Allie Mcghee

A pillar of the Detroit art community since the 1960s, Allie McGhee (b. 1941, Charleston, WV) is known for his lyrical, material-driven works rendered in swirling constellations of industrial paint and found media. Inspired by cosmology, African symbolism, and the rhythms of free jazz, his work explores the inherent tensions between spontaneity and premeditation, intention, and accident. These spattered, trawled, and often deconstructed pieces are composed by pouring paint and using hand tools rather than brushes, enabling the artist to create energetic compositions that appear effortless, like natural formations. Remarking on McGhee’s devotion to this process, California African American Museum curator Taylor Renee Aldridge writes: “McGhee found the paintbrush to be an inadequate device to use for the scale he desired...the artist became interested in liberating the paint on his canvas, allowing it to have its own voice. McGhee does not desire to dominate the materials in which he works, but rather he aims to be in collaboration with or even a student of them.” Much like Ed Clark's use of brooms or Jack Whitten's engagement with Afro combs, McGhee seeks out unorthodox approaches to painting to push the conventions of the medium beyond its limits.