Missives

Andrew James McKay finds connections in the flotsam of a fragmented world.

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I love how artists extrapolate mundane, everyday experiences into something enlightening. For painter and printmaker Andrew James McKay, whose painting exhibition, Missives, is on display at Masters Gallery in Calgary from June 3 to June 17, it’s notices and posters stapled or taped to poles and lampposts that catalyze intense social commentary.   

With the advent of social media, the need for ratty-looking street advertisements has diminished. However, more people are out walking during the pandemic, so there has been a revival in postings, whether about missing people, animals and car keys or house-cleaning and dog-walking services. The increase in people living on the streets has also revived such notices as a way to communicate.

McKay’s HAVE YOU SEEN? is a classic. The text asks if anyone has seen Ryan Conkin, who stole Rick’s custom, one-of-a-kind chopper. The picture of Ryan looks more like an etching than a photo, as does the bike. The abstracted quality of the pole contrasts with the impressionist handling of the street, which shows a car and chain-link fence. The painting offers a lovely layered narrative. How does Rick know Ryan stole his chopper? Were Rick and Ryan friends? Why would someone steal a custom bike they can’t really sell or use without getting caught?

In CHEATER!! LIAR!!, McKay, a graduate of Emily Carr University in Vancouver, captures the layers and textures of several different posters pasted on top of each other to create a vibrant hot-pink collage. There’s tension, perhaps even a sense of violence, in the torn and weathered paper. In the middle of the painting, a circular gap opens into a mysterious scene that looks like a crashed streetcar above  a desolate rural road. The words “EATER,” “LIAR,” “Self-Love” and “Altar Creative” add to the tension, suggesting a romance that has ended badly. This piece has the realism and composition of a painting by Canadian artist John Hall.

Conversely, Annabel has experience is a fun painting that shows a young girl’s plug for her animal daycare. It’s filled with charming drawings, as well as stickers of a rabbit, chick, dog, squirrel, snake, hamster, turtle and cat. The text reads: “I love animals. I have experience. I want to learn more.” The innocence of Annabel’s world is further evoked by the painting’s white background, which is filled with pin pricks, subtly reminding us of untold posts from the past. 

While Missives evokes a broad spectrum of urban street life, where people of all ages and backgrounds connect and conflict, there’s a reoccurring theme of lost souls snared in a fragmented, torn-up world. ■  

Andrew James McKay: Missives at Masters Gallery in Calgary from June 3 to 17, 2021.

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