(Photo credit: John Cawley)
Carnegie Hall’s May/June ArtWalk exhibits opened with three galleries showcasing the works of four accomplished artists. The Lobby Gallery (located in the Hamilton Auditorium) features “The World Within” by poet and artist Kelly McQuain.
Kelly McQuain grew up in West Virginia and now works as a college professor in Philadelphia teaching creative writing in ways that are infused by visual art. His paintings have been showcased at Philadelphia at City Hall, the National Liberty Museum, the Barnes Foundation, Cerulean Arts Gallery, and the William Way LGBTQ Center. His last show in West Virginia was at the Lost River Trading Post in Wardensville, WV, in 2024. Besides winning numerous prizes and having his work featured on book covers and in magazines, McQuain was also recently honored as the 2023 Featured Artist for Art Ability, an annual international art show featuring works by artists living with disabilities. Philadelphia’s 6ABC Action News even named him an honorary “Hometown Hero” for his arts advocacy in relation to the show. His new exhibit at Carnegie Hall, The World Within, depicts a wild fusion of humankind and nature – McQuain’s own unique, kaleidoscopic take on traditional folk art and textile pattens. Look closely and you’ll find animals hidden in flowers and flowers blossoming into people, images that can be interpreted in multiple ways once you unleash your imagination and let it out to play.
McQuain now considers himself a hybrid “Phillybilly” whose paintings are inspired by his childhood surrounded by WV’s Monongahela National Forest, but also by his LGBTQ+ identity and his interest in advocating for outsiders everywhere. He uses his artwork to overcome the pain of living with HNPP, an inherited neuropathic disease, and as a vehicle for exploring neurodivergence as a pathway to creativity that can lead to new ways of conceiving beauty. Also, a widely published poet, his recent full-length collection, Scrape the Velvet from Your Antlers (Texas Review Press, 2023) won the Southern Breakthrough Award. The book features poems inspired by life in the Mountain State as well as the poet-painters many travels to Mexico, Spain, and the Czech Republic, as well as a trek through China that once led him from Beijing to Shanghai. Philadelphia Magazine cited the collection as a Best Book to Read in Summer 2023, and the title has received high praise from critics in numerous reviews.
The exhibits are free and open to the public, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and run through the end of June. For more information, please visit carnegiehallwv.org, call 304-645-7917, or stop by the Hall at 611 Church Street, Lewisburg.
