Even when the hyper-realistic paintings of self-taught artist Seamus Conley depict a young boy riding a bucking bronco in an empty glass office building, it is all about mood: a quiet, introspective, and somehow clandestine mood, as if we are catching a private moment that might dissolve from view if we make a sound. In "Catch My Fade," Conley's latest exhibit, a cool young woman with short pale hair perches on a hilltop overlooking a mist-shrouded city (which can probably be viewed from Bernal Hill). The woman has her back to us, as is so often the case in Conley's best work, but the moment is pregnant with longing, thoughtfulness, curiosity, and a hint of otherworldliness as luminous strands curl across the rock. In another canvas, a boy, who could easily be the aforementioned sight-seer's little brother, crouches on the reflective surface of the bay tending to an unconscious pig. The pig is draped in glowing threads. But, still, the through line is mood. One of which we can never get enough.
Seamus Conley's "Catch My Fade" opens at 5:30 p.m. and runs through June 5 at Andrea Schwartz Gallery, 545 Fourth St., S.F. Free; 415-495-2090 or asgallery.com.
415-495-2090
Comments are closed.
