Michael McEwan celebrates 30 years with Keny Galleries

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Of his 60 years, local renowned artist Michael McEwan has spent only seven of them living outside of Columbus, and his loyalty to Ohio shines through in his work.

After growing up in Upper Arlington, attending Bishop Watterson High School and heading to Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., McEwan realized Ohio was calling him back home.

“I had thought at one point that I wouldn’t go back; that’s what Columbus does to you,” says McEwan. “But I decided to get a studio and get busy with things.”

In 1981, McEwan returned to Columbus to attend graduate school at The Ohio State University and, in 1984, he got his first studio. McEwan recalls a very different Columbus.

“In the Arena District down on Nationwide called Buggyworks – that’s where my studio was,” says McEwan. “It was, like, 1,000 square feet, and it was 90 bucks per month. There used to be a really great old-school diner there.”

Completely by chance, McEwan met Jim Keny of Keny Galleries at a bookstore in 1982 when the two struck up a conversation over a book on painter John Singer Sargent.

“I’d never been to (Keny Galleries) because it was so exclusive,” says McEwan. “I worked hard to show them I was serious, and I was probably a pain in the ass to them. We’d sit around and have a good time, and we started showing every year after that.”

From Sept. 9 to Oct. 28, Keny Galleries presents A Trip to the Country: Recent Landscape Vignettes, a special exhibit of McEwan’s work to celebrate his 30th anniversary of annual showings at the gallery. It features 20 of McEwan’s recent landscapes in the Upstairs Gallery, coupled with an Ohio Masterworks exhibit in the Main Gallery.

The Masterworks collection will feature 50 works by Ohio artists of all types, among them George Bellows, Robert Blum and Alice Schille.

“These are big-time artists,” says McEwan. “If I sold my parents’ house and my house, I could buy them. It’s a museum-quality show.”

Jim Keny and his brother, gallery co-owner Tim Keny, thought hard about bringing in two exhibits that would complement each other, and the Masterworks and McEwan exhibit fit perfectly.

“We wanted to make sure that we had a contemporary artist who we feel comfortable with,” says Tim. “We’ve been with Mike a long time, and he’s very knowledgeable. He’s very talented and he’s a favorite painter, too.”

McEwan is a landscape painter who primarily paints the landscapes around Ohio, and while his works are focused mainly on the use of light, the paintings that are featured in A Trip to the Country are particularly so.

“I’m really happy,” says McEwan, who spent two years working on the exhibit. “The palpable feeling of light is what we’re going for. I’ve learned a lot about color. It’s more refined, but still an adventure.”

McEwan’s command of light is obvious in his works, which will be on view in this exhibit, featuring landscapes from Licking County to the lakes of Ohio, such as Indian Lake and Lake Erie.

“He understands the atmospheric conditions and the light of Ohio,” says Tim. “He’s able to capture that specific quality of light, whether it’s a dank November day or a bright June day out in the country. He has a lot of range.”

In addition to his exhibition work, McEwan conducts painting classes at his own McEwan Studio School, and has taught at the Columbus College of Art and Design as well as OSU.

As for what to expect at the exhibit, McEwan says the works include more personal style.

“It’s still the same themes of the landscape, but it’s more refined and perhaps even more of myself in the painting,” he says. “It’s gotten a little more, I think, refined; crystallized, some of it.”

Amanda DePerro is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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