Numbers
2002
Oil on MDF
25 x 20 x 1.5 cm

The Green On Red Gallery is pleased to announce that Fergus Feehily's third solo exhibition at the gallery will be on view from 21st November until 23rd December. This work is a continuation of work made in Tokyo, where the artist was living and studying from 1998 until earlier this year. The artist has since been working at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo and in Dublin. Feehily's exhibition will include paintings on MDF and drawings on paper.

Feehily's paintings are slow to reveal themselves: it is as a continuum of one body of work into the next that concepts unfold. His paintings encourage a sensual viewing experience. Fergus has said of his work "I am trying to make something that invites sustained looking….I am interested in concentrated looking, and all elements of my work are used to delay and prolong [that] experience."

Feehily has also stated, "I am interested in making works which connect conceptually in unique ways, sometimes uncontrollable ways, and do not necessarily look the same." In this show, an apparently monochrome painting slowly reveals a highly complex under-drawing. A drawing on paper shows itself to have been printed. Printed cup rings at first appear to be ordered, only to show themselves as random and intuitive. Feehily uses enamel paint, fluorescent paint and oil paint on MDF - its smooth, neutral surface affords the artist more scope to manipulate these 'substances'.

Drawing is the underlying core of this new and intriguing work. His work is absorbing and increasingly difficult to pigeonhole. It consistently blurs the line between non-representation and image, between text and drawing, painting and print. Feehily is prepared to challenge himself and the viewer by making work which resists easy assimilation.