CRG is pleased to present Carmen McLeod’s first solo show in New York. McLeod works in painting and sculpture with equal vigor, often blurring the line between the two. McLeod formulates her own idea of what can be considered “primary” material and uses these not so much to distill and simplify, but rather to intensify and enhance. Her selected building blocks range from the most elementary (paint, canvas) to the amalgamated, such as a painting the artist produced in 2008 which she revisits with additional materials.

McLeod has reused objects in her studio throughout her career and often alters or de-constructs finished objects to create an entirely new piece. The sensation of the recycled permeates her objects and calls attention both to the apparent age of these objects as well as the unusual combinations she selects. McLeod creates work that not only elucidates the primary structures in a formal manner, but work that is left open to contemplation on all levels. Focus alternates between the singular components (a rock, a piece of linen), the more composite arrangements (a collaged painting, or a sculpture of painted plywood, wire, and table legs), and the installation as a whole.

The works become a literal measurement of time; an accrued account of different languages that the artist has identified for herself and that the viewer can determine through his or her own reactions to the work. Whether simple or complex, each building block has a history prior to its inclusion in McLeod’s finished objects. As such, their previous lives and meanings are obscured upon combining with other elements—the pentimenti, or layering of paint, becomes the only evidence, and at the same time a clue, of the work’s prior life.

Carmen McLeod was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.