20x200

Black Box by Sarah McKenzie

Hi all! It's Sara, welcoming today's sunshine. Amid skies spewing gray sleet, yesterday's highlight was our March Madness steal—every single 11"x14" print by Mike Monteiro was available for just $30. If you missed out, don't let it happen again, find us on Twitter* or Facebook for the scoop and save $20 on one print every day through the end of the month.

Deals aside, let's just say the week starts now—who needs a cold and rainy Monday when Tuesday holds the bright and shiny promise of brand-new prints? Today's addition to the 20x200 archives, Black Box, derived from an original work by Sarah McKenzie, doesn't disappoint.

It's been awhile since Jen first introduced you all to Sarah's work, soon after discovering it herself at Minneapolis' Walker Art Center, where Site was included in the traveling exhibition Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes. A lot's happened here and in Sarah's career since we released that first edition, including the release of a second pair of prints, the steady Support and studied Lift, in celebration of Sarah's NYC debut solo exhibition at the JBG back in February of 2009. At the end of last year, Sarah had another solo show at Denver's Rule Gallery which earned her this glowing review in the Denver Post.

Sarah will have her second solo show at JBG later this year—museum exhibitions, solo shows and accolades—it seems like all's coming up roses and Sarah's career is simply ascending. And, it is. But, if there's one thing that Sarah's paintings highlight, it's that nothing is what it appears to be at first glance and all this glory hasn't come without a lot of hard work. Her canvases use buildings and construction as metaphors for painting, which in turn could serve as a metaphor for building a career as an artist (or to that end, creating anything that really matters). And, Sarah approaches her paintings in the same way that she approaches her career—with extraordinary skill and dedication. While the end result is an elegantly balanced, serious(ly) playful, and from a distance, seemingly effortless, interpretation of mimimalism and modernism, Black Box encompasses a whole lot more than that—all smoothed over by years of refining her own command of her craft.

As critic Kyle MacMillan notes in that aforementioned review, "While each of [Sarah's] compositions has much to offer as a whole, much of the pleasure of these works comes in getting in close and really taking in McKenzie's skills with a paint brush." I know you have to take my word for it now, but, this pleasure is in the print, too. Hold it near and you'll see: there are layers and layers of paint, multiple approaches and variations in its application, scores of effort, thought, nods to what's been done before we came along, and evidence of lessons learned from others—accompanied, of course, by the urge to leave what's been done in the past and forge on without looking back.** And while being in it, looking closely, smelling the paint (or ink!) and getting your metaphorical fingers dirty affords the opportunity to absorb all this, it's only when you stand back, and I mean a few feet, at least, if not farther, and look at what's been created that it all comes together.

* If you haven't embraced your social media future: bookmark our Twitter page (or just make a mental note of it) and check in at 11:00 a.m. ET to see the March Madness deal every day through the end of the month.

** A smart lady I know often says you don't change anything by doing things the way they've always been done.