Works by Xanda McCagg
Xanda McCagg is an American abstract artist who lives and works in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. A classically trained painter, she has evolved into a style that abandons figuration in search of evoking the human essence.
Education
McCagg earned her BFA in Art Education from Boston University. She has also studied at the New York Studio School and the Haystack Mountain School in Deer Isle, ME, and taught at the New School in New York and at the Bronx Museum. She has completed several fellowship and residencies, including at the Vermont Studio Center, The American Academy in Rome, Italy, The Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams MA, and at C.A.M.A.C in Marnay Sur Seine, France.
Technique
McCagg creates her abstract compositions using a mixture of oil, graphite and collage. Although she began her practice as a figurative painter, she has abandoned the figure in search of more intimate portrayals of the human essence. Nonetheless, her work is informed and influenced by formal elements such as line and space, which provide an underlying aesthetic vocabulary for her compositions.
Integral to her process is an exploration of the small and large ways relationships can "shift." Through the expressive layering of thin and impasto color, and delicate and rough-hewn lines, McCagg works to articulate these often-subtle evolutions. Rather than planning precisely where her composition will lead her, she intuits throughout her process the minimum amount needed to manifest the essence of what she calls "the fine line between perception and imagination of these relationships."
Inspiration
McCagg is inspired by the human experience, in particular the behaviors that arise from, and correlate to human relationships. Her work is often informed by the larger systems that emerge out of those relationships. Cultural issues like poverty, government, religion and war, cultural phenomena like mythology, and dichotomies such as strength and weakness often manifest in her work on a human and intimate scale.
Collections
Work by Xanda McCagg is featured in the collections of many private individuals, as well as in the corporate collection of Alliance Capital Management.
Exhibitions
Xanda McCagg has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, as well as in Budapest, Hungary and Paris, France.
Solo Exhibitions
2013
Studio 7D , New York City
2012
Galerie Charlot, Paris
2011
STANDPIPE Gallery, NYC “Xanda McCagg Paintings” March 17th - April 9th
2008
Art Gotham, New York, NY 200 0 A.I.R. Gallery Push Me Pull You New York
1999
The 2nd Annual West Chelsea Art Walk New York
A.I.R. Galler y Generations II
1997
The Kent School Gallery Kent, CT
1996
Kenneth Winslow New York, NY
1990
Vis - a - Vis Gallery St. Clemens Church New York, NY
1989
Galleria Alexander Del Ray Beach, FL (solo)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018
62nd Regional Exhibition, Mystic museum of Art, Mystic CT Juror Don Woodford, August 30-September 22nd
Made in Chelsea Group of 10 West Chelsea Artists, Agora Galery 530 West 25th St NYC, August 1-7
No Man’s Land: Woman and Abstraction, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT, June 1 July 7
Blue Mountain Gallery, NYC Group show Juror, Betty Cuningham, Jan.2-27
2017
Hostetler Gallery, Nantucket, MA Summer show
2016
Muse Gallery, May Oh io Group show
The Painting Center, NYC June The Retrieval of the Beautiful Group show
2015
M17 Projects space , New London, CT Sept “ Unfinished Task”
Muse Gallery, Hilton Head, SC
2014
Hostetler Gallery, Nantucket, MA
2012
Ground Arts, NYC Paper: Work Group Exhibition, curated by Kelly Worman
2011
POOL Art Fair, NYC
Art 101, Brooklyn NY “NEW WORK”
2010
POOL Art Fair, Miami Florida
Art 101 Miniatures , Brooklyn, NY
SideShow Gallery It’s A Wonderful 10th Brooklyn, NY
2009
Mystic Art C enter 53rd Regional Juried Carolina Pedraza, juror, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
ArtBridge ArtBridge: First Exposure 2009, Public Art Piece New York, NY
2008
Art Gotham Painting (solo) New York, NY
Stamford Art Association Faber Birren - National C olor Award Show, Stamford, CT
Attleboro Arts Museum Out of the Blue - National Juried Exhibition, Attleboro, MA
Abstract EXPOsure Best in Show Winner, July Exh ibition, abstractexposure.com
Projekt30 A Glass Darkly - Juried Online Competition, project30.com
2007
Michael Ingbar Gallery New York, NY
Mulry Fine Arts West Palm Beach, FL New Year – New Art
2006
Dana Hall School Between Generations, Wellesley, MA
SideShow Gallery War is Over Brooklyn, NY
2004
A.I.R. Gallery Sketches New York, NY
2003
2B Gallery 2nd International Hanger Show Budapest, Hungary
2002
Washington Square East Galleries 25t Small Works Barbara Millstein, Curator Brooklyn Museum of Art
Gallery 128 Pieces 5 Sylvia Netzer, Curator New York, NY
2001
Hungarian Consulate We Love Our Customers , New York, NY
2000
A.I.R. Gallery Push Me Pull You New York, NY (solo)
Niack Small Matters New York, NY
1999
A.I.R. Gallery Generations II New York, NY
Chelsea Studios Figuratively Speaking New York, NY
Chamboultou Chamboultou ( online gallery) New York, NY
1998
Washington Square East Galleries 21st Small Works New York, NY
1997
The Kent School Gallery Kent, CT (solo)
A.I.R. Gallery Generations New York, NY
Brooklyn Brewery Small Statements Brooklyn, NY
1996
Kenneth Win slow Artists For Habitat New York, NY
1994
Alternative Space Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Art World, New York, NY
The Otherwise Gallery Group Show Lansing, MI
1993
CORK GALLERY Four Artists Lincoln Center, New York, NY
1990
LEDO Gallery Transitio ns New York, NY (McCagg/Twombly)
1986
Gary Wortzel Fine Arts Figures and Faces Boston, MA