Megan Rooney: Echoes and Hours

Publication coincides with a major exhibition at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 22 June – 6 October 2024. The first monograph to focus on the captivating abstract paintings of Megan Rooney (Born South Africa, 1985), documenting her solo exhibition at Kettle’s Yard and major works from the past five years.

Megan Rooney: Echoes and Hours is the first monograph to explore the work of one of the most exciting emerging painters of her generation.

Rooney’s sensuous and compelling paintings reinvigorate the power of abstraction. They embody a sense of boundless energy and life, whilst reflecting the artist’s deep knowledge of painting and the potential of each viewer’s encounter. Vibrant colour and gesture combine in dense, apparently infinite layers. Each canvas captures the ebb and flow of Rooney’s process, from repetitive overpainting to the use of abrasives to remove pigment.

This major new book accompanies Rooney's first solo exhibition in the UK. It explores the variations in her painting practice across a series of new works made for the exhibition. The book illustrates these works including a temporary mural at Kettle's Yard painted directly on the gallery walls, as well as documenting earlier, formative paintings. Three newly commissioned essays and an interview with the artist in her studio explore Rooney's practice and the resonances of her hugely captivating work.