Lacey McKinney is a visual artist who lives and works near Syracuse, New York. Born in 1984, she studied at the State University of New York at New Paltz and graduated with a Master of Arts in Painting and Drawing in 2012. She is an Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Finger Lakes Community College.
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I focus on social justice concepts from an intersectional feminist lens. My goal is to reveal aspects of personhood in relation to bodily, social, and individual experience. Women’s faces of various fleshy hues appear as strata in a moment of tension as it is unclear as to whether or not they are coming together or moving apart.
Stratification describes the grouping of people based on distinction between levels of privilege. In a geological context, it depicts fragments deposited layer by contrasting layer to form sedimentary rocks, fused together resulting in a unified whole. I show both versions of the definition existing simultaneously, even as they are contradictory. I approach my practice from a philosophical standpoint and I am influenced by authors including Simone de Beauvoir and Zadie Smith. I am interested in how women are represented throughout art history as well as popular culture and the social implications of race, class, and gender. Similarly, another area of exploration is the association between the feminine with nature and how fear of Other perpetuates oppression.
I start my ideation process by making collages from appropriated photographs to use
as source material. I make paintings with mixed media including acrylic, graphite, metal
leaf, and oil paint. The metal acts as a metaphorical prompt associated with value and
worth. Recently, I have experimented with cutting irregular shapes using PVC to replace
a traditionally stretched canvas or panel painting ground.