The Control Group will consist of 12 paintings and 12 works on paper all rendered in a flat style with carefully chosen colors ranging from fluorescents to khakis. McHargue’s unique vocabulary mixes disparate themes and presents them as coherent ensembles.

McHargue mixes figurative and abstract elements that come together in repeated patterns offering a poignant gaze into the condition of his subject whether it is a patient in a hospital bed or the stillness of two ceramic bowls.

McHargue has said of this body of work:

“The Control Group is an art exhibition that reflects my desire to become more a director than a draftsperson. The show is intended to break away from using my own emotional experience as subject matter for my work by hiring an imagined cast of actors and letting them inhabit the character of the artist to represent the many facets of the contemporary human experience. My hope is to reflect my belief in the world as a theatrical experience, a stage in which information will play itself out before the viewer’s eyes.”