A native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Massachusetts College of Art, Kerri McGill, has been making art in her studio at Vernon Street in Somerville for over the last fifteen years. Art residencies far from home have had great influence on both the subject and the mediums she uses. After an AiR program in Argentina, McGill leans into mixed media and map specific collage. These materials create a backdrop to explore how we organize and divide the living world.
Another AiR program in New Zealand 2020 becomes an elongated adventure in a rural town due to the pandemic. Isolated in the rainy winter of Wairarap’s farmland, artwork focuses on the mountains as individuals and birds as timekeepers.
Her participation in Copenhagen's Neuroaesthetics Conference (2009) galvanized her interest in the connection between vision and self manufactured realities. Grants from the Mass Cultural Council supported her exploration of effects of city planning on quality of life. Working as a scenic artist for film and television, McGill is familiar with undertaking large scale projects and technical processes ranging from faux painting and sculpture to mixing concrete.
As an artist, McGill is both researcher and storyteller. She sees her artwork as an active object. It brings a permanent stillness to a moment, where only the paint and one’s vision creates the motion. It creates a space that fosters new thoughts and ideas.
