Robert McCauley: American Fiction commemorates McCauley's solo exhibition by the same name presented by Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) and Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA), in La Conner, Washington. The exhibition was featured at BIMA in fall 2017/winter 2018 and moved to MoNA in spring, 2018.
American Fiction featured over 35 paintings, drawings, and assemblage works borrowed from regional and national collectors, art museums, galleries, and McCauley’s personal collection. This major exhibition focused on works from the 1990s forward, after McCauley’s art shifted largely to painting.
McCauley’s main themes revolve around worlds in collision, addressing topics of cultural displacement and destruction, as well as our relationships with nature and the environment. While his works speak to global issues, he uses iconic and familiar subjects of the Northwest, such as bears, mountains, and fishing holes. McCauley also draws from themes and periods in Western art history and literature. His paintings are surreal, juxtaposing the natural world and humankind, lending to deeper layers of meaning. McCauley wants viewers to revisit and question history in order to collectively forge a better destiny.