Exhibition Review: Ava McDonough and Michael Mangino at SHRINE, Tribeca

By LIAM OTERO May 1, 2025

SHRINE - Ava McDonough - Revery link

SHRINE - Michael Mangino: Bloom World Wonderful Green Roses For Me Myself link

 As one of Tribeca’s leading galleries, SHRINE is currently featuring two rising Generation Z painters who are leaving their mark on the New York art world: Ava McDonough (American, b. 1999) and Michael Mangino (American, b. 2004). The two artists are treated with their own solo exhibitions - in the first half of the gallery is Ava McDonough’s Revery and the second half is dedicated to Michael Mangino’s Bloom World Wonderful Green Roses For Me Myself, both of which are on view through May 3.

Ava McDonough - Revery (on view through May 3)

Ava McDonough (American, b. 1999), The Wind on Venus, 2024, oil on panel. 24 x 18in., 60.96 x 45.72cm.
 

Los Angeles-based artist Ava McDonough’s paintings feel like an invitation to step out into nature and focus one’s vision on the finer things in life - flowers, birds, trees, the earth, and so on. Hyper zoomed-in compositions of neatly trimmed lawns, butterfly wing patterns, and rigid fish scales are among the subjects that grace McDonough’s oil on panel paintings. These compositions are endowed with a potent naturalism that is both scientifically precise and poetically moving. The botanical and anatomical accuracy and instantaneous recognizability of these images are very much informed by McDonough’s academic background as she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Environmental Science and Sustainability from Cornell University. The romantic element that fuels the emotional power of McDonough’s paintings originates from a more complicated narrative. In 2020, McDonough was in a near-fatal jet ski accident that necessitated innumerable hospital visits. During these difficult moments, she experienced an inner awakening - perhaps a personal mission - to change life paths. When sensing these “internal sermons”, she felt called to pursue art … which was not part of her background. 

Like a protagonist in a classic Bildungsroman, McDonough accepted her newfound fate and dovetailed into an artistic career. As a self-taught artist, McDonough formulated a thorough painting regimen in which she works on a piece from start to finish with the aid of a single brush. McDonough rigorously applies strokes in a continuous progression that ends as soon as the panel’s surface is entirely covered (a similar creative tact was employed by On Kawara with his famous Date paintings, which also were motivated by a meditative impulse). Minuscule paint marks accumulate into a marvelous textural sea of colors that are the building blocks of animal and plant details - seeing these felt very much like the excitement of inserting the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle before stepping away to savor the completed image. 

Ava McDonough (American, b. 1999), Blushing Phantom, 2024, oil on panel. 14 x 11in.

Another wonderful twist to this inspiring tale is that McDonough is not working from direct observation, but rather is, in her words, “I’m not looking at a garden, I’m imagining it. The paintings are each a private performance piece - they’re my attempt to return to the land of Poetry, with a capital ‘P’, and then bring something back.” McDonough’s paintings perfectly encapsulate a Poetic sensation (with a capital “P”) based on her astute application of careful brushstrokes that form gorgeously executed panels of enlivened patterns, textures, and colors. McDonough wisely heeded the call of her inner muse. 

Ava McDonough website

Ava McDonough Instagram

Ava McDonough (American, b. 1999), Stranger, 2024, oil on canvas. 40 x 50in., 101.6 x 127cm.

Michael Mangino: Bloom World Wonderful Green Roses For Me Myself (on view through May 3)

Michael Mangino (American, b. 2004), Untitled, 2025, acrylic on canvas. 55 x 55in.

All enthusiasts of abstract art are in for a very exciting encounter with Mangino’s paintings. Before proceeding, I will preface that in my training as an art historian and art critic, I have had mentors discourage me from using the word “unique” in my writing for its seeming arbitrariness. However, I am deliberately breaking from this rule as “unique” really is apropos when describing Mangino’s art and his story.

Based in the sleepy borough of Frenchtown, New Jersey, Mangino is a neurodivergent artist whose creative journey began in 2022 upon enrolling in Studio Route 29, a local art studio dedicated to encouraging artistic freedom for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Mangino’s involvement with Studio Route 29 was supported via his high school’s FIERCE program (Focus on Independence, Employment, Resources, and Community Exploration). It was while he was in this welcoming creative space that Mangino discovered a natural affinity with abstract painting, which has been the artistic avenue he has pursued over the last 3 years. A key detail from this story that must be underscored is that Mangino has no prior knowledge of any art historical references, especially that of non-representational art. He is literally working from a clean mental slate of unfettered, unsullied, totally pure imagination!

Michael Mangino (American, b. 2004), Untitled (diptych), 2025, acrylic on canvas. 60 x 72in.

Though Mangino is primarily non-speaking, his paintings speak volumes. With works as large as 60 x 36in., thick swooshes of color undulate in wavy motions, side-to-side in some instances and up-and-down in others. These firmly applied brushstrokes occupy their respective quadrants of the canvas in a coloristic cohesion - in Untitled (silver) (2025), three sections of horizontal off-white strokes of differing widths are separated by zones of bark brown and smaller strips of burgundy. This interplay of colors, shades, and strokes is a visually absorbing effect that naturally filters through in Mangino’s paintings; another wonderful zoning effect can be found in one of the Untitled acrylic paintings in which purples and pinks are cordoned off from their blue and indigo neighbors. One other characteristic that should be acknowledged is Mangino’s strategic placement of tersely squared or circular strokes at particular points on the canvas, sometimes to denote a boundary between colors or to add textural detailing. 

When I saw this exhibition prior to reading about Mangino, I remember initially wondering if the artist was versed in the painterly language of modern artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, or Clyfford Still. After reading his background, I was absolutely stunned. Not only did Mangino work entirely independent of any art historical referents, he devised an individualistic abstract style - a truly unique artist in every sense of the word.

Studio Route 29 link

Michael Mangino (American, b. 2004), Untitled, 2025, acrylic on canvas. 40 x 30in.