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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nInstallation view of Ian Mackay, Shape-Shift<\/em> at the Read Head Gallery. Photo: Hugh Alcock<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mackay doesn\u2019t consciously choose what he\u2019ll represent in these paintings. Rather, in the tradition of the surrealists, his underdrawing is automatic. Automatism aims to bring out the unconscious. Mackay surprises himself when he begins to notice how the shapes resemble something or other. He enhances this process by occasionally looking at his work in progress in a mirror. The resulting fresh perspective helps him see when certain objects appear to emerge from the abstract shapes he sketches out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The works might best be described as orphistic<\/em>, where orphism is the name of a style of painting originally coined by the French poet Apollinaire before the first world war. It was an offshoot of cubism with the caveat that it ditches any concern with representation, and instead the painter concentrates on communicating emotion through form and colour. Orpheus, its namesake, is the Greek demigod whose music likewise focussed on pure form. This parallel between visual and musical form is pursued by Mackay in part because he is also a musician. In the 1980s he cofounded the punk band the Diodes<\/em>. He still practises music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ian Mackay, Rabble, 2022, oil on wood, 24 x 48 inches. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, looking at his paintings there is a musicality to their compositions, shapes and colours. They \u2018sing\u2019 to the viewer. This quality is intuitively detected, though I\u2019m sure any synaesthete would feel this music. It has been suggested that as infants we are all synaesthetes \u2013 where synaesthesia is the disorder (in adults at least) caused by an overlapping of the visual and auditory regions of the brain, whereby visual qualities are also felt auditorially and vice versa. Most of us lose the ability to literally feel some colour, for instance, as having a certain pitch. But we all seem to recognize a correlation between these phenomena \u2013 a residue of our former synaesthete selves perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ian Mackay, Blasts, 2022, oil on wood, 30 x 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orphism was one step in the progression towards abstraction which marked the apogee of modernism, e.g., in abstract expressionism and colour field painings. And Mackay sees his paintings as belonging to this genre. He shares the abstractionists\u2019 formal concerns. What ultimately matters to him is how the colours and shapes sit together to create a unity of some sort \u2013 call it \u2018aesthetic\u2019 or \u2018emotional\u2019 if you like. But his work is never pure abstraction. Again, representational elements invariably insinuate themselves in the work. So the titles he chooses are often intended to hint at the contents, e.g., Toddler<\/em> and Atttic<\/em>. As well, Mackay sometimes alludes to historical paintings. For example, the composition of his Under<\/em>, that hangs on the far wall of the gallery, is very loosely based on a painting by Pablo Picasso depicting night fishing in Antibes, France. In general Mackay\u2019s work is informed by his modernist predecessors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ian Mackay, Toddler, 2022, oil on canvas, 28 x 22 inches (left) & Attic, 2021, oil on wood, 28.7 x 23.6 inhes (right). Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, one might complain that modernism is no longer current. By this measure his paintings could be uncharitably characterised as retrograde. Perhaps in the 1920s his work would have been exciting, but today, a century later, it has little to say to us. Mackay, however, simply focuses on what interests him. He certainly wouldn\u2019t identify himself as an orphist or a surrealist in any robust sense. Rather he has an abiding interest in the modernist tradition that has inspired his work for many years. In general his formalist concerns that were defined by modernism have not withered. A great deal of contemporary art shares these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Installation view of Ian Mackay, Shape-Shift<\/em> at the Read Head Gallery. Photo: Hugh Alcock<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think Mackay\u2019s work in fact demonstrates how rich abstraction is, how current it remains. His painting are exquisite experiments that cannot fail to enthrall the judicious viewer. There is both a playfulness and a seriousness to them. These paintings are the latest in a years-long series of works by Mackay in which he courageously explores the endless and surprising possibilities of painting itself. Their energy is infectious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hugh Alcock<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n