Fergus Feehily A Darker Definition

A Darker Definition is at first glance a title slightly at odds with the work Fergus Feehily is known for. His mainly smallscale work is often seen as modest, unassuming and gently poetic. All this is true, yet as the title of this show indicates there are some pins piercing the surface, not all is as it seems, not all is as quiet as we might first imagine.

The title is in many ways paradoxical, what is A Darker Definition, how can a definition be in fact darker, would this not lead us to assume that it is less than clear, less defined? Like an earlier show title, Tender Analysis, it combines both the analytical and the emotional, the rational and the less understood. If we are expecting works dark in hue, then Feehily is too peculiar an artist for that and his lightness of touch remains a key element of this new work.

Given time, there is an undertow of anxiety and ambiguity in this new work, an unsettled searching in its making. Feehily’s work is an odd yet intriguing experience, his work twists and turns- just when you think you are sure what you are getting, it shifts again and takes another avenue.

Recently, Feehily has been making some of his most overtly representational work to date. These works continue his longterm preoccupation with blurring the boundaries between non-representation and image, text and drawing, painting and print. An apparently non-representational painting reveals a complex image; a drawing on paper shows itself to have been printed, apparent systems slowly reveal themselves to be random and intuitive. The work is at once universal and specific.

Feehily will show concurrently at the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition (I’m Always Touched) By Your Presence, Dear – New Acquisitions, April-November and will also have a solo exhibition at The Return, the gallery of The Goethe Institute, Dublin in May. A Darker Definition is Fergus Feehily’s first solo show in Germany.

The gallery is pleased to announce our participation in Art Cologne from 18th to April 22nd 2007, where we will also present the gallery’s first publication, Katharina Sieverding: ENCODE I-XV 2006. A limited edition including an original photographic print will be available. Stand-Nr. B 068.