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Keith Clancy - 07
"RADIANCE"
new works by Keith W Clancy
\With this second exhibition at Compose Art Gallery Keith continues his exploration of colour, proportion and scale with a new emphasis on the surface and the way that a surface filters, reflects or refracts the light.
All the works in the exhibition derive from the mutual interaction of a set of rules and processes that control the degrees of reflectance, tonal value and colour of all the pictorial elements of the works.
These are at once the most free and the most determined paintings of his work so far. As Keith points out: "I wanted to see if I could permutate all the actual material elements of a painting rather than treat the painting as simply the presentation of a structure".
For those of you who saw the stripe-based paintings in Keith's last show at Compose these works represent both a continuation and a transformation of his work: there are no longer any thin bands, instead of presenting structures by means of a succession of coloured bands these new works present overlapping planes of more or less transparent colour, iridescent or glassy surfaces, matte surfaces, playing directly with the light. Instead of being revealed by the horizontal or left-to-right succession of identical elements, the structures presented in this show are superimposed, cut into, overlapped and display, on small, medium and large diamond-shaped canvases, an ensemble of shifting, iridescent planes of coloured light.
Review by T J McNamara
New Zealand Herald - Arts Guide
Wednesday April 25 2007
Colour becomes all-important when we move to the Compose Gallery in Hakanoa St in Grey Lynn, where Keith W. Clancy has an exhibition of minimalist abstract art, called Radiance, until May 5. The radiance is in the colour. These are all diamond-shaped paintings with fields of colour crossed by vertical stripes.
The colour sometimes reflects the light and at other times is opaque and absorbs it. The proportions of the areas of colour within the consistent diamond shapes are related to their intensity.
The colours themselves are unusual, at times literally gorgeous. Their intersection is spectacular and the way they shift under the light fascinating.
The effects of absorption or reflection are the result of complex layering and the use of metallic paints. The glitter of mica helps to achieve intensity, yet preserves an elegant surface.
Where the under-painting subtly shows through the surface colour there is extraordinary iridescence which plays against the matt surfaces.
This is an exhibition of great accomplishment within its stringent parameters. Sheer beauty is out of fashion these days, yet these are truly beautiful paintings.
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