Paul McDevitt

Berlin-based British artist Paul McDevitt's drawings and paintings combine high and low art as classical and modernist imagery collide with graffiti and collage. His subversion of traditional art historical hierarchies exposes new, fantastical imagery that teeters on the peripheries of reality and deconstructs the myths still clinging to the practice of painting. Behind this rigorous formal practice lies an equally considered conceptually undertaking. The gloved hand, a significant motif in McDevitt's work, is an apt entry point from which to examine his wider artistic intentions. McDevitt gives us high Modernism flowing unabashedly into the ‘lower' art forms he has championed: graffiti, cartoon iconography, and collage. His refusal to propagate traditional art historical hierarchies exposes new, fantastical imagery that teeters on the peripheries of reality and deconstructs those myths still clinging to the practice of painting.

McDevitt’s solo shows include Sommer & Kohl, Berlin, ALP/Peter Bergman, Stockholm, Artspeak, Vancouver, Martin Asbaek Gallery, Copenhagen, GalerieMartin van Zomeren, Amsterdam, and Kunstverein Schwerte. Group shows include KIT Düsseldorf, Germany, Lehmann Maupin, New York, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, Sao Paulo, Jerwood Space, Kunsthalle Andratx, Mallorca, Musée D'Art Contemporain Du Val-De-Marne and “Cult Fiction” Arts Council touring show, New Art Gallery, Walsall.

Courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery