If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
—William Blake
Contact:
K.C. Madsen
Tel: 503.274.4475
Email me
©2008 K.C. Madsen
Oregon Biennial, Portland Art Museum, 2006
About my work
Seemingly random juxtapositions of color, texture, movement, space, and structure convey to me Blake’s view of the nature of being and experience. My work is a reflection of how I see the world before any conscious attempt to order it.
A fleeting visual reference, a uniquely weathered surface, or even an odd scrap of conversation could spark an initial direction or suggest a color palette. Yet the process of creating each piece is entirely intuitive to the point that, after the fact, I don’t often recall how it happened—just as when one cannot remember the twists, turns, and intersections that were most certainly part of the drive home.
In my current body of work I am taking painting in a new direction, allowing the activated surface to break free from the bounds of the flat rectangle while resulting in 3-dimensional works that are still primarily paintings. I have the sense that I have created something that is both rigid and in motion, that I’ve captured something in flight.
By taking a purely process-driven approach to the activity of painting, I am able to explore the physical properties of media in the absence of any contemporary cultural noise. However I do not entirely reject the narrative or symbolic. I just ask the viewer to find meaning as I have, not in social commentary, irony, or romanticism, but in transcendence, in the infinite.
—K. C. Madsen
Windows into Art
An exhibition of contemporary art installed in vacant windows and storefronts in downtown Vancouver, Washington, from June 4 through July 5, 2010.
Elements
These are among a new series of K.C. Madsen's works exploring the relationship between geometric form and 3-dimensional, activated painting.
The Same River Twice
Installation at the aloft W Hotel in Portland, Oregon. An artist reception was held on June 15, 2009 and the work will be exhibited through July 31. This wall relief responds to both the interior space at aloft and the surrounding environment.
Into the Fold
Dance/art collaboration and performance piece, Into the Fold was presented in June 2008. Read a review from the Oregonian's Marty Hughley. Learn about Rumpus Room Dance.
Deluxe Noiseless
Commissioned piece for marketing communications firm AHA! Recycled debris from AHA!'s office move formed the substrate for this wall relief in their new office foyer.
Ecola, Alsea, Olallie, Imnaha
Cisco Systems commissioned a wall relief quartet for their Lake Oswego, Oregon offices. Each of the four pieces respond to different landscapes across the breadth of Oregon, from west to east.