McKay’s work is emblematic of a radical, freedom-seeking philosophy of social change and sensual pleasure that is commonly associated with the 1960s. His pulsating, large-screen installations once functioned as backdrops to amplified, psychedelic music performances (most notably Jefferson Airplane’s stage and television appearances).

A painter by training and an innovator in spirit, McKay uses a combination of fugitive and ephemeral materials — transparent inks and dyes, soluble and water-resistant liquids, and oils and pigments applied to translucent surfaces such as 35-millimeter film, transparency slides, film stock, gelatins, and acetates — to create luminous images for projection.

Expanding the capabilities of audiovisual equipment such as the overhead projector and the automatic slide projector, McKay’s installations succeed in drawing an ecstatic form of art from the most commonplace machines.