Ian Magargee

Since I first started producing abstract paintings, I've been interested in making pieces that have a strong sense of dynamism. It's the exact opposite impulse from that which motivated Frank Stella's self-referential "pinstripe" paintings, which I ironically consider a source of inspiration. My earliest, rectangular abstractions (strongly echoing Kandinsky) slowly evolved to my current body of paintings which occupy both sculptural and pictorial space.

In my current work, I use line to convey directionality, tension, and to establish a sense of internal scale. I use color to imply variations in depth, activity, and stillness. These elements of pictorial suggestion interact with the concrete elements of the sculptural support, which I design to reflect its own set of internal tensions -- polygons of various sizes and depths sliding against each other, embracing, wedging between one another, and so on. The physical properties of the sculptural support lend a sense of gravity and direction to each piece, while pictorial elements permit one's imagination to explore implied depths, spaces, and movements within the sculptural.

2008 MFA in Painting and Drawing, The Ohio State University

2005 Yale University Summer School of Art, Norfolk Division, Yale University

2005 BA in Studio Art / Minor in Art History, University of Alabama in Huntsville

2010
One Year of Internet Exposure on Art-Mine, Agora Gallery, New York, NY

Constructing Color: Works by Christin Hutchinson and Ian Magargee, The Ohio Art League, Columbus, OH

2009
Shaped, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (Juror: Jason Franz)

The Ohio State University Department of Art Visiting Lecturers Exhibition, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Columbus, OH

The 2009 Chelsea International Fine Art Competition - Collective Exhibition, Agora Gallery, New York, NY (Juror: Ira Goldberg, Executive Director, The Art Students League of New York)

One-Person Exhibition, The Arts Initiative at Ohio State, Columbus, OH

One-Person Exhibition, Pearl Conard Gallery, The Ohio State University at Mansfield, Mansfield, OH

Paintpresent, Lexington Art League, Loudoun House Gallery, Lexington, KY (Juror: Bobby Campbell, Assistant Professor of Art at Morehead State University)

2008

ROY G BIV Gallery’s Annual Members’ Small Works Exhibition, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, OH

Viewpoint 2008 40th Annual National Juried Art Competition, Wessel Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (Juror: Dr. Julie Aronson)

The Ohio State University Department of Art Visiting Lecturers Exhibition, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Columbus, OH

The Ohio State University Department of Art Grad...