Interview with Grace McNerney

By Joshua Y'Barbo

Grace McNerney is a painter and photographer specializing in the practice of looking at where the liminal and mundane meet spectacle, forcing the viewer to pay greater attention and hopefully reverence by exaggerating their scale. Grace's practice delves into universes such as office culture, aeroplane safety, and fake casinos. Within a theme, she revels in creating a series spanning everything, from film to sculpture, to painting, based exclusively around the parameters of my present fixation. You can find out more about Grace's work on her website, follow her on Instagram, and check out her Graduate Show. 

Fresh Hell Part 3 (2023) by Grace McNerney

Oil on Canvas

BA (Hons) Fine Art

Joshua Y'Barbo (JY): Tell me about your practice: What do you make work about? How to you go about making your work? What do you think about when making your work? Do you still make work?

Grace McNerney (GM): It is truthfully always very strange when I have to describing the thinking process behind my work. I usually like to let my critical thinking process run free in my peripheral vision whilst I focus on the creation of my paintings. It's easier to be an intuitive artist type when finding the motivation to put paintbrush to canvas, then I'll put on the editorial hat after I feel I have something to show for myself. I'm currently painting corners of the office world, stitching together various corners of the corporate world in an effort to create my own version of it. I like the idea of mimicking a pre-existing world on canvas, call it parody or celebration. I wanted my most recent project to act like a sort of painted version of a reality TV show. 'Cool Water Company' was a company fabricated by me, however the people in the portraits were real people (from an accounting firm in Blackburn) and the office landscapes from a real office. Much like reality TV, where the people and environments are real but the end product is widely known to be somewhat sculpted my the hands of the producers.

JY: How was studying and finishing your degree? What had the most impact on the work you made and make now?

GM: I am endlessly inspired by works like Nathan Fielder's TV show 'The Rehearsal' and Jean Baudrillard's 'Simulacra and Simulation'. Works that explore the blurred line between reality and fantasy. As a painter I am trying to always implement narrative and evoke as visceral a reaction I can from a viewer. This often takes the form of extremely large scale paintings or paintings that mimic the form of real world signage or advertisement. It's a bit like weaponising  brand recognition, like building a fake Starbucks in order to profit of it's pre-existing and trusting customer base. 

My degree went by pretty quickly admittedly, I was a part of the covid cohort so at the start there was a lot of chopping and changing with studio arrangements in trying to abide by the government’s ever changing rules. 'Masks on, no wait, masks off' or 'go home, come back!' - that sort of thing. The Chelsea Fine Art course was fairly self lead which suited me well as I usually do prefer to keep my practice as self guided as I can, (although as I go on to say later i do wish there was a bigger emphasis on cultivation of craft for students at UAL). 

The journey of my degree show project was all a bit tortoise and the hare. I started Cool Water Company with what I thought was more than enough time in April. Having this installation planned by early march, I knew degree show was going to be the biggest undertaking of any project I'd previously done. Suddenly we'd received the news that studios would be shutting for three weeks, shaving nearly a month of studio time off the schedule. My paintings were far too big to try and complete at home so over the next three weeks was a calculated but not so subtle sneaking in to the studios in that time to claw back the time to finish the six foot high, ten foot long installation. "

JY: Based on your experiences, do you have any problem-solving advice for other artists & designers?

GM: The advice I would offer when it comes to any kind of creative block would be to take your eye, figuritively, off the ball. Just as a watched kettle never boils, sought after inspiration rarely strikes. Inspiration, in my experience, can smell desperation so do some reverse psychology on your right brain and lean into your analytical, logical left brain. Listen to podcasts, learn things, go for a run, be boring, and if your lucky the deep recesses of the more creatively inclined side of your brain should spit out a sudden desire to recreate the facade of that depressing travel agents offices you saw in Finsbury Park last week in oil paint. Wether you actually think it’s a ‘good’ idea is not something I can guarantee you. I prefer to look outwards in tad of inwards for inspiration so for me a large amount of my artists tic process rests on the notion that I feel stable enough exist outside my own thought processes for a period of time. Contrary to the tortured artist stereotype I think diving in to the void of decay and disrepair headfirst, does very little to aid your ability to make art and generate interesting work consistently. Through the cracks of a structured and a (relatively) smooth oiled mental machine, bursts the good bits, and just like Bukowski said ‘if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it’.

JY: What are your immediate concerns or interests, both personally and professionally?

GM: I suppose my concerns stem from my experience as a person who has just finished my London art school degree would be the direction art teaching and the attitude towards art as a craft in the UK today. Fine Art should be a balance between execution and concept and as it stands there seems to be an imbalance currently favouring concept over execution. I feel strongly that most young artists have no formal way in which they can be taught how to properly use the medium in which their practice is based. I think art schools play off this laissez-faire approach as an appreciation of post modern art principles where it is almost vulgar to suggest a higher level of skill is required to execute a painting or a sculpture in such a way that can result in a more impactful delivery of the concept.

Professionally I think every recently graduated Fine Arts student would be lying if they said that the path was clear cut and they we guaranteed to be on the straight and narrow from here on out. I think its tricky but also exciting to have to forge the path, (or what feels like forging although as I'm sure there have been countless like me who have forged before), for yourself in such a way that keeps you excited about waking up for work on a Monday but also pays the bills. I think the answer to this seems to be surrounding yourself with artists/friends who are also in the same boat, that way every failure and rejection is almost guaranteed to have been experienced by one of them before and any success amongst you can be shared and motivating.