Keegan McHargue, Untitled, 2015, oil on polyester, aluminum stretcher, 70 x 60 in
Keegan McHargue: Topical
Fredericks & Freiser, New York
10 September – 10 October
Keegan McHargue’s paintings are like the Hairy Who meets South Park. Social commentary comes wrapped in the guise of humor. The New York-based painter’s use of childlike motifs, like a flat yellow sun appearing in the corner of the picture frame, lends his paintings a kind of innocence, despite the depravity that they sometimes contain in their weird scenes. There are mermaids, bulbous red cherries, undulating space creatures, explosions, a cartoony red devil, and a centaur that looks like he came galloping out of Colonial Williamsburg, all rather disparate elements that come together with some kind of strange logic in McHargue’s world.