Exhibited in the show is a large-scale triptych of McKee’s signature white dots that embodies the idea of white noise and is the main painting that influenced the rest of the work, which reaches more than 60 works. This was the first piece McKee started for the show in June, and he continued to work on it until December. Time is always referred to in McKee’s work, whether metaphorically or literally, as well as there being considerations of our collective mortality.

The Effects of Jupiter, Fragments in Orbit, Tidal Disruption, Moons of Jupiter

acrylic, shellac, shoe polish, masking tape

33x40" (each)

The show can be viewed anytime during the month of January in the Harrison Gallery during Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. The works can also be viewed and purchased on our online gallery through February.