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Quint Contemporary Art is pleased to in conjunction with the exhibition of Kim MaConnel’s new work to release the publication KIM MACCONNEL – ABRACADABRA: NEW ABSTRACT ENAMELS.

In the Fall of 2010, Kim MacConnel opened a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego – Collection Applied Design: A Kim MacConnel Retrospective. Coinciding with this retrospective was an exhibition of his new work abstract enamel paintings at Quint Contemporary Art, Abracadabra: New Abstract Enamels. This book highlights the exhibition at Quint Contemporary Art. To order your copy see details below.

SAN DIEGO — Ever since Renaissance Venice, painters have traditionally worked by painting on cloth stretched taut over a rectangular frame made from strips of wood. But in the mid-1970s, when some artists and critics were claiming that painting was dead and ripe for burial, Kim MacConnel instead changed the rules of the painting game.

Two unexpected approaches emerged. Using bright acrylics, he painted on salvaged thrift-store furniture — sofas, tufted chairs and chaises. And, in lieu of off-white cotton canvas, he painted on strips of plain or commercially printed fabric, which he sewed together, did not stretch and simply push-pinned to the wall.

So what is the difference between a traditional canvas on rectangular stretchers and upholstery fabric stretched taut over a wooden frame assembled at a factory in the shape of a chair? Or commercial fabric hanging loose and free?

Collection Applied Design: A Kim MacConnel Retrospective is the first full-career retrospective to be presented in San Diego of this influential, San Diego-based artist.

Kim MacConnel is a painter who has engaged questions of abstraction, figuration, and decoration throughout his long career. The artist draws inspiration from a wide range of sources including found graphic images, patterned fabrics, Near Eastern textiles, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and the detritus that washes up on beaches. His work is informed by various experiences of travel, including his study of indigenous cultures and a self-conscious examination of the role of the tourist.