Sincere thanks to Slavka Sverakova who took the time to review our Belfast Bankers Group Show.
Here is a little of what she had to say, full review listed below.
'Esther O’Kelly exhibited four paintings, installed on two walls of a corner. Bachelard infused corners with added poetry, so I am inclined to note each separately and as a group.
the titles suggest that any narrative I may attach to viewing it should not share the same root – one connects to an opera, the other to an ocean . Is it visible? I sense that it does not aim to insist on the title to determine the visual thoughts locked in the hues, tonality and brushstrokes. This painter’s personal palette connects more to art than to observed nature. In the way she positions difference over the whole, however, is responsive to the timing in an opera made of many defines parts clearly delineated, and an ocean as powerful unity of its, mostly hidden, parts. One is open to narrative exploration of differences, the other overwhelms by hiding them under the surface of oneness. A plausible register of possibilities. I cherish the power of both paintings to make visible the moment of a hue asserting its presence without a conflict. The open divided brushstroke accepts the calmer fluency of the others, even when provoked by clashing lines of a bigger shape. But in there is a notable knot: what if it muddles the visual poetry of the whole? One possible outcome is the successful grounding the imagined in the remembered. obse I sense that this painter never holds the memory responsible, preferring invention, fresh opening up to dreaming up relationship among the brushmarks. . A sort of spanner in the works- if the works are expected to tell of a past experience Instead – the paintings evoke an experience of making up playful multiple meanings.'
Opera Festival 120cm x 100cm
'Mighty Ocean Deep' 50 x 70cm