Archie Hayes 
You know that breathtaking blue of a jay’s wing? Or the way an indigo bunting looks like it’s been dipped in liquid sky? Here’s the wild part – that blue isn’t really there. Unlike the honest-to-goodness pigments that create reds and yellows in nature, blue feathers are nature’s greatest magic trick. The color comes from microscopic structures in the feathers that scatter light, fooling our eyes into seeing blue. And nobody plays with this feathered sleight-of-hand better than artist Kate MccGwire.
This September, MccGwire (whose work walks that perfect line between gorgeous and slightly unsettling) is taking over Nottingham’s Djanogly Gallery with Quiver – a show spanning twenty years of her feather-based wizardry. We’re talking wall pieces that seem to breathe, glass cases housing feathery serpents frozen mid-strike, and installations so fluid you’ll swear you just saw them move. Those antique display cases? They’re a wink at Victorian collectors who loved their nature neatly boxed and labeled.
Her studio – a converted Dutch barge in London – feels like the perfect lair for someone obsessed with nature’s contradictions. One minute her work lures you in with its beauty, the next it gives you that prickly feeling like you’ve stumbled on something alive when you thought it was just art. Some pieces lie still as dark water, others twist under glass like they’re testing their confines. It’s the kind of work that lingers in your head long after you’ve left the gallery.
Quiver runs September 20 through January 4. East Coast folks can catch her in The Ark at Sag Harbor’s The Church (curated by Eric Fischl) through September 1. For the international crowd, her work’s part of Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses – in Singapore until August 10, then moving to Rotterdam’s Kunsthal September 27. More at katemccgwire.com and @katemccgwire – fair warning, her feed might ruin you for ordinary art.
