Details:

This work consists of an intricate cut drawing mounted to a mirror. The imagery is drawn from a large collage of source images and the cut shapes are based on ancient papyrus. In the final composition, the mirror captures the present moment—including the surrounding environment and the body of the viewer—holding it suspended between the illusionistic spaces of the drawing.
Framed: 17.8 x 12.9 in.
Signed

① Artwork:

Waxing Year 11 Mirror Drawing

This work is part of a series by the artist that brings together three disparate elements: pencil drawings on paper that are painted red on the reverse side; intricate paper elements based on artifacts; and mirrors.

First, the artist makes line drawings by tracing collaged compositions created from found and drawn imagery. Each of these compositions are made as studies for the artist's series of large paintings, Waxing Year.

Second, the artist cuts out silhouettes of the drawings, which are based on ancient Egyptian papyrus fragments held in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. These fragments are loosely coming apart along the grid structure of the papyrus itself—a woven material with a tactility that is more like fabric than paper.

Third, the artist affixes the resulting cut-out paper artwork onto a mirror—emphasizing the physicality of the picture plane. As the back of the drawings are painted red, they cast a colored reflection on the far side of the glass. This creates an illusion of the drawing being suspended in space.

In the final work, the mirror captures the present moment—including the surrounding environment and the body of the viewer—holding it suspended between the illusionistic spaces of the drawing.

Specs:

12.88 inches
17.75 inches
with frame
12.88 inches
17.75 inches

③ Artist:

Caitlin Keogh

Caitlin Keogh’s work encompasses painting and drawing. The artist frequently works from reference materials, exploring the festishitic quality of objects and of art history. Keogh’s meticulous and detail-oriented process focuses on the physicality of the picture plane and the relationship of the viewer’s body to the artwork.

BIO:

Caitlin Keogh was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1982. 

Keogh’s paintings were recently included in New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century at the Berkeley Art Museum in California.  

Solo exhibitions of Keogh’s work have taken place at: the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts; and MoMA PS1 in New York City.  

Keogh’s work has also been featured in exhibitions at: the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; MoMA Warsaw in Poland; Künstlerhaus Bremen in Germany; and the Queens Museum in New York City. 

Keogh's work is held in the collections of: the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum in Winter Park, Florida. 

A monograph on Keogh’s work, Headless Woman with Parrot, has been published by Triangle Books in Brussels, Belgium.

Keogh lives and works in New York City.

Caitlin Keogh:
Waxing Year 11 Mirror Drawing, 2022
Colored pencil, and acrylic on paper mounted to mirror
17.8 × 12.9 inches /