"Expo Chicago 2023: The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art features high quality artwork representing 170 galleries in 90 cities across 36 countries from Argentina to Zimbabwe; the tenth edition of the exposition runs from 13th – 16th April at Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
There are nine galleries from London taking part, including the Cynthia Corbett Gallery, which will showcase the work of Elaine Woo MacGregor – this is indeed an inspirational story and a major coup for the critically-acclaimed young Scottish-Chinese artist.
After studying for an Honours degree in Fine Art Painting at Glasgow School of Art (1999-2003), Elaine Woo MacGregor was quickly recognised for her cross-cultural, figurative work, receiving numerous awards (Dewar Arts, James Torrance Memorial, Hope Scott Trust, Art Paisley Prize, Velvet Easel, Travel bursaries, et al). She has exhibited in the UK, USA, Australia and Thailand, most recently selected for the ‘Reframing the Muse’ Platform at London Art Fair 2023, Saatchi Gallery. Her work is in international private, public and corporate collections.
Combined with her own successful artistic career, Elaine also lectures at the Glasgow School of Art, The Centre for Lifelong Learning, Strathclyde University and Linlithgow Art School. In 2008 she had a marvellous opportunity to teach students at the Academy of Fine Art, Guizhou University, China.
[ ... ]
Elaine is a pictorial storyteller covering diverse subjects: whether her art follows a fictitious theme there are elements based on real people and places to create evocative, atmospheric scenes. For the Expo Chicago Art Fair, she has created a series of narrative paintings based on the novel The Shadow of the Wind by the late Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Barcelona, 1945: a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to realise he can no longer remember his mother’s face. She had died when he was just four. To console him, his father, an antiquarian book dealer, takes him to a vast library, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books where his literary adventure of discovery begins:
‘As it unfolded, the story began to remind me of one of those Russian dolls that contain innumerable ever-smaller dolls within .. the narrative split into a thousand stories, as if it had entered a gallery of mirrors, its identity fragmented into endless reflections. It’s a story of love, of hatred and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.’ – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Isabella (Daniel’s mother) presents a languid, elegant pose and serene facial expression – in death she becomes an other-worldly angel. The use of bright yellow indicates strong Spanish sunshine as well as the sense of hazy memories of the past.
These ‘painted stories’ express such a sensitive, emotional and psychological connection with Zafón’s colourful, complex characters; translating the literary descriptions into perceptive, poetic portraits, they are brought alive from page to paint with enchanting, luminous imagination.
‘There is a symbiosis between the way I paint, the narratives in my works and that of the author’s. I fused my interpretation of his words and his ‘old Barcelona’, … my travel sketches, fashion photography, film stills and antique photographs to create these painterly dream-like visions’. – Elaine Woo MacGregor
Profile by Vivien Devlin
Read the article here: https://artmag.co.uk/from-the-shadow-of-the-wind-to-the-windy-city-elaine-woo-macgregor-at-chicago-art-fair-2023/
