This series of paintings sit in a place that feels slightly removed from everything getting louder and faster. The settings are quiet.
Michael McGrath (b. 1977) lives and works in Rhinebeck, New York. His work explores the tension between calm and unease in everyday life, drawing on natural phenomena, personal memory, and close observation of his surroundings. It lingers in moments when the familiar begins to shift, when something subtle feels off and harder to name. Recent work reflects on living simply while sensing underlying instability, where images hold both quiet wonder and a steady, low tension.
Michael McGrath’s first solo exhibition at Morrison Gallery, Soft Signals, focuses on communication and light that can be sent and received. Figures generate it, carry it, and use it. Something is being exchanged, though not in a direct or obvious way. It could be energy, thought, healing, or secrets. People, animals, and the landscape are in conversation; a feeling moves back and forth without being spoken.
The scenes exist somewhere between memories, the current environment, and a version of the future that follows a different rhythm, somewhat utopian. They are a retreat, though McGrath is not interested in full escape. It’s less about leaving and more about tuning into a different way of moving through a world where things are calmer, more connected, and easier to understand without explanation.
