Malcolm McCormick
K Enters the Castle At Last
From May 30 to July 6, 2024
Galerie Nicolas Robert is pleased to present K Enters the Castle at Last, Malcolm McCormick’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition consists of nuanced and evocative abstract paintings characterized by their understated, often monochromatic palette and unique structural compositions. The works possess a deceptive simplicity that conceals layers of history, time, and space, emphasizing the artist’s playfulness and restraint in his inaugural showcase at the gallery.
At the heart of McCormick’s practice is the interplay between a painting’s role as an image and its tangible presence as an object. His composite paintings, constructed from two or more panels that form a singular painting, utilize elements of formalism and sculpture to examine the relationship between visual representation and three-dimensional space within a painting. The artist pays meticulous attention to the formal aspects of his works. Each fragmented panel is precisely crafted and nests within the other composite pieces, forming crisp lines and curves that create the painting’s pictorial composition.
Monochromes in white, light blue, and pale pink establish a subdued atmosphere. These are interspersed with vibrant greens and acrid yellows, forming a dynamic colour scheme. Paint is layered onto the canvas, sometimes creating a uniform opaque colour, while at other times, it is selectively wiped away, yielding muddy tones with a subtle, unsettling quality. Collectively, they emit a nostalgic ambiance, evoking a type of optimism tinged with melancholy. Their arrangement is specific to the gallery’s architecture. Each colour, shape, and structure is tangential to the next, yet each makes a different proposition. Together, they create a unique rhythm to the viewing experience.
Beyond their formal qualities, each painting is layered with meaning and references that invite further contemplation. Some works are embellished with disparate shapes and motifs painted or crafted onto their structures. Although not easily recognizable, they are taken from McCormick’s ever-growing lexicon of passages borrowed from the history of modernist painting. This process is akin to collage. In many ways, the artist’s approach to abstract painting involves piecing together different paintings, methods, and references, resulting in hybrid forms that inspire new connections.
The exhibition’s evocative title, borrowed from a painting by American artist R.B. Kitaj, provides insight into the artist’s layered approach to artmaking. In K Enters the Castle at Last (2004), Kitaj depicted the protagonist “K” from Franz Kafka’s novel, The Castle (1926), finally entering the titular fortified complex, an achievement that never occurred in Kafka’s final and unfinished work. The shape of the Castle, which Kitaj depicted with paint as isometric linework, is replicated in McCormick’s painting Kitaj's Room (2023–2024) as a tangible structural composition. These spatial and sculptural dimensions amplify the portal-like qualities of the form, inviting viewers to venture into its realm.
The exhibition’s title inspires many interpretations. For instance, Kafka’s narrative of anticipation, distraction, and delay, along with Kitaj’s proposed resolution, serves as a possible metaphor for the painting process. The title can serve as a vantage point to frame the viewer’s experience. It is an invitation to a new phase, capturing a universal sentiment that lends itself to perpetual allusions. The Castle could symbolize the painting, the gallery, or, as Kafka suggests, an abstract idea of structure and order. K is another variable. K could be Kafka, or Kitaj. K could also be the audience encountering this work, or most likely, K could be the artist finding a new sense of confidence within his practice.
Text by Hanss Lujan Torres
Malcolm McCormick lives and works in Montreal. He holds an MFA from Concordia University, and a BFA from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Recent exhibitions include Les plus beaux cauchemars / Cruel to Be Kind (Le Livart, 2023), Le printemps du MAC (2023), and no order (Joe Project, 2023).
