The List Gallery, Swarthmore College, PA. USA November 2 – December 10 2017
Donald Teskey: Landscapes brings together a selection of signature paintings by one of Ireland’s most celebrated artists. This exhibition focuses on recent paintings inspired by his ongoing fascination with the the rugged coastline of County Mayo as well as inland scenes from County Cork and the Lee Valley. Paintings such as Tidal Rocks (2017) convey the vertigo one feels at the edge of a cliff, buffeted by wind, trying to behold the scene below. Such images not only dramatize elemental change; they celebrate the elasticity of painting. Spreading large swaths of pigment across the canvas with trowels and palette knives, Teskey synthesizes drawing and painting, representation and abstraction. As he tacks back and forth between evoking specific sites and responding to the unexpected effects of painting, he conveys protean qualities that are beyond time or place.