McGowan’s Paintings
In McGowan’s painting, reality provides a model for what is untouchable and difficult to grasp. As in »Man and Balloon«, only at first glance are her figures concerned with innocuous understated activities. Her interest is always in the complex; multifarious fractured origin of motifs and their entry into her works. The pictorial language of art history, found material and anonymous images are transformed into evocative and suggestive spaces.

In addition, McGowan also works with the means of manipulation and deceit, combining initially familiar objects from her surroundings and assigning them an altered, heightened value. Thus, her figures function as models, since the artist treats them as lifeless objects. The figures are dark and hermetic, and they raise unanswerable questions about their aims and meanings. A subtle play develops between McGowan’s intentions and the viewer’s subjective projections and expectations. The artist and the viewer are both entangled in a game of perception. The work of art is situated at the centre of this game and it functions as a reflective surface.