Skotia Gallery Blog: SPECIAL PREVIEW: THE NEW METROPOLIS

Simon McWilliams & Valerio D’Ospina
“THE NEW METROPOLIS” August 5 – August 30 2010

On Thursday August 5^th from 6-8pm, Skotia Gallery will have an opening reception for The New Metropolis, featuring Northern Irish artist Simon McWilliams and Italian artist Valerio D’Ospina. McWilliams will be showing 14 new works in the show, and D’Ospina will be showing 6 new paintings.

Both artists, though possessing very different sensibilities (McWilliams with his playful bright palette, and D’Ospina with his solemn grisaille), share a fascination with the man-made, and a curious rejection of the man himself. D’Ospina’s and McWilliams’ paintings are conspicuously devoid of humanity, and simply depict ghostly artifacts of constructed objects: giant skeletons of scaffolding, an empty room of old engines, a broken down bus deteriorating in a dusty shed. The images are ominous, and the sheer scale of the paintings leave one with the feeling that these objects have taken on a significance that one wouldn’t ordinarily ascribe to such commonplace items. A fundamental shift in perspective happens at the societal level: McWilliams seems to revel in the wonder of progress, invention, construction, where D’Ospina laments that very same progress by depicting the fossils of a more optimistic industrial era. The tension between modern activity on one hand and the detritus it inevitably becomes on the other creates a soulful, profound, and incredibly beautiful essay on the materialism and industry of modern man.

Please join Skotia Gallery in welcoming two of our most promising international emerging artists in the opening reception taking place on Thursday, August 5^th from 6-8pm. Wine and refreshments will be served, and both artists will be in attendance. We will also be open on Friday August 6^th from 5-7pm for the GALA (Galleries at Lincoln Avenue) District First Friday Artwalk. For images and more detailed information, please contact Leah Gallant at leah@skotiagallery.com or 505-820-7787. The show will run through approximately August 30^th.