4th image:: Merton Walks in a Clearing, pastel on paper, 2016.
Bottom: Light Streaming Thru the Trees, 36"x18", acrylic on canvas, 2017
Below; my series of 125 drawings, The Derby 125 Diaries hang at the KY Derby Museum, Churchill Downs. The series is part of a changing exhibit at the museum, will hang past the 2022 KY Derby. i gave the series to the Derby museum when in 1999, the year I made them, and after showing them at the old chase Gallery here in Louisville.
Joe McGee Resume
Education:
BFA, Sculpture, University of Louisville, 1986
Awards and Honors:
Allen R. Hite Scholarship, U of L, 1981-1986
Winthrop Allen Award, Hite Art Institute, U of L, 1986
SAF/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship, Drawing, 1988
Kentucky Arts Council Professional Assistance Award, 1993
Exhibitions and Commissioned Work
1986, Faculty and Alumni Exhibit, U of L Belknap Galleries, Louisville, KY
1987, Exhibition 280: Works Off Walls, Huntington Museum of Art, WV
1987, Neo Expressionism, Invitational, University of Kentucky Gallery, KY
1988, Drawing In Kentucky, Invitational, Carnegie Arts Center, Covington, KY
1988, Study of Form, Solo exhibit, Belknap Galleries, U of L, KY
1989, Exhibition 1989, Part I, Painting, Berkely Arts Center, CA
1989, SAF/NEA Reginal Fellowship Exhibit, Atlanta College of Arts, GA
1989, Exhibition 1989, Part II, Drawing, Berkely Arts Center, CA
1990, Exhibition 1990, Part I, Sculpture, Berkely Arts Center, CA
1990, New Work, Solo exhibit, Spalding University, Louisville, KY
1991, Dynamic Duos, Invitational, Liberty Gallery, Louisville, KY
1992, Critters, Invitational, KY Arts & Craft gallery, Louisville, KY
1992, Catharsis, Solo exhibit, Belknap Galleries, U Of L, KY
1994, Homage to our Mother, Solo exhibit, Cathedral Heritage Foundation, Louisville, KY
1994, New Works, Invitational, Heike Picket Gallery, Lexington, KY
1996, Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures, Solo exhibit, Images Friedman Gallery, Louisville, KY
1997, KY Corn Mother, Commissioned sculpture and exhibit of drawings, Woodford Reserve Distillery, Versailles, KY
1998, In the Mold, Invitational, LVAA, Louisville, KY
1999, The Derby 125 Diaries, Solo exhibit, Bank One Gallery, Louisville, KY
1999, Twister Visions, Invitational, LVAA, Louisville, KY
2000, Family McGee, Group show of my family, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
2001, The Spirit Tree, Solo exhibit, Catherdral Heritage Foundation, Louisville, KY
2002, Woodford, Commissioned Sculpture, Woodford Reserve Distillery, Versailles, KY
2003, The Lewis and Clark Trilogy, Educational exhibit murals, KY State Fair, KY
Father and Son, Two person exhibit, KY Folk Art Center, Morehead, KY
2004, Alternative Views: Approaches to Abstraction, Four person invitational, Hite Art Institute, U of L, KY
2005, Tsunami/Tower, Solo exhibit, Spalding University, Louisville, KY
2006, Pictorial Meditations on Verrocchio's Equestrian Monument to Colleoni, Solo exhibit, Chase Gallery, Louisville, KY
2008, Joseph/Flowers, Solo exhibit, Gallerie Hertz, Louisville, KY
2009-2010, The Amazing Mr. Duke, written & illustrated Early Readers children's story dedicated to my daughter Tahsa
2011, Three Generations: Hagan, Joe & Tasha McGee, Three person exhibit, Spalding University, Louisville, KY
2011, Image of Time: The Sphinx, Solo exhibit, Gallery X, Hite Art Institte, U of L , Louisville, KY
2012, The Amazing Mr. Duke, A children's story, art and text by Joseph McGee, Wayside Expressions Gallery, Louisville, KY
2013, Holiday Show, Group show of small works, Gallerie Hertz, Louisville, KY
2015, "En el Espiritu de Frida", organized 5 person show honoring 60th Anniversary of passing of our Frida, Swanson Gallery, Louisville, KY
2016, "Difference, Revisiting Abstraction, 2002-2016", Solo exhibit, Green Building Gallery, Louisville, KY
2017, "For the Children of Flowers", solo exhibit, Swanson Contemporary Gallery, Louisville, KY
2018:"Searching for Thomas Merton: An Artistic Tribute, 1968-2018", Penny Sisto & Joe McGee, 2 person exhibit, McGrath Gallery, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY.
2018: "Merton Among Us, the Living legacy of Thomas Merton", Group exhibit. KyCAD, Louisville KY
2021-2022: "Welcome to Derbyville", my Derby 125 Diaries from 1999, are being show at the KY Derby Museum in an exhibit that looks at the culture of the KY Derby. My series of 125 little caricatures of people I saw at the track is being shown in it's entirety in the exhibit. Ongoing exhibit into the running of the 2022 KY Derby.
2022: 'In Search of Faith' solo exhibit, Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, Mt. St. Francis, IN
The two paintings below speak against the practice of Mountaintop Removal in Kentucky and other surrounding states in the region. This destructive process of taking the whole top of a mountain off and then filling in the adjoining valleys and streams to have access to coal seams is unnatural to me. No human should do something like this to their own earth.
The large works (10'x10') were last shown in the exhibit Alternative Views: Approaches to Abstraction at the University of Louisville in 2004.
Above: Living Mountain, mixed media on mural fragment, 10'x10', 2000
Below: Dying Mountain, mixed media on mural fragment, 10'x10', 2000
Image above: Heirarchy, my 30 concrete assemblages shown in January, 2012, at Spalding University in our group show, Three Generations, Hagan, Joe & Tasha McGee.
The works were constructed randomly over a 5-6 month period in 2010 and are arbitrary in meaning. The basic idea is of a archeologist who has found many fragments and then made a series of tragic errors in their reconstruction.