The Particle Annihilation Show
March 24 – April 30, 2006
SubSpaceSouth, 502 South Main Street, Memphis, Tennessee
Cary Wayne McCoy, born in Pasadena, Texas currently lives and works in Houston where he has gained regional recognition for his peculiar, forceful and yet whimsical paintings that deal with a barrage of esoteric subject matter. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you.” Likewise, once introduced to one of McCoy’s paintings you become immersed in a surrealistic abyss that when analyzed becomes ever more revealing. The veracity of his paintings staring back at you evokes a notion of disillusioned amusement. They pack layer upon layer of meaning amidst configurations of anthropomorphic creatures, religious icons and silly products of his atypical mind. The more you get to know a his work the more concern develops for the mind that could have produced such imagery. Everyone who enters is subject to a journey into a unique sub-reality. — Monica Bryant, Curator
Artist Statement
For as long as I can remember, I have been quite taken with the extraordinary and miraculous world of the occult. My first exposure to the infamous occult was of course, at church. On most Sundays I was granted the privilege to see wild spirits possess the bodies of frail old ladies so they could convulse and scream in some bizarre dialect that only the guy who was screaming the rest of the time could interpret. On occasion we would go midweek, and my friends and I would sneak upstairs and look for the Holy Ghost, exhilarated by the fear that we might be possessed ourselves! This type of exposure at an early age seemed to have triggered, or perhaps initiated a consistent stream of questionable events throughout my life, as my wife can now attest to. A close encounter with a UFO, and accompanying phenomena as a child also had enormous influence on shaping, or more accurately, dissolving my worldview. I began to have bizarre thoughts and ideas contrary to the generally accepted belief systems at a young age. I consider myself a true skeptic. I question the validity of the most widely held truths, and entertain the possibility of the most absurd theories. My perspective is perpetually morphing at some point between myth and reality, as there is no more truth to one than the other. The world I perceive is a dark and mysterious place, a land of smoke and mirrors. — Cary McCoy
Exhibition History
- SubSpaceSouth – March/April 2006
- The Menil Collection Bookstore – June 1999 to present
- River Cafe – November 2003
- Zana Mediterranean Café – July 2002
- Local Gallery – April 2001
- Barnaby’s Café – February 2001
- Source Design Studio – May 2000
- Featured artist in Houston’s Other Newsweekly – May 2000
- Docjava – April 2000 – with Daniel Kimbrough
- Millennium Gallery – November 1999
- River Oaks Theater – June 1999
- Emerging Disturbances – May 1999 – Group show including Chris Alexander, Daniel Kimbrough with musical performance by Matty & Mossy.
- Ultravivid Anti Reality – March 1999
- OZ – February 1999
- Commerce Street Artist’s Warehouse Multimedia ’99 – January 1999 – Group show.
- Texas Hemp – October 1998 – First public display.
SubSpaceSouth 