Lucy McKenzie. Deathwatch

Lucy McKenzie (Glasgow, 1977) is a painter in the wider sense. Many of her paintings are portraits of artist colleagues or friends, metaphorically elaborated and enriched by a wealth of attributes from other sources – as far afield as Russian Constructivism or 1950s wall paintings – whereby the purely formal, compositional aspects of the source are as important as the hinterlands of its contents.

Lucy McKenzie is interested in the dividing line between art and life, the regions where the two can come together – always assuming that art is more than pretty decoration and life receives new impulses through artistic reflection. Painting, drawing, object-making and performance are never an end in themselves. They are reworked by their everyday counterparts architecture, design, fashion and events culture. On the extended stage of visual art, music, discussion and performance a new social structure emerges which allows the active research into the role of artists and their work in society today.

An art museum with a collection and a steady stream of visitors must be the ideal place for such an undertaking. For her work in the Van Abbemuseum Lucy McKenzie has designed a site specific mural for the long passage connecting two buildings. This transit zone is the only part of the museum that passers-by can see into from the outside. The artist will create an imitation, white-painted brick wall on which she will paint other architectural details and works of art: ‘My new mural will exploit its fortuitous position with the Van Abbemuseum. Proximate to the meeting point of the old building and the new wing, and joining the collection to its restaurant, the corridor will become a trompe-l’oeil third space which is actually a misplaced exhibition for another time and place entirely, holding a mirror up to what the museum and museum-goer are today.’ (Lucy McKenzie) For more information please visit: www.lucymckenzie.com

Lucy McKenzie. Deathwatch
Kuratorin: Eva Meyer-Hermann