June 25th – July 29th, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 29th, 3-5 p.m.
K. Imperial Fine Art is excited to announce Imogene, a new exhibition of enigmatically haunting paintings by Felix Macnee. This series embraces the seduction of the unknown by delving into a deep, reflective space of the subconscious. The show will run from June 25th to July 29th, 2024. The gallery and the artist welcome the public to the opening reception on Saturday, June 29th, from 3-5 p.m.
This latest series of works by Macnee is his most focused yet. With an indelible style that has previously delved into landscapes, animal figures, and abstraction, Macnee now turns his practiced hand to portraiture. These are no standard figures, however; they carry on his signature ethereal aesthetic, which in this series takes place in an engulfing void. In each work, the figures materialize out of the darkness. Faces and limbs rise out of the gloom and break apart. Landscapes, patterns, and paraphernalia breakthrough in some of the backgrounds or even in patches on the figures’ skin. And, in each work, the figures’ sly gazes beckon the viewer into the painting – or are shrouded in darkness entirely.
Imogene is a show embedded with symbolism. Its works tease with a sense of secrets withheld–numbers floating around the figures’ heads, an arm dipped in blood red, words faded just beyond readability, and the aforementioned glimpses of unknown landscapes–all speak to an obscured narrative and themes just out of reach, as if they are arrested on the verge of resolving into something tangible and revealing. As a starting point, Macnee has stated that he creates his paintings by chasing “a feeling of nostalgia for something or someone who never was,” a statement felt palpably in the ghostly figures he has conjured. Additionally, the imagined people in the paintings have been said to resemble Macnee’s wife Imogene, after whom the show is named, though he says that the likeness is unintentional. While the specter of Imogene knits this series together, highlighting its personal significance for him, Macnee encourages each viewer to find their own individual relationship with the work.
Felix Macnee was born in Chicago into a family of artists. He moved to California to study art at the San Francisco Art Institute. While shaping his craft, he would visit the art museums in San Francisco daily while working out of his studio apartment in the Tenderloin. In 2010, he took a break from painting, playing in several jazz bands such as Slim Jenkins and Royal Jelly Jive. In 2020, as the world collectively contracted and turned inward, Macnee felt himself called back to the easel and rededicated himself to his painting and studio works.
Imogene will be on display from June 25th – July 29th, 2024.
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 29th, 3-5 p.m.
The gallery is by appointment only. Please contact kimperialfineart@me.com for inquiries or to make an appointment.
Check gallery website for hours and additional info
