A sense of uncertainty permeates these scenes, some of which border on the uncanny. Two children seemingly stacked against a warm brick-red background, a bird perched on the outstretched hand of the lower (Shea's Bird Day); a man in a sunhat against an almost lurid green backdrop of leaves and vines, which seem to be encroaching on his body and swallowing him into their tangled midst (Willard's Sunhat) - many paintings read like strong sensory memories, whose narrative details have been super-saturated or metamorphosed over time by youthful imagination. And yet these works maintain an emotional ambivalence, an openness that prompts us to rely on our own experiences and memories to supply the answers posed by these enigmatic scenes.
Alice Gauvin Gallery is pleased to present "Things Past," a two-person exhibition featuring works by Andrew L. Shea and Holden Willard, and offering two artists' distinctive meditations on place, perception, and memory. In their respective practices, both artists explore how narrative unfurls organically during the painting process. Shea begins with memory - of a place or an experience - and then builds a scene with figures and forms, creating relationships that are ambiguous yet charged with implication and dramatic potential. Willard's scenes derive more directly from experience: many of these works are portraits - of family or friends, strangers from old photographs or self-portraits - yet the creative process quickly supersedes its "source material," resulting in a response to, rather than precise depiction of, a thing, person, or place.
Childhood and adolescence are common threads weaving these works together. A sense of uncertainty permeates these scenes, some of which border on the uncanny. Two children seemingly stacked against a warm brick-red background, a bird perched on the outstretched hand of the lower (Shea's Bird Day); a man in a sunhat against an almost lurid green backdrop of leaves and vines, which seem to be encroaching on his body and swallowing him into their tangled midst (Willard's Sunhat) - many paintings read like strong sensory memories, whose narrative details have been super-saturated or metamorphosed over time by youthful imagination. And yet these works maintain an emotional ambivalence, an openness that prompts us to rely on our own experiences and memories to supply the answers posed by these enigmatic scenes.
Andrew L. Shea (b. 1994) is an artist and writer based in Providence, RI, and New York City. He is currently in his final year as an MFA candidate in Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. As an art critic he contributes regularly to The Brooklyn Rail and has written reviews of museum and gallery exhibitions for The Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, The New Criterion, and artcritical, among other publications. He is the author of “Eric Aho: At the Edge of a Lake,” the catalogue essay for the artist’s 2022 exhibition at DC Moore Gallery, NYC. He graduated from Dartmouth College (English Literature and Studio Art) in 2017.
Holden Willard (b. 1999) is a painter based in Portland, Maine. He graduated from Montserrat College of Art in May of 2021 and received his BFA in Painting, however his interests serve multiple mediums: printmaking, performance, collage & woodworking. His work is concerned with imagery that reflects the environment in which he lives. Being primarily a figurative artist he strives to portray the experience of the everyday - through the lens of friends and family. He is mainly striving towards creating a dialogue between the past, present and future. These are essential devices for him that he utilizes to create a coming of age narrative in rural Maine. Images from home, adventures of youth, fears and anxieties expressed through eyesight and posture - all in an effort of saying the unsaid.