Overview
I'm interested in colour and how it is attached to memory. The ways in which it can both forge and summon an environment. When I see a colour that makes a strong impression on me, I try and commit it to memory, and this always relates to a place and to a story. — Megan Rooney
An enigmatic storyteller, Megan Rooney works across a variety of media – including painting, sculpture, installation, performance and language – to develop interwoven narratives. The body in her work, as both the subjective starting point and final site for the sedimentation of experiences explored through her practice. The subjects of her works are drawn directly from her own life and surroundings, while her references are deeply invested in the present moment. She addresses the myriad effects of politics and social conventions that manifest in the home and on the female body. Recurring characters and motifs form part of a dreamlike narrative that is never fixed, but obliquely references some of the most urgent issues of our time.
Painting on uniform canvases measuring 200 x 150 cm – the wingspan of the average woman – Rooney presents layers of ethereal forms, often sanded back and painted over multiple times to create abstracted narratives without a discernible beginning or end. 'Each painting is a capsule of time and space,' writes critic Emily LaBarge, 'a palimpsest of effort and care, a portal into an intimate conversation between artist and canvas in which the journey of the work remains pulsing just beneath its surface.' She punctuates these layers with a contrasting dash of colour or energetic line, drawing the viewer in, only to disrupt their gaze with unexpected elements. These elements are often suggestive of corporeal forms that emerge and recede from view in an otherworldly space, as if captured in the process of becoming.
An enigmatic storyteller, Megan Rooney works across a variety of media – including painting, sculpture, installation, performance and language – to develop interwoven narratives. The body has a sustained presence in her work, as both the subjective starting point and final site for the sedimentation of experiences explored through her practice. The subjects of her works are drawn directly from her own life and surroundings, while her references are deeply invested in the present moment. She addresses the myriad effects of politics and society that manifest in the home and on the female body. Recurring characters and motifs form part of a dreamlike narrative that is never fixed, but obliquely references some of the most urgent issues of our time.
Painting on uniform canvases measuring 200 x 150 cm – the wingspan of the average woman – Rooney presents layers of ethereal forms, often sanded back and painted over multiple times to create abstracted narratives without a discernible beginning or end. 'Each painting is a capsule of time and space,' writes critic Emily LaBarge, 'a palimpsest of effort and care, a portal into an intimate conversation between artist and canvas in which the journey of the work remains pulsing just beneath its surface.' She punctuates these layers with a contrasting dash of colour or energetic line, drawing the viewer in, only to disrupt their gaze with unexpected elements. These elements are often suggestive of corporeal forms that emerge and recede from view in an otherworldly space, as if captured in the process of becoming.
The artist's distinctive palette, strong sense of materiality and evocative use of colour are central to her practice, uniting her work across media. As curator Anna Lena Seiser describes, 'colour becomes a wildfire, a living element that morphs and overlaps with other bodies, swallows them up, takes hold of the space and weaves everything together.' Rooney's large-scale murals, ephemeral creations that respond to the surrounding architectural space, are often placed in dialogue with sculptural works to create an enveloping environment. These sculptures, created from household materials, found objects and fabric scraps, are tangibly linked to her paintings through their textured palettes and deft brushstrokes. The same is true of her performance works, in which painterly elements seem to have taken on a life of their own, with dancers moving to the scores of her prose poems.
Based in London, Rooney grew up between South Africa, Brazil and Canada, completing her BA at the University of Toronto followed by an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 2011. Her work has been shown in recent solo museum exhibitions at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (2024); Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2020–21); Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2020); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2019); and Tramway Glasgow (2017). Her 2024 exhibition at Kettle's Yard was accompanied by a performance entitled SPIN DOWN SKY, choreographed by Temitope Ajose-Cutting, performed by Temitope Ajose-Cutting and Leah Marojevic and with music by Tyrone Isaac Stuart. Another performance, EVERYWHERE BEEN THERE, created in collaboration with Temitope Ajose-Cutting and musician Paolo Thorsen-Nagel, premiered at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 2019. The year prior, she performed SUN DOWN MOON UP as part of the Serpentine Galleries' Park Nights programme in London.
Rooney's work has also been presented in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2022); Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2021); Lyon Biennale (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019 and 2017); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); Venice Biennale (2017); David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2017 and 2014); and Fondation d'entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris (2014), among others. Her work is held in major institutional collections, including the Ackland Art Museum, North Carolina; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Frac Île-de-France, Paris; ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), Miami, Florida; Museum MCAN, West Jakarta; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; and Muzeul de Artă Recentă, Bucharest, among others.
Videos
'Echoes and Hours' at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
Artworks
Installations
Performances
One dancer, clad in all black, has been cast as the bolas spider, also known as an ‘angling’ or ‘fishing’ spider for the way it hunts its prey: eschewing the typical orb web of a regular arachnid, it instead employs a long silk line with a sticky blob on the end, which it swings and affixes to its target, reeling it in to its demise. The other dancer, in pleated trousers and a pale, patterned shirt, is a night butterfly, also known as a moth, and the name, too, of a rare and velvety red dahlia flower that attracts flying insects. It is a love story? Can unhappy bed fellows, preternaturally opposed in nature, make a life together?
— Excerpt from Spin Down Sky by Emily LaBarge
Directed by Megan Rooney, choreography by Temi Ajose, performed by Temi Ajose and Leah Marojevic, and sound by tyroneisaacstuart
Commissions
The Scalpel, London, collection of Ho Bee Land
Seasonal weather shifts and light conditions play a vital role in my work. The paintings both draw from and steal atmospheres, impressions and images lodged inside my memory... a willow tree reflected in a city pond, immense and open, the profound realization that contained inside the bloom of an ordinary tulip bulb lives an entire universe of color hidden to most rushing past. These small observations inform the painting's delicate interplay of color and light, as I sand back to reveal layers of pigment. To paint is always to start at the beginning and yet I carry with me the memory of all the paintings that have come before. I ask (and wish) the viewer to feel this lineage when confronted with my work, so they might be transported back in time with me, to a different iteration of the story.
— Megan Rooney
