Francis Gallery Bath presents a solo exhibition with Irish artist David Quinn from 27th November 2024 until 1st March 2025. Quinn (b. 1971) is known for his small-format, abstract and minimalist paintings. He considers his works, which he describes as visual haikus (a traditional Japanese form of poetry consisting of three lines with five, seven and five syllables), to be reflections on the transience of time and an expression of his meditative creative process.
Artist Statement — So much about art is as much a mystery to me, as to everyone else. As Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “Things are not at all as graspable and sayable as on the whole we are led to believe; most events are unsayable, occur in a space that no word has ever penetrated, and most unsayable of all are works of art, mysterious existences whose life endures alongside ours.”
In the studio, my aim is to create the right environment, set parameters, work away and hope something good happens. There is a lot of careful preparation and patient waiting, punctuated occasionally by pleasant surprises, when something almost magical happens. It is extraordinary to me that the difference between a mediocre painting and one that has what Patrick Kavanagh called, ‘the flash’, can be so little. It is not entirely a matter of our own intention; there is something else at play, something we can’t control, but only make space for.
Like a haiku, I try to make my paintings as succinct as possible, eliminating anything extraneous. I studied meditation with a group that practiced a form of Tibetan Buddhism, and some of that has made its way into my work. Repetitive mark-making is a big part of what I do, which I consider to be a visual form of mantra making, or ‘that which protects the mind’. By working in this way, I am able to become more aware of my thoughts, not to identify too much with them, and enter a state of relaxed attention.
Like a haiku, I try to make my paintings as succinct as possible, eliminating anything extraneous.
David Quinn
© Words by David Quinn, Photography by Ellen Hancock, Courtesy of Francis Gallery
