Wit McKay

Wit McKay is a visual artist based in northwest Massachusetts.  He creates digital collage images, fabricated in the computer from multiple photos gathered in the field. They are presented as large-scale archival pigment prints.  His most recent work examines subjects which are ubiquitous, overlooked and mundane. Complexity and contradiction are embraced in his aesthetic.  In the everyday he reveals meaning. He transcends the everyday and crafts artworks at once beguiling and confounding. Their rich colors and opulent surfaces are animated by an untethered perspective.

McKay employs strong classic compositional forms to explore philosophically based themes. His works address issues such as the vagaries of time and the physical embodiment of spirituality. They also tackle concepts such as the erasure of history and the confluence of entropy and vertigo in today’s society. Art history permeates the foundation of his self-expression. It is ever present, found within, not overlaid or explicitly cited in his work.  The work has a frontal stance- a “look at it straight on and don’t blink” attitude that is simultaneously authoritative and intimate. It brings the viewer up close and far away at the same time.  His images are accessible, fun to look at: cunningly enticing, encouraging diverse audiences to linger over them by making the familiar odd, the ugly beautiful, the lovely strange and everything big, unavoidable.  As seemingly ordinary things turn peculiar, McKay’s art leads the viewer to ask, “What is this?”

Wit McKay graduated from Williams College (ba), UNC-Charlotte (bca) and earned his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His honors include: Andrew Mellon Foundation Graduate Fellowship in Art and Technology, Yaddo residency, Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, and an invitation to be a Visiting Artist at The American Academy in Rome. He began his career in New York, making art, while working as a commercial photographer for the fine and decorative arts industry. He currently lives in Williamstown, MA and maintains his studio in North Adams, MA.