Echo of Color and Form by Daniel Martin Sullivan

 July 15-August 15, 2022

Exclusively Online at The Art House Gallery

Press Release

A review by Kristen Beaulieu

In his show "Echo of Color and Form," Daniel Martin Sullivan presents an art exhibit that is more "meta" than most. Sullivan's show is about a way of working, or more specifically, the common painter's practice of "working in series." From the beginning, art students are taught to "work in series" to hone their skills and learn with each iteration. But this practice is not just for beginners – a successful series is often considered the hallmark of the accomplished professional, because creating a coherent body of work around the same theme, palette or technique is quite challenging.

 While "working in series" is a common practice, very few artists make the idea the central theme of an exhibition. Echo of Color and Form is an apt title for such a project, the word "echo" suggesting repetition and imitation. Some of Sullivan's works do quite literally echo one another, like the Caldera series or the diptych composed of Putrefaction and Residual Decay, both composed of two square compositions of different scales and levels of detail.

 However, knowing Sullivan's preoccupation with psychological themes, the choice of the word, echo, also begs a more metaphorical interpretation. An echo is sound reverberating, or bouncing back, perhaps like a memory that haunts us. In fact, the two works that I am most drawn to, Keep It Together and Don't Separate, are about the process of disconnecting from one's own thoughts, feelings, or sense of identity (or "disassociation" according to the artist's notes). Other references to psychological concepts like boundaries and transitions are found in The Passages and Where the Ocean Meets the Sky. The engaging Relationship with Red series features a red line and its interaction with color fields of four different hues. When shown hanging together, the predominantly orange, yellow, pale blue, and violet compositions seem to be engaged in conversation, or "talk" to each other. In fact, the artist alludes to this theme of solitude and society when discussing his work, saying "[each] piece is meant to live alone but also get along with its partners."

This exhibit, curated by Rebecca George, is exclusively online at The Art House Gallery from July 15-August 15, 2022.