ULTRA SENSITIVE, SUPRA SENSUAL

Saturday, my show "Ultra Sensitive" opens at Proof Gallery in South Boston. So I'll be spending most of the rest of the week installing and tweaking and fretting and eating and not eating. Actually I am totally ready and the work is ravishing.

If you are in Boston this weekend, please join me on Saturday Sept. 11th, 6-8pm. Proof Gallery at the Distillery, 516 East 2nd Street, South Boston MA, 02127. Also, we will after party at my house until late in Somerville, so bring a bottle.

Self-portrait, 2010, Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches

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Proof Gallery is thrilled to open our season with Ultra Sensitive new work by Sam McKinniss.
McKinniss's lush portraiture is at first glance firmly in line with its history. Beautiful pictures of beautiful folks - documenting a time, a space, an attitude. McKinniss ditches this shibboleth by being hyper-aware of the flattering power of the portrait and transitively, the seductive power of flattery. What we are watching, in the most straightforward of ways, is a romance. Rather than capturing some essence of his sitter, McKinniss's portraits are all about projection. As in the beginning of a love affair, flaws are masked and attributes given; verity is... subjective. Though the paintings depict many individuals, Ultra Sensitive taken as a whole becomes an oblique self-portrait, the subject: self love.

Sam McKinniss is a Boston-based painter. He has exhibited widely in New England including a 2008 solo show, FIERCE DOUBT at the New Britain Museum of American Art. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including most recently, the New Boston Fund Individual Artist Fellowship. Ultra Sensitive is his Boston solo debut

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