“Rome inspires reflection on the passage of time over millennia; the city is infused with a sense of mortality set against the pageantry of daily life.” - Maureen O’Leary
Cristin Tierney Gallery is pleased to present ROMA, a new series of paintings by Maureen O’Leary, at the Dallas Art Fair. The fair opens with a preview day on Thursday, April 4th, and continues through Sunday, April 7th.
The works from ROMA were completed during and after O’Leary’s recent residency at the American Academy in Rome. Taking the city and its inhabitants as her subject, the artist’s paintings are a tribute to the blend of past and present permeating Roman life. Central themes in the series include “macchine, alberi, monumenti, donne, e vita” (cars, trees, monuments, women, and life).
The ROMA series represents the culmination of O’Leary’s experiments with flattened and distorted perspectives, lyrical and gestural brushwork, non-local color, and complementary colors (such as green and red or orange and blue). The artist distills her compositions into major shapes and essential elements with idiosyncratic details. At times, she creates two or more vantage points forcing irregular perspective. These works fit squarely in the legacy of Fauvist and with German Expressionist practices, emphasizing transient feelings or emotions over a verbatim reproduction of everyday life.
The Janiculum illustrates the view O’Leary had from the window at the American Academy in Rome. This vantage point, from one of the tallest hills in the city, allowed the artist to see the whole of Rome. The artist was fascinated by the many priests and nuns—shown in her paintings moving through their day-to-day activities of shopping, eating, walking, and socializing—and the city’s status as the seat of the Catholic Church. Nuns interest the artist the most because they do not have rights equal to priests in the Church, making their sacrifice seem greater. In The Janiculum she imagines that the nuns have developed secret lives, and they conspire together as they walk along the hill.
Traffic Island, Monteverde, Rome depicts a tiny traffic circle tightly on a steep hill outside of the Aurelian Walls. It looks south from the Monteverde neighborhood towards the EUR—a district built by Benito Mussolini—the St. Peter and Paul Basilica, and the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana. Other details come to the fore the longer one looks. Shadows are exaggerated or removed, adding to the playful effect. Red, purple, blue, and orange trees dot the landscape. The windows of the surrounding homes look organic as if they had grown into the buildings. Cars are parked so tightly they clutch each other like beads on a necklace.
This is the artist’s and the gallery’s first presentation at the Dallas Art Fair.
Maureen O'Leary's (b. 1965, Washington, DC) paintings hover between figuration and abstraction. Her mundane scenes become substrates for experimentation with the application of paint and the evolving notion of what is real. O'Leary's work has been exhibited at the Custom House in Westport, Ireland, Fondation des États-Unis, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, Art Lab Tokyo, Midwest Center for Photography, Artspace, Power Plant Gallery at Duke University, Valdosta State University Fine Arts Gallery, Staten Island Museum, Meadows Gallery - University of Texas at Tyler, and more. She is the recipient of the Brooklyn Arts Council - Brooklyn Arts Fund Grant and the Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship from the Fondation des États-Unis. O'Leary has published four books: By The Same Sea, Homes of The Irish Diaspora (2023), Record (2021), Belle Mort (2013, Paper Chase Press) and Look/Listen (2010, Look/Listen Press). Her work is held in the collections of the Fondation des États-Unis and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. She has studios in Long Island, NY and Puerto Rico.
Founded in 2010, Cristin Tierney Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located on The Bowery with a deep commitment to the presentation, development, and support of a roster of both established and emerging artists. Its program emphasizes artists engaged with critical theory and art history, with an emphasis on conceptual, video, and performance art. Education and audience engagement is central to our mission. Cristin Tierney Gallery is a member of the ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America).