Loew’s Beef Company

Based in New York City, Mary Beth McKenzie paints from everyday life, combining her impressions of her subjects with a concern for the formal aspects of pictorial construction. Completed about 1991, Loew's Beef Company, reflects her interest in depicting commercial interiors and storefronts, in this instance a street-level meat wholesaler in Manhattan's meatpacking district. Painting plein air, she records details of material, structure, atmosphere, and light as if capturing the building's unique personality that lies beyond its physical attributes. The result is a distilled pictorial interpretation of a commonplace scene that many may encounter but few will actually see.