PÁDRAIG TIMONEY

Bringing together divergent subjects and techniques, Pádraig Timoney’s exhibitions function as records of time, a chronicle of decisions made, and an ongoing inquiry into the mechanics of image-making. Resisting a singular style or thesis, Timoney lingers in the interstices of painting, and approaches each work as its own site of exploration. Source imagery is simultaneously deconstructed, and reconstructed, and the errors of translation, and both intentional and accidental accumulation of material is welcomed in the process. Often manipulating paint through the application of photographic developer, which erodes elements of the composition to reveal further layers, abstraction and figuration are pushed closer together, testing the limits of recognition. This interest in legibility is furthered in a new series that play on painting’s typified role as a window; works made on clear or frosted glass, which is hand mirrored using silver, gold or lead. As materially identical pairs, these alternately activate the space in and around them through clear reflection or muted occlusion. In both, Timoney welcomes failures in the chemical process, surface disruptions that appear as dark swaths of grey and create their own relationships between positive and negative space. Shown alongside paintings titled Broken Mirrors, which replicate the appearance of the mirror space in charcoal and acrylic, together the works in the exhibition test the limits of representation and attention, as well as their meanings.

Pádraig Timoney (b. 1968, Derry, Ireland) lives and works in Berlin. Solo exhibitions of his work include Waters of Night, curated by Natxo Checa and Gerard Faggionato, Indipendenza Studio, Rome, 2022 travelled to Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, 2023, Mean While at Farbvision, Berlin, 2022, A Silver Key Can Open An Iron Lock Somewhere at Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, 2019, Lulu, Mexico City, 2018, There was a Study Done, Cleopatras, Brooklyn, 2017, a lu tiempo de..., curated by Alessandro Rabbotini, Museo Madre, Naples
, 2014, and Fontwell Helix Feely, Raven Row, London, 2013, among others. Timoney has participated in numerous group exhibitions, which include The Painting Show, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, 2016, traveled to Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, 2017, and Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2016. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Museo Madre, Naples, the Arts Council England, and the Arts Council Ireland, among others. The Unbusy Places is Timoney’s sixth exhibition with the gallery.