May 18

May 18 Exhibition Feature - LIVING by Catherine Haggarty at Geary Contemporary

Geary Contemporary is pleased to present Living, Catherine Haggarty’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Haggarty’s paintings, which collage oil stick, airbrush and acrylic paint present an honest and fractured view into the artist's domestic space. Scenes in this work are often using a bedroom as a location; but weave in the timely intimacy of the last two years in living alone and in company, with and without pets, with grief, and with art. The invitation into the most private of spaces is direct and personal; subject matter freely enters the bedroom and its dream space. Haggarty welcomes this fluidity and references art history, intimacy and its psychology in both clear and obscure ways.

The artist’s use of diverging perspectives and light sources is a narrative tool: it invites a productive confusion and asks the viewer to suspend their disbelief.

The hand in each of the paintings is on full display: the materials bring life to the images and invite the process of the work to be a part of its destination. The artist's relationship with drawing is evident in all of the works, and the drawings on view in the show function as a central anchor of the exhibition.

“For Penguin”, 2022 - Acrylic and airbrush on canvas, 20 x 16 in. 50.8 x 40.6 cm.

“Babylon”, 2022 - airbrush, oil stick and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in. 121.9 x 91.4 cm.

Thoughts on the exhibition by Catherine Haggarty:

The way in which I work is the only way I know how to work - I approach the paintings like I approach drawing. I use an airbrush gun because it allows me to make a long continuous line - a sketch if you will. Then I can layer the atmosphere and erase with gesso - and paint again - this is a sort of additive and subtractive approach. The final layers are oil stick and thin air brush - these paintings are about touch in many ways. The transparency or absence is as important as the opacity and saturation. This gives weight and importance where it is needed - it also points to the hand in very specific ways.

I wasn't really trained classically in painting - I approach paintings with a series of personal desires and my set of skills - which are mostly from drawing. I don't see many challenges in these materials or these processes as I have enough to wrestle with - so I try to approach painting and drawing with pleasure. The only thing to mention is that the oil stick is final, it can't be erased really - so that addition when it happens has to be considered. There is a lot to risk but a lot to gain as well - I like this.