Artist Conversation for High-Speed Channel Surfing with Deangelo McMahon Jr. & Alexis Pye

Hi-Speed Channel Surfing presents new work by Houston-based artist Deangelo McMahon Jr. Through still images that emulate classic television, this exhibition explores mass media, shared memory, and censorship. In the featured paintings, McMahon creates visual white noise with gestures such as cross-hatching and pointillism. These artworks carefully attend to color and scale, bordering trompe-l’œil. In the words of McMahon, this exhibition reflects “the ever-increasing role of technology in present-day life, and seeks to remind the viewer of one’s own humanity amidst it all.”

Born in Chicago, IL, in the 90s, Deangelo McMahon Jr. draws inspiration from the music, video games, and television of his childhood. McMahon’s artistic practice began in architecture and film acting. His educational experiences in design ultimately led to his work as a self-taught painter. Based in Houston, Texas, McMahon works as an artist and graphic designer.

Alexis Pye (born 1995, Detroit, MI) explores the tradition of painting as a way to express the Black body outside of its social constructs, to evoke playfulness, wonder, and blackness, as well as the joys amidst adversity. Pye received her BFA in Painting from the University of Houston in 2018. She was selected as a Summer Studios Resident and for Round 51: Local Impact II at Project Row Houses, both in 2018. Her work was exhibited in a group show of young artists at the David Shelton Gallery for Everything’s Gonna be Alright in 2019, curated by Robert Hodge. Pye received the Juror’s Choice Prize for the 20th Annual Citywide African American Artists Exhibition held at Texas Southern University in 2019, selected by Kanitra Fletcher.

She was included in the group show Animal Crossing at Inman Gallery in 2020, and presented her first solo show, The Real and the Fantastic/The Irrational Joys of the Axis, at Inman Gallery in July 2021. In 2021, her work was included in the group exhibitions My Mirror Is Fine curated by Miles Payne at the Community Artists Collective, Houston and Honor Thy Self at Martha’s Contemporary in Austin. Her work was also in the MFAH staff art show at the Museum Fine Arts, Houston in 2021 and she has collaborated with the Houston Rockets x CAMH at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 2022. She was a Round 16 Lawndale Artist Studio Program Participant for the 2022-2023 season.

Alexis Pye lives and works in Houston, TX.

 Images courtesy of the Tamirah Collins and artist.