The Doorway Gallery is delighted to host an exclusive show by Leonard Sexton. A show that is both intimate and unique. The show is entitled ‘somewhere city, paintings’. Leonard opens the show with a special ‘Meet and Greet’, to answer any questions you may wish to ask the Artist himself. The show will take place on Saturday February 4th, from 2-4pm, at No. 24 South Frederick Street. The show is scheduled to run from February 4th to February 20th.
Leonard Sexton, whom was recently considered for the London East End painting prize, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Art and Design from D.I.T. Dublin in 1987, and had majored in painting. He recollects conversations with the painter, Patrick Graham, as forming a major part of his training.
In a career that spans nearly thirty years as a full-time painter, he has exhibited in England, Ireland, and the US. Additionally, he has had work shown at a number of major art fairs. His work forms a part of many a private collection. His ‘Broken Halo’ series completed in 2008, and is housed in Dublin's U.C.D University.
Since that time in his life, Sexton’s paintings attempt to personalize and draw comparisons between certain social and political ideals. In more recent times, a large body of his work is influenced by the text of 'Dante's Inferno’.
In this current body of work, the use of colour and brushworks, combine towards complications, questions and away from a clear expression of an abundance and perfect nature. The paintings are about dissolving, movement and the change over time. The object is to paint a place, and make it wholly personal, that considers emotional turbulence, exchange and emotional resonance. A placeless quality to all parts of the same place could reveal a more intimate connection. Urban histories social system becomes personalised. All that forms a collision of materials and psychological background.
His paintings are in several major collections including the Bank of Ireland, AIB, Irish Life as well as in many prestigious private collections. Sexton has been hailed by the 2005 Buyer’s Guide to Irish Art as an up and coming artist with his international reputation continuing to grow.
“He has a real feeling for urban spaces, for the atmosphere of place, just as he has a sense of the physicality of the figure. His female figures stand centrally, facing us in a way that brings Alberto Giacometti and, to a lesser extent, Louis le Brocquy to mind right away.” Aidan Dunne, Irish Times 2003
“Sexton usually lays down a straightforward representational image and works over it with choppy, gestural movements, scraping pigment across the surface.”
Aidan Dunne, Irish Times 2008
“Sexton approaches his canvases as a sculpture – constructing and deconstructing with layers of paint to portray the beauty within his subjects and a balance between imagery and voids. His charged canvases reflect the speed in which time passes and nature changes.”
Jane Ross on Leonard Sexton 2006
CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW THE EXHIBITION
Reception Details:
Date: Saturday February 4th
Special Guest: Leonard Sexton will share an intimate ‘Meet & Greet’
Time: 2 – 4 pm
Refreshments Served
Gallery opening Hours:
Monday – Saturday 10.30-6pm
