Squeeze Me

Mara McAfee infuses her work with playful puns and witty commentary. Her art places familiar images from comic books, like the sleekly masculine figures of Marvelous Modern Mechanical Men, into a more traditionally high-art landscape. Combining popular imagery with a painterly execution—an aesthetic choice different from the intentionally flat coloring of many other Pop artists—allows McAfee to challenge the boundary between high and low from a different angle. Many of her pieces (such as You Can’t Catch Me, shown here) are almost cinematic in composition, creating a narrative structure that aids her humorous intentions.