Installation view of Maureen O'Leary: By the same sea, homes of the Irish diaspora (Custom House Studios + Gallery, Co. Mayo, Ireland, September 28 - October 22, 2023). Photo by Michael McLaughlin.
In By the same sea O’Leary takes a single theme - light and shadow on the small homes of suburban Long Island, New York where she lives and works - as the basis for formal experimentation with paint. With an eye towards fauvism, O’Leary’s paintings retain the spatial organization provided by light while introducing experiments with garish color and loose brushstrokes that depart from naturalism. In Yellow Shadows the vibrant colors allow the painting to hover between abstraction and figuration as if the artist asks us to consider the very definition of a shadow as darkness. In Orange Windows dusk turns the sky and house into deep blues, graphically linking buildings to their environment and unifying object and place.
Opening Reception: Thursday 28th September 6pm – 8pm. The artist will be present and will present an informal talk with John McHugh.
