Stephen Conroy: Recent
Paintings
An Exhibition of Recent Paintings by
Stephen Conroy is opening at the Marlborough Gallery Inc., NEW YORK on Tuesday
30th November and continues there until 30 December 2010.
The Directors of Marlborough Gallery are pleased to announce the forthcoming
exhibition of recent paintings by the contemporary Scottish painter, Stephen
Conroy. Conroy’s last New York show took place in 2007 and the forthcoming
exhibition will give viewers a chance to see the latest work by this captivating
painter. The exhibition will open November 30 and continue through December 30,
2010.
The show will comprise over thirty oils on canvas,
the majority of which are large paintings measuring 68 x 42 inches, and several
small studies of heads measuring 14 x 12 inches. In this new series of
paintings, Conroy continues his pre-occupation with the human figure in
isolation and presents a single male figure posed in various standing positions.
More than half of the paintings are self portraits and these range from a series
of head studies in which he portrays himself both frontally and in profile, as
well as three-quarter length views with arms in various attitudes. This is a
striking group of paintings, where the artist’s gaze is particularly
poignant and enigmatic. Continuing a theme begun in his previous series, two of
the figures in the self portraits are depicted talking on a mobile phone, an
action that enhances the work’s sense of psychological interiority.
Conroy frequently employs a framing device of bold geometric
patterns such as black or orange vertical bands at the left and right hand sides
of the canvas that serve as the paintings’ compositional structure. The
space is stripped of details and the action of the figures is reduced to
concentrated, minimal effects. Everything is in tension and expressed with a
powerful economy of means.
Conroy’s
canvases of the male figure simply known by his initials D.M. (D.M. I, D.M. II
and D.M. III, all 2010, 68 x 42 in.) are particularly effective in this manner
as the man’s arms are pulled up away from his body in an aggressive manner
and his intense stare makes one consider his motives.
The
allure of Conroy’s work, its impact and fascination, are indeed partly
derived from the figures’ imposing and silent presence, but also from a
unique faculty of introspective mood that the artist imparts to his painting.
His grandly communicative canvases with their masterly drawing and painting
technique manifest an intriguing mystery of purpose, and they are like no other
figurative works being done today.
Conroy was born in 1964 in Helensburgh,
Scotland. He attended the Glasgow School of Art and had his first one-man show
at Marlborough Fine Art London in 1989 at the age of twenty-five. In 1998 he won
the Grand Prize of HRH Prince Ranier III in Monaco. In July 2003 he had an
exhibition at the Schlesurg-Holstein Museum in Schloss Gottorf, Germany. He
lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.
Conroy’s work
can be found in, among others, the public collections of the following: Aberdeen
Art Gallery, Scotland; Birmingham Art Gallery, England; The British Council,
London; Contemporary Art Society, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York; National Portrait Gallery, London; Scottish National Portrait Gallery,
Edinburgh; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Southampton Art
Gallery, England; and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England.
A fully illustrated catalogue is available from Marlborough Fine Art,
London, mfa@marlboroughfineart.com
Image details:
Head Study I, 2010
oil on canvas
35.5. x 30.5 cm
