Under Curve
Flashe, colored pencil, oil pastel, and chalk pastel on canvas and found fabric
20 x 16 inches
2024
Orange Couplet
Flashe, oil pastel, chalk pastel, and grommets on canvas
87 x 77 inches
2024
Glide
Flashe, oil pastel, and chalk pastel on canvas
40 x 30 inches
2024
Float
Flashe and oil pastel on canvas
40 x 30 inches
2024
Core Distal
Flashe, oil pastel, and chalk pastel on found fabric
20 x 16 inches
2024
After Helen
Flashe, oil pastel, chalk pastel, and grommets on canvas
87 x 78 inches
2024
Two Together
Flashe, oil, oil pastel, chalk pastel, and charcoal on canvas
62 x 60 inches
2023
Frame Apart
Flashe on canvas
64 x 60 inches
2023
About “Back-to-Back“:
Back-to-Back is a body of work consisting of eight paintings that uses softness, color, mirrored forms, and abstraction to explore archives, orientation, vulnerability, and the passage of time. The role of the body and identity intersect with each of these concepts, forming the show’s central theme.
Staining integrates surface, gesture, and material into one inseparable unit while communicating a desire to make permanent, to mark, and to leave evidence of oneself. I use unprimed canvas which allows color to sink into the fibers, creating a “lived-in” feeling that is reminiscent of your grandmother’s sofa or a favorite pair of jeans. This quiet comfort contrasts the physicality of chalk and oil pastel which sits on the surface, exaggerating the surface’s tactility and the drawn mark’s directionality. The play between sunken pigment and shallow dry material emphasizes spatial illusion, complex figure-ground relationships, and allusive imagery.
Paired paintings function as duets rather than diptychs by playing complementary roles that support, undermine, or heighten one another. Pairing the works asks them to lean on and learn from each other, both expanding what is possible within the limitations of pictorial space and slowing their read. I long for a world that is soft but bold, quiet but assertive, and inquisitive but welcoming. My paintings reflect these desires and indulge in gentle caresses, whispered secrets, and curious questions.
Bio:
Megan Wolfkill (b. 1996) is a Cincinnati-based painter and dancer who contends with identity, intimacy, and softness in her work. She is the 2024-2025 Scholar-in-Residence at Manifest in Cincinnati, OH. Megan recently completed her MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Painting + Drawing at the University of Tennessee where her thesis exhibition titled Back-to-Backopened at the Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture in March 2024. She was a finalist in the 2024 Miami University Yeck Young Painters Competition, and recently presented research on interdisciplinary practices at SECAC in Richmond, VA. Megan has had artwork in numerous juried exhibitions in Tennessee, Illinois, Louisiana, and Ohio, and has had two-person shows with artists such as Anthony Huang and Carole Quinn. Her first solo exhibition, Durational and Momentary, took place at Gallery 1010 in Knoxville, TN in 2022. Megan has attended residencies at Penland School of Craft in 2019 and 2020 and the Hambidge Center in 2019. She has been featured in publications such as Ouch! Collective, Phoenix Literary Arts Magazine, and I Like Your Work Winter 2022 catalog. In 2018, Megan completed a BFA in Studio Art and Dance at Tulane University, where she attended on a full scholarship awarded for excellence in writing.
