KP Projects is pleased to present “When Two Worlds Collide,” an exhibition of recent works by husband and wife painters Carolynda Macdonald and Alan Macdonald.

Created during their relocation from Carnoustie to Edinburgh, the atmospheric, layered landscapes in these works are inspired by the Scottish terrain. Movement and change permeate the narrative worlds of their canvases as the couple navigates the uncertainty and excitement of their own uprooting. Sophisticated, visually literate, and ethereal, Carolynda and Alan tell a tale of human history traversing cultures and time, drawing references from early Romanticism while bringing fresh perspectives to an historical canon.

Inspired by the old masters, particularly mythological painting, Carolynda Macdonald recontextualizes figures who occupy the bodies of her birds to impart new life, allowing them to break boundaries and occupy space between two worlds. As the artist explains, “The majesty of birds become vehicles for subconscious play and self expression.” Like ornithological studies from a lost world, these birds bridge a readily recognisable world with that of an imaginary one in order to explore the private realm of thoughts and feelings of the human condition.

With dense and visually rich narrative, Alan Macdonald’s portraits are intimate character studies infused with historical references that emerge as the artist paints them, allowing them to suggest who they would like to be. “It is through them that my subconscious communicates.” His understanding of past and present allows for a multi-layered exploration of ideas which he infuses with precision and humor. With surreal juxtaposition of costume cloaked figures framed by the familiarity of traditional painting, the works take on subversive undertones with an occasional pop icon cue. Alan is well versed in the power of the human gaze, with portraits that pulse with the feeling of something primeval before leaving behind a sense of wonderment.

Similarly affected by both the conscious and subconscious realms of feeling and thought, the exhibition is a wonderful expression of how Carolynda and Alan work individually, and as a whole, to navigate their way through life together. As they redefine figures and styles in an individuated way, they prompt us, the viewer, to participate in the constructs of canonization by way of personal interpretation, and our own experiences.