Text-based artworks by John Patrick McKenzie and Ward Schumaker speak volumes at Jack Fischer Gallery
Long-time collector and CE supporter, Jack Fischer, admits, “I once was a bit leery of text-based work. My initial and naïve point of view was that the words afforded the viewer only one entry point, thereby excluding multiple interpretations. I am pleased to say that I have been cured of this reprehensible idea.”
Jack Fischer Gallery’s new exhibition features a collection of classic John Patrick McKenzie works, which utilize text as both language and form. McKenzie’s scrawling phrases range from the mundane to absurd – but always delightful. A Field of Words evokes a conversation between the artists, engaging McKenzie’s tongue-in-cheek musings and Ward Schumaker’s politically charged statements in the same room.
The text takes on a life of its own, thanks to the manipulations and re-workings of the banal.
- Jack Fischer
Joyce DeWitt likes Pink High Heel Shoes by John Patrick McKenzie, 2012, marker on paper, 22 x 30 inches, contact Jack Fischer Gallery for inquiries
John Patrick McKenzie at the CE2 studio in 2019. Photo by Peter Prato
About John Patrick McKenzie
John Patrick McKenzie uses text for both its visual and semantic qualities, creating work that simultaneously serves as both image and poetry. McKenzie’s process is based on a complex, repetitive sequencing of calligraphy that methodically adds layers of nuance to his chosen subjects, which are most often people and objects from pop culture, current events, and his immediate surroundings. Some notables include Linda Rondstadt, John F. Kennedy Jr., Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Elvis.
Swirling, multi-angled, and disorienting, the placement of his language comments on the contradictory, sometimes overwhelming, nature of media attention, politics and celebrity. Often controversial or downright poking fun, McKenzie’s stylized handwriting and use of sometimes surreal repetitive meter invites his audience to infer varied and multiple meanings.
McKenzie moved to the United States with his family in 1964. He often incorporates references to his Filipino heritage and culture into his work, drawing attention to the Filipino-American diaspora and experience of American pop culture.
He was nominated for SFMOMA's prestigious SECA Art Award in 2012. McKenzie's drawings are included in the permanent collections of Le MADmusée, Liège, Belgium, and abcd (art brut connaissance et diffusion), Paris, France.
