Gagosian Gallery, New York Private Collection, USA Private Collection, London
Catalogue Essay
Adam McEwen plays with our preconceived notions of popular culture and the role of the everyday object; he appropriates, recycles and re-creates existing images and commercial objects into high art. Rite Aid, executed in 2011, is a seminal large scale work from McEwen's graphite series. McEwen recreates the banality of the original object, large industrial basement doors, into an effortlessly tactile object with great effect.
Rite Aid, is composed of machined graphite flush - mounted onto aluminium panels. The use of machined graphite is integral in conveying the feeling of abundant weight and density, while the silvery highlights reflect the ligh and generate the viewers' tactile feelings and attention to the physical surface of the material used. The grey colour and machine finish is essential in expressing a neutral objectivity and enables the artist to explore the viewer's unlimited creative potential of their imagination, without setting boundaries and limitations associated with the original object.