Inspired by the Brazilian song ‘Um Girassol da Cor de Seu Cabelo’, Claire Fahys’ solo exhibition Viento Solar, or ‘Solar Wind’, follows a recent residency in Mexico City reflecting on the pulsating spirit and light of the city.
Influenced by Richard Dieberkorn’s urban landscapes and Lois Dodd’s windows, Fahys pays close attention to colour planes and subdivisions within a painting. At the same time, she manipulates space and form by stripping away extraneous details and allowing raw canvas to peer through. The technique allows for a breakdown of edges, opening up her paintings for energy to move freely within them.
Compositions are framed by architecture or constructed from Fahys’ direct environment, such as the view from her studio or a trip to the coast. Using a heavily saturated palette and swift brushstrokes, Fahys explores the potential of paint as a medium. In some paintings light dissolves colour, relying on the shadows to liven the scene. She brings a luminosity into her work which marks a departure from her earlier paintings, infusing even night scenes with a radiant quality. In rhythmically challenging light between interior and exterior spaces, each painting holds within it the hum of the city.
