In the works of Canadian artist Kathryn MacNaughton, the canvas—and the analog process of the painter’s hand—references the computer screen and the digital touch. In her physical paintings, she seeks to give the illusion that the work looks digital, thereby reifying the digital in paint. MacNaughton trained and worked as a graphic designer and typically uses post-analog language when discussing her work: masking, layering, color-blocking, silhouette. Here these concepts are paired with more Romantic expressive movements such as scribbles, painterly splatters, and curves. MacNaughton’s paintings traffic in polarities: analog and post-analog mark-making (i.e. the painterly and the digital); pragmatism and Romanticism; expressiveness and obfuscation. Her works draw inspiration from artists including Robert Morris, Georgia O’Keefe, Richard Diebenkorn, Giorgio de Chirico, as well as the highly stylized drawings of Patrick Nagel.

Kathryn MacNaughton (b. 1985) graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design and is based in Lisbon, Portugal. She has exhibited at Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto; Beers London Gallery, London; Magma Gallery, Bologna; Joshua Liner Gallery, New York; Gardiner Museum, Toronto; Future Fair, New York; and Zona Maco, Mexico City; among others.