Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to present new works by Erin Lawlor in her inaugural solo exhibition with the gallery.
Erin Lawlor’s fluid, invigorated paintings span across four dimensions— space, volume, shape, and time. Applied wet on wet, waves of oil paint ebb and flow, filling the canvas with undulating rhythm and inviting the viewer in for an immersive experience. Upon closer inspection, the viewer is able to notice the subtle sophistication of Lawlor’s nuanced use of color. The enfolding and unfolding ribbons of color and tone give a sense of intimacy, as if they are revealing and concealing an allusion to memory and knowledge.
The artist’s intensely physical process is a fundamental and visible part of her work. As Zoë Miller notes, “rather than capturing an instant, these paintings capture the holistic circumstances of their creation.” By placing her canvases horizontally on the studio floor and painting from above, Lawlor is limited only by the length of her brush’s reach and the time it takes for the paint to dry. The result is a dynamic visual manifestation of the artist’s intuition and reaction.
Every sweeping gesture is perceivable on the canvas; bands of thick color flow from one to the other, creating an interconnected web of motion. These unified layers of painterly folds afford a sense of depth, which complicates separation of line from line, plane from plane, even color from color. Lawlor explains, “My lines are my forms are my colors.” More than arrangements of separate formal properties, the compositions are comprehensive, engaging, all-consuming.
With titles such as "pull + ebb", "shuffle", and "zip", Lawlor’s paintings do not assign meaning to the works they represent. Instead, they suggest mood and hence, remain open, inviting viewers to enter active roles in their experiences and arrive to their own conclusions.
Erin Lawlor (b. 1969 in United Kingdom) received her Bachelor of History of Art degree in 1992 from University of Paris IV – La Sorbonne, Paris, France.
She has had numerous solo exhibitions internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include “Here to the Hidden Hills,” Fi Projects, San Pedro, Mexico; “Erin Lawlor,” Fox/Jensen/McCrory, Auckland, New Zealand; “Cat on the raz,” Espacio Valverde, Madrid, Spain; “Hiraeth,” Fox/Jensen/McCrory Gallery, Sydney, Australia; “Erin Lawlor, onomatopoeia,” Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia; “Erin Lawlor,” Rod Barton, Brussels, Belgium; “Erin Lawlor, Maleri.Nu/Paint.Now,” Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark and “Long Loud Silence,” Gray Contemporary, Houston, TX.
Recent group exhibitions include “Wet Wet Wet: Erin Lawlor/Aida Tomescu/Liat Yossifor,” Fox/Jensen/McCrory Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand; L’Echappée Belle, Erin Lawlor/Bram van Velde,” Galerie Pauline Pavec, Paris, France; “A Brief History of Abstraction,” (curated by Julie Sass), Rønnebæksholm, Denmark; “Drei Künstlerinnen der Gegenwart,” Institut français, Mainz, Germany; “Whit eld Street,” Rod Barton, London, United Kingdom; “A full open hand, drippings, and carefully masked lines,” Galleri Jacob Bjørn, Aarhus, Denmark; and “Bête Noire/Candyman,” The Neutra Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
Her work is represented in many private and museum collections, including New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, United Kingdom and Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia.
Erin Lawlor lives and works in London, United Kingdom.