Artist Statement
My work sets the stage for asking, do we ever reach the unreachable ever…
In consideration of the dimensional relationships that exist between drawing, painting, and sculpture, the work is obsessed with the expression of color, circle, light, line, and the way we perceive these things.
The semi-transparent surface provides the opportunity to go within and transform traditional art ways. The process creating work that blur the distinction between the material and immaterial. The lines appear to hover in space as they cast colors, dematerializing themselves in the reflections.
Despite what your eyes are telling you, the notion of being able to see beyond the surface changed the preconceived ideas of pictorial space and lends itself to meditation. Reflected and captured light passing through the surface, leads the viewer in to see beyond into the object‘s own ethereal timelessness.
Artist Bio
McKay Otto is a native Texan artist known for paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations that explore light, energy, and spiritual perception. Born in Wharton in 1947, he grew up in Fort Bend County near Houston, where from an early age he showed a strong inclination toward drawing.
Following a professional career in real estate, he became a full-time artist in 1985, studying at the Art School at Laguna Gloria in Austin and the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as well as exploring perceptual and spiritual concepts at the School of Perceptionism in Sedona, Arizona.
McKay has exhibited widely across the United States and internationally. His work has been shown at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the McNay Art Museum, Blue Star Contemporary, and Five Points Museum of Contemporary Art, and presented at major art fairs including SCOPE Basel, SCOPE Miami, EXPO Chicago, Art Aspen, the East Hampton Art Fair, and the Dallas Art Fair.
His exhibitions have been reviewed in Art in America and documented in the books Texas Abstract and Texas Artists Today. He has received numerous honors, including the Innovative Artist of the Year Award from the Delaplaine Art Center (MD). He lives and works in Wimberley, Texas.