Munster Express, 10th August for - The Forces of Nature – recent work fom 2005
At the Jones Gallery there is the oppressive dark hurt tones on the exhibition Forces of Nature by Sharon McCarthy. There is a lot of internalising going on in these dark abstract cnvases that use wire stitching to connect drops and drips on indecisive colour. Some canvases are ripped like a wound open or personal loss, or seperation. Sometimes the work suggests a denseness that creates anonymous surfaces that are scratched with indecipherable letters trying to shape words and make sense. Textures convey a deeply personal world where things are just held together.
Evening ECHO ‘Exit Reviews’ – 7 July 2005, Cork Caucus, (National Sculpture Factory) for CORK CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2005
A painter in the traditional abstract mode with a vibe from the Spanish artist Tapiés appearing to be the strongest influence on the work. Seven paintings of uniform scale were on show, each made on board using sand and plaster or similar materials to build up a thick textured surface. The colour range employed centres on an ochre palette. The surfaces are scratched and incised. Words were written and subsequently scratched out and obliterated. Intriguingly for the viewer one wishes to know what these words were, I found myself wondering in front of ‘Homage to Home VI’ what did it say, I could make out the letters s b a d, was the home of the title sad or bad? I realized that I was creating a narrative in relation to this work, when perhaps none existed. This work looked competent but lacked a more experimentational approach that would have got more ideas and possibilities going. In short this work represents a good though timid start.
by Mike Fitzpatrick, Limerick City Art Gallery
There’s no doubt one is in the presence of a materialist with Sharon McCarthy’s painting; or at least if I remember correctly what materialism once meant. One feels the importance of Art Brut amidst these works in sombre earthy tones: hints of Fautrier, Dubuffet, Wols, and also through a strange reversal the Decollagistes, come to mind. In McCarthy’s case a critical mimesis of painting in the wake of paintings decline is not the only promise. Process is obviously important here, but one also feels like these sites have been created from a palimpsest of memories as well as layers, and so one narrates one’s way through the variously impersonal, potentially painful, and at times only dimly recalled moments of human presence with a quiet respect. ‘Homage to Home I, Homage to Home IV, Homage to Home V’, are all nice.
by Shepherd Steiner, Art Critic & Historian
