Press Release

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present I Used To Be A Rainbow, an exhibition of paintings by Earl McBride. McBride’s abstract works are rooted in storytelling. By using various mark-making tools he presents an exploration of identity and transformation.

Growing up in the South in white, black, and gay culture, McBride cites white cotton, black tar, Sunday whites, gospel music, the Runaways, Boy George, rainbow stickers, and disco balls as his early inspiration. His childhood art hero was Don Martin, a cartoonist for Mad Magazine. He learned to draw by studying Mad, Cracked Magazine, and illustrations from the Bible. Interested in contradictions and the poetry of the human condition, McBride uses paint to describe dualities like ugly and beautiful, viscous and dry, oily and flat, thick and smooth, observer and participant, comedy and pathos, male and female, and negative and positive space.

McBride’s large-scale paintings are theatrical and unmeditated. Using spray paint, lithography grease pencils, thick oil paint straight from the tube, colored pencil, graphite, asphalt, and enamel marker, McBride transforms wooden panels into fields of discordant colors and shapes that look like both brash decisions and restrained calculated thoughts.

Receiving his bachelor’s degree from Otis College of Art and Design, McBride spent many years working in art galleries before studying painting and drawing at the University of New Mexico Graduate Program. He moved to New Mexico from LA thirteen years ago for the fresh energizing air and the availability of studio space. He has exhibited in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe.

Images for this exhibition can be found on our website www.levygallery.com. High-resolution images are available on request. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook: @levygallery

Dates: April 7 – May 19, 2017
Reception: April 22, 6–8 pm
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11:00–4:00 pm
Location: 514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102

Artwork and Information
Earl McBride