Neon Parc is pleased to present ‘Fountain Gate’, an exhibition of new paintings by David Egan.
In Egan’s paintings, colours are arranged in diaphanous layers of scrubby strokes, to form abstracted grounds and symbolist forms, which blur the lines between formal abstraction and narrative figuration.
In ‘Fountain Gate’, persistent forms reoccur, are transposed or obfuscated, alluding to religious themes such as ritual meals, mysticism and holy icons. Rosary beads are rendered as chains of coloured spheres, which, from painting to painting, snake through pipes, bloom as flowers or are arranged on plates to be eaten. Egan refers to these beads as ‘Cells’ – fragments of repetitive matter caught in a process of formation or decomposition.
Elsewhere, the verso of ornamental playing cards are reproduced as flat painterly planes. These card backs serve as decorative visual deflections: they can never be lifted to reveal their face values. Anthropomorphic flowers cling to the playing cards like fig leaves or towels draped after a shower, deflecting prying eyes with whipping, florid tendrils.
Coinciding with the exhibition is the launch of ‘Colour Handling’, a book of essays on colour written by Egan and published by Discipline, with an introduction by Tessa Laird.
