Holly Johnson Gallery will present Michelle Mackey: Afterglow, an exhibition of new paintings exploring cultural memory and visual erosion.

Mackey's paintings explore time and memory through abstracted architectural imagery. She typically explores sites that contain ghosts of a buried/hidden past - a park on the site of the Berlin Wall, an abandoned train-station in Detroit; or as in this current series, a dilapidated Dallas gas station once inhabited by Clyde Barrow's family. Using photographs and preliminary drawings as inspiration and source material to begin, the finished works are created by mining her memory of these locations. 

Memory and recollection allow for surprising shifts in the work that reference materials do not. Her shadowy scenes - whether inside or out - include hallways, windows and doors from which a subtle light radiates and her limited palette, employing hues of black, blue and green, enhance the quiet atmosphere. Inhabiting a gap between abstraction and representation, Mackey's paintings of abandoned spaces are hauntingly evocative and suggestive of encapsulated moments.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display through May 10.