The recurrent motifs of McCormick’s work appear here stripped down to their pictographic essence and enlarged to a scale that verges on imposing. In these paintings, McCormick elects to eliminate text. The absence of the “readymade” phrases, that populate much of his previous work, encourages the viewer to construct their own narrative from the scant visual clues. The imagery — loosely related by its affinity to “new frontier” culture —retains its original connotations but also appears abstracted.

The vaulted cardinal red seal of a Marlboro pack — rendered on a scale akin to that of a chicken hut roof and isolated on a stark white background — suggests the minimalist purity of Ellsworth Kelly; the cigarettes bring to mind Oldenburg ‘soft’ sculptures flattened into the second dimension; and images of cowboys and excerpts of Marlboro ads (sometimes only recognizable by their hyper-saturated palate) immediately recall the work of Richard Prince.

McCormick lays Prince’s influence bare, but also problematizes it. By emphasizing the presence of the artist’s hand, he proclaims in bold gestural strokes that his work is as much about creation as it is reclamation. McCormick’s renderings of cowboys in fluid charcoal strokes imbue the compositions with a painterly flare that adds an intimacy to the cut-and-paste strategies of “the picture generation,” as well as a surprising and mesmerizing visual complement.

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