The Armory Show

about the artists

Willie Doherty

b. 1959, Derry, Northern Ireland.

The Armory Show - ONLINE 2021 - Exhibitions - Kerlin Gallery

Willie Doherty
Dreams of Security, Dreams of Infiltration, 2018
diptych, framed pigment print mounted on Dibond, edition of 3
107.5 x 160.5 cm / 42.3 x 63.2 in each framed

Since the 1980s, Willie Doherty has been a pioneering figure in contemporary art film and photography. At once highly seductive and visually disorientating, Doherty’s artworks tend to begin as responses to specific terrains (most often mysterious isolated settings; places, we suspect, with a troubled past) and evolve as complex reflections on how we look at such locations – or on what stories might be told about their hidden histories.

Willie Doherty
Ashen, Restless, 2018
quadriptych, framed pigment print mounted on Dibond, edition of 3
68 x 101.1 x 3.5 cm / 26.8 x 39.8 x 1.4 in each framed

'For almost four decades, the art of Willie Doherty has been profoundly affected by border landscapes, border atmospheres, border experiences — in Ireland and beyond. Again and again, Doherty has haunted such spaces, wandering along country roads or lingering at suburban margins, exploring locations where, visibly or invisibly, one state connects with another. (Or, put differently: the points where one state is separated from another.) He has been compelled to visit and revisit peripheral zones, condemned to reckon repeatedly with their fraught histories and disrupted geographies.' - Declan Long 'Where are we now?' from Willie Doherty, Where/Dove published to accompany the artist's 2021 exhibition at Fondazione Modena, Milan and Ulster Museum, Belfast.

Mark Francis

b. 1962, Newtownards, Northern Ireland.

Mark Francis
Electric Mainline, 2021
oil on canvas
153 x 122 cm / 60.2 x 48 in

Mark Francis
ReEcho, 2021
oil on canvas
214 x 153 cm / 84.3 x 60.2 in

Mark Francis’ ongoing fascination with the ‘mysteries of the universe’ and in particular sound recordings provides a point of departure in the studio. An invisible energy which powers all cosmic activity including our very own existence is given a form, colour and structure in these new, hypnotic paintings.

Merlin James

b.1960, Cardiff.

Merlin James
Winter, 2019
acrylic and mixed materials
76.8 x 61 cm / 30.2 x 24 in

Our current show at the gallery is Merlin James 'Window' comprised of works completed over the last three years, made at James's studio near the river Clyde in Glasgow. In these paintings James refers to the view of the river, but also to the surrounding buildings and the more interior life of their occupants. While some of the works seem to approach total abstraction, others are very specific in their representation.

Merlin James
The Sea, 2021
acrylic and ash on canvas
30.5 x 40.5 cm / 12 x 15.9 in

Merlin James
Untitled, 2021
acrylic and ash on cotton
87 x 75 cm / 34.3 x 29.5 in

This exhibition will coincide with a dedicated room of paintings in the survey of contemporary painting, ‘Mixing It Up: Painting Today' at the Hayward Gallery, London (9 September - 12 December)

Merlin James
Red building, 2017-19
acrylic and mixed media on canvas
40 x 77 cm / 15.7 x 30.3 in

Elizabeth Magill

b.1959, Canada.

Elizabeth Magill
Radial, 2021
oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm / 11.8 x 15.7 in

Elizabeth Magill has developed a highly idiosyncratic approach to painting and printmaking. She is celebrated for her evocative landscapes, which capture atmospheric conditions with great sensitivity: the luminosity of daybreak, or the cool glow of moonlight. The scenes appear to be sited on the edge of urbanity – roofs, street-lamps or telephone wires can occasionally be sighted in the background, but human figures are rare. Instead, clusters of trees dominate Magill’s compositional arrangements, and only through their branches can hedges, hills and radiant skies be glimpsed.

Elizabeth Magill
Flush, 2021
oil on canvas
35.5 x 45.5 cm / 14 x 17.9 in

Jan Pleitner

b. 1984, Oldenburg, Germany.

Jan Pleitner
Untitled, 2021
oil on canvas
91.5 x 71.5 x 2.5 cm / 36 x 28.1 x 1 in framed

Jan Pleitner creates striking and expressive abstract painting driven by subconscious thought. Often painted in short bursts of time, or even marathon single sittings, the works are full of movement and energy, with jolting lines pulling the eye up and down the canvas. Pleitner’s highly physical approach to painting sees him scrape through layers of paint as readily as he builds them up, resulting in a highly tactile canvas. His deep colour palette is lively and mercurial, with elemental patches, streaks and lines bleeding into one another and jostling for space aggressively, but not inharmoniously. Imbued with symbolic properties, they point towards a synesthesiac sensibility.

Jan Pleitner
Untitled, 2021
oil on canvas
63.2 x 39.5 x 3 cm / 24.9 x 15.6 x 1.2 in framed

Daniel Rios Rodriguez

b. 1978, Killeen, TX

Daniel Rios Rodriquez paintings, assemblages and sculptures explore a personal symbolism rich in association and ressonance. These paintings are built up collages of painting, found objects and ornate wooden frames articulating landscape, still life and pattern while continually informed by his surroundings, the American south-west. The artist's Mexican-American heritage and his interest in pre-Columbian iconography inform this work that celebrates colour, vibrancy and materials in a unique and intimate way.

Daniel Rios Rodriguez
Pa Pa Pa, 2020
oil rope copper nails on wood
50.9 x 39.4 cm / 20 x 15.5 in

Daniel Rios Rodriguez
XF, 2020
oil nails and potato stone on wood
54.6 x 39.4 cm / 21.5 x 15.5 in

Liliane Tomasko

b.1967, Zurich, Switzerland

Liliane Tomasko
Soft Trap, 2021
acrylic on aluminium panel
152 x 140 x 2.25 cm / 59.8 x 55.1 x .9 in

Liliane Tomasko’s abstract paintings have long explored our various emotional and physiological states, the latency of our dream world and the power of our memories. Tomasko often begins with a study of the personal effects of everyday domesticities such as bedding or clothing to create work that suggests a gateway into the realms of sleep and dreaming; delving into the gulf between what we understand as the ‘conscious’ and ‘subconscious.’

Liliane Tomasko
Loosening the Bind 2019-21
acrylic on linen
121.9 x 106.7 x 6.4 cm / 48 x 42 x 2.5 in

ONLINE 2021

9 - 14 September 2021

Selected Works