Previous AA2A Artist

Bernadette O'Toole

Year:
2005-06
Project summary:

Bernadette O'Toole's recent work continues to explore the relationship between drawing and painting within indeterminate spaces real and imagined that articulate both the interior and exterior.

O'Toole's recent work though clearly stemming from an interest in formal minimalism uses a minimal visual language to create the kind of spaces that might be inhabited by recognizable objects. Recent work focuses on the psychological or emotional sense of self within the context of an architectural space, in this instance the metaphorically loaded corner.

Recent paintings are constructed using a meticulously painted lattice work of lines creating an uneasy tension between the architectural space and the external space in which it resides. At times O'Toole's spaces seem stretched to their physical limits. In others they appear to be constructed from a translucent material at odds with the nature of solid walls, a space in the process of disappearing or becoming.

By making slight shifts in perspective and by employing subtle variations of tone O'Toole is able to articulate a complex range of spaces, a restless world of edges and planes in state of continual slippage.

'Untitled'
oil on MDF