Megan Rooney, Untitled (from the series Old baggy root), 2018
, Acrylic, ink, pencil, charcoal, pastel on paper, 56 x 38 cm
Kollitsch Collection
The artist, who was born in Cape Town in 1985, grew up in Canada and is currently living in London. In her art she combines a variety of media: painting, installations, performances and language.
Rooney is a meticulous observer of everyday life. Each work of art starts with a sketch of an everyday theme, which may then turn into a watercolour or a performance.
One recurring element in her oeuvre is human and animal bodies. Both the range of pale but warm colours that dominate many of her works, and the theme of objects hovering in midair speak of a light-hearted playfulness.
— Felix Kucher
Megan Rooney, Cigarette burns and soft fuzzy hair, 2017
, Hand-painted fabric, fans, 3 parts, total: approx. 310 x 210 x 180 cm
Courtesy of the artist and DREI, Cologne
While Megan Rooney’s watercolours seem to reveal a delicate suspended state, the three-part sculpture Cigarette burns and soft fuzzy hair (2017) appears to have a floating and airy reality about it. A face, in the centre, only a form; eyes, edged with mascara, look on in amazement at hands as if noticing them for the first time, like a mirror image, grotesque in appearance but with delicate colours in all shades from cool violet and the orange of sunrise, reminiscent of the embers of a burning cigarette.
— Frank Falderbaum