Todd McKie
Todd McKie (1944-2022) was a painter, sculptor, and printmaker. McKie’s work is among the most instantly recognized and thoroughly loved art produced in Boston over the past three decades. Having reduced his compositional operation to a few key elements, he nevertheless managed to summon a complete range of contemporary life’s pleasures and travails as perceived by a bemused participant.
Admired by peers, collectors, and curators for his painterly invention and wit, McKie's work is, in fact often less understandable than it seems at first blush. Enveloped in a risible atmosphere of absurd predicament, the dilemmas of McKie's protagonists resist straightforward interpretation.
Avidly collected, McKie's works are held in many private and corporate collections and in the public collections of major museums throughout the region.
McKie has exhibited at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University; the McMullen Museum at Boston College; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA; as well as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He is the recipient of two Massachusetts Artists Fellowships (1975 and 1989) and residencies at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, Boston; the Centre d’Arte in Marnay-sur-Seine, France; the McColl Center in Charlotte, North Carolina; and the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California.
“Todd’s paintings often feature a single, very abstract person, surrounded by odd things, and a funny title,” said Capasso. “The key is the single person — a stand-in for both the artist and the viewer. You could put yourself in the shoes of the figure, and get the existential problem the figure was having.” - Nick Capasso, Director of the Fitchburg Art Museum
featured worK
past exhibitions
Handmade Papers | Feb 2 - Mar 2, 2024