Brooklyn, NY
Tim McPhee
15 October 2005 14:08 PM
Combining vintage black-and-white imagery with tartly overlayed color forms, Tim McPhee constructs charming illustrations that bespeak a familiar desire for retro looks and modernist fashions. Photos of apples, mustachioed men, ladies in shirt-waist dresses, Victorian streetlamps, a nifty automobile, and slingback chairs are sampled and counterpointed by a pleasing geometric palette of solid turquoise, kelly green, sunshine yellow, and other suitable shades. Echoes of John Baldessari are quietly muffled, McPhee’s tastefulness admitting none of that old bad boy’s coy critique. The latter’s silkscreened layers don’t signal information blocked or questioned, but rather style added.
—Lori Waxman