MICHAEL GEMMELL
T
he reduction of subjects to their irreducible elements is a common theme in contemporary art, and while Irish artist Michael Gemmell embraces this approach in his paintings, he also possesses an innate feel for the tension wrought between his dramatic blocks of color. Straddling the boundary between abstraction and expressionist representation, Gemmell’s works feel to be composed of pieces of a psychological puzzle. At times his squares stake out their territories, and seem to jar and bump up against each other, while at other times they appear stacked in unsteady columns. Yet these are not paintings about chaos--you sense an order as your gaze traces Gemmell’s visual line across the canvas. Neither do the colors clash, as one of the more subtle pleasures of Gemmell’s works is his use of white as a skillful counterpoise. If he places white beside his deep reds and blacks, there’s a dramatic counterpoint, and when white is set against his varying shades of blue, the lighter color serves to both soften and highlight the blue. Gemmell chooses his colors with care, and if contemporary art can be said to be about its own creation, then the power in these works has been generated by that very care, as well as the struggle involved in creating these original, stunning works.
Website: www.michael-gemmell.com
