Current exhibition: Familiar Faces: An Homage to Favorite Artists
On view from January 22 - February 28, 2026
Familiar Faces is the 6th exhibition in the McKinney Arts exhibition space in Belleville, NJ. The gallery is in a private residential setting, so viewings are by appointment only.
Press Release: McKinney Arts presents Familiar Faces: An Homage to Favorite Artists, the 6th exhibition in the gallery located in the ground floor space of artist/curator Mark McKinney's townhouse. Due to the residential nature of the location (Belleville, NJ), viewings of exhibitions are by appointment only.
Familiar Faces is a group of paintings that began years ago, when my college painting professor gave the assignment to copy a favorite artist. I chose Francesco Clemente, and made the painting in the middle of the center wall as seen here. One thing I learned from this project was that forcing myself to paint like another artist allowed me to learn techniques or approaches to painting that were not my own natural way to paint. This Clemente copy was a one-off for years; much later I decided to try another, in this case, an homage to Philip Guston. I tried to faithfully copy the figure laying in bed with the cigarette and the lightbulb, but then allowed myself to add my own blue background, as opposed to the original pink wall filled with red shoes. Again, I found it to be a challenging exercise to paint in a style that was not my own.
A secondary benefit to these homage paintings was the feeling (in my own imagination) that I could "collect" paintings by favorite artists where I could never afford to buy the originals. I wasn't trying to fool anyone or suggest that they were real - and these are not for sale but rather for my own enjoyment - but in the end it's a challenge to paint in all these different styles and a test to see if I can do it. You can judge for yourself whether I've been successful in this endeavor or not.
If these "familiar faces" are not familiar, I'll list the artists who inspired them, starting on the left wall, from top to bottom: Phil Frost, Philip Guston, and Kashink. Center wall, from top to bottom: Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Francesco Clemente, Yue Minjun, and George Condo. Right wall, from top to bottom: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and John Nieto.
Familiar Faces will be on view from January 22 - February 28, 2026. Inquiries about the exhibition or requests for viewings can be made here.
