For his second full-scale exhibition at SHAHEEN, and first exhibition at the gallery since 2006, Neil MacDonald expands his inquiry into the formal, technical and thematic concerns that have guided his paintings of the past eight years. While the majority of MacDonald's paintings to date have derived from video stills depicting peripheral, often tranquil scenes and moments from the aftermath, cleanup and investigation of airplane crashes and environmental disasters, "History Paintings" finds the artist culling reproductions of old master paintings from art history text books and the internet, and filtering them through his systematic and consistently applied working process. The result is a visually profuse and spectacular group of mid and large scale paintings, and fully realized small scale studies based on masterpieces by Peter Paul Rubens, Tintoretto and others. "History Paintings" will be anchored by "The Battle of Lepanto (After Vicentino)", MacDonald's largest and most ambitious painting to-date. Spanning five panels and measuring 64 x 160 inches, "Lepanto" is based on 17th century Venetian painter Andrea Vicentino's mural-sized battle scene depicting the third and final Battle of Lepanto, a naval skirmish in which the Holy League earned a decisive victory over the Ottoman Empire.
The images of well-known old master paintings that provide the basis for the artist's "History Paintings" series have been selected for their visual profusion, chaotic energy, and dynamic compositions. By re-interpreting these images through his rigorous, even-handed painting process, MacDonald continues his ongoing exploration into humankind's innate need to impose order onto chaos and make sense of the unexplainable and unfathomable; the ways in which painting, photography and other modes of visual representation serve that need; and the capacity of visual representation to not only record, order, and disseminate information about historical events, but also its ability to perpetuate alternate versions of history and reality.
MacDonald was most recently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Akron Art Museum (Akron, Ohio), entitled Dreamland. He earned his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and MFA from Kent State University. MacDonald currently lives and works in Stow, Ohio.