You will like the ten canvasses making up a first solo exhibition by local artist, Darragh Lyons – Head Places – at the Index gallery at Waterford Central Library. Darragh is an architectural graduate from UCD and the work owes, in part, its genius from his training. But he brings to it, not just, a command of line and geometry but a vivid sense of colour and colour patterns.
Two themes are evident in the show. One, Portals and Doorways, creates at once an illusion of looking in that switches to looking out like an optical illusion. Sections of colour seem to move. But sometimes the dark doorway appears as a pint of Guinness which in a way spoils the illusion.
The second Abstracted Architectural Perspectives, has beautiful colour patterns in geometric shapes. Watching them, panels or patterns change perspective and this is a pleasant experience. Panels of colour, also, seem to float away independently from the first image. Corridors of light and shade attract and shade takes on a solid shape.
I found the work more interesting than the recent work of Scully, Shinnors or Albers. Darragh Lyons is at the start of his story and the work reflects a vitality of making sense, for his first time, while the others mentioned have moved on to a more abstract place.
