Exhibitions

Galerie Roger Katwijk is pleased to announce the new solo exhibition of British artist John O’Carroll, ‘Path of Water’.

O’Carroll’s current work is based on the observation of a river, an allegory of life and employs his study of Zen and Arabic calligraphy and the Japanese  principle of ‘MA’ , giving empty space for the viewers mind. In the exhibition ‘Path of Water, O’Carroll shows paintings and mixed media wall pieces, built on a lifetime’s study of nature and the environment.

Drawing on a vast range of sources, from Japanese screens of the Edo period and the strict conventions of Arabic calligraphy to the metaphysically loaded gestures of the abstract expressionists and the Japanese concept of Ma, a pause in time that provides the space life needs to grow, the starting point for the works was the artist’s close observation of the course of a rocky moorland stream.

O’Carroll has used the warm material of copper leaf, a material full of ancient symbolism, a mirror for the soul. The restricted color palette, applied on a background of copper which allows fleeting reflections of the everchanging world beyond the picture plane, invite the viewer to enter a realm in which movement is held in stasis and where it is possible, in the words of the English mystic poet William Blake, to see “the world in a grain of sand” and perhaps “hold infinity in the palm of your hand”, if only for a moment.

John O’Carroll (Cornwall, *1958) divides his time between his studio in Cornwall, winter studio in Egypt’s Great Western Desert. John O’Carroll participated in several national and international art events such as the Alexandria International Biennial Discovering the Book (’05). His work was frequently shown outside Britain such as at the Holly Solomon Gallery, New York and the British Embassy and the residence of the Dutch ambassador in Cairo (’13). In 2012, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden curated the Colours of Oasis exhibition in which O’Carroll participated. His work was also shown at the Dutch-Flemish Institute in Cairo and he participated in the exhibition Anthropocine at the Eden Project, Cornwall. Work by O’Carroll is in several private collections and in important corporate collections, such as those of Akzo Nobel, AMC, VUmc, Loyens & Loeff, Accenture and the collection of the NCM British Headquarters in Cardiff.