Sean Scully: TapestryKerlin Gallery, Dublin\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n
Sean Scully<\/a>, who is among the most acclaimed Irish painters working today, turned 80 in June. Since his early years at Croydon College of Art, on the southern edge of London<\/a>, the artist has produced a vast catalogue<\/a> of abstract art: in 2025 alone he has held exhibitions of new work in Hamburg, New York, Barcelona and Daegu, in South Korea.<\/p>\n This exhibition at the Kerlin<\/a> is one of the most rewarding encounters I\u2019ve had with his work in recent years. Scully shows no sign of retreating into habit. Instead he looks at medium and pictorial idiom afresh, recasting them as open problems: the artist embeds motifs into his work only to disassemble and rephrase them.<\/p>\n Scully has reflected in recent interviews on Irish identity and the national tendency to play with language. Speaking and writing with imaginative elasticity, he suggests, are ways to create new ideas: even a regurgitated or repeated phrase can surprise you with the spontaneity of a novel twist. Something of that iterative playfulness is at the heart of Tapestry.<\/p>\n The exhibition features fabric artworks that are genuinely new in the context of Scully\u2019s previous exhibited work. Two large pieces \u2013 the Translation of Drawing duo \u2013 are handwoven surfaces that incorporate Scully\u2019s signature array of rectilinear shapes; the heavy, coarse material is suspended between two horizontal poles. <\/p>\n The solidity of these embroidered works (which also impress with their physical weight) is further amplified by their monochrome palette. Scully displays the work with their originating pencil sketches, which are by contrast light and agile, and rendered with quick, bold marks.<\/p>\n The translation from drawing into textile is significant: from almost immaterial beginnings Scully produces two substantial fabric objects. Using natural handspun materials, Scully conjures a sense of permanence. These associations, especially in light of the artist\u2019s age, situate the works within the well-established language of late-stage art.<\/p>\n From here we move to Scully\u2019s Stack series, large-scale works on aluminium that dominate the room. These paintings combine his familiar brushwork with spray-painted surfaces. I was not previously aware of Scully\u2019s use of spray paint; the gallerist Elly Collins notes that he has been experimenting with the medium for some time. <\/p>\n The sprayed areas introduce strange visual disjunctions, as though different panels were coming into focus at different speeds. These works appear as dark, troubling monoliths, punctuated by flashes of violent red and malevolent pink. <\/p>\n Scully\u2019s well-known stripe motif is applied throughout, evoking at once the imagery of prison bars and the charged spectacle of flag-waving patriotism.<\/p>\n