Kerlin Gallery are please to announce the forthcoming exhibition of new paintings by Seán Shanahan. 

Shanahan, born in Dublin, educated in London and Madrid, has lived and worked in Northern Italy since the late 1980's. A painter of refined geometric abstractions, he has often pitted an elegantly understated use of line and colour against the more naturally recalcitrant qualities of a variety of occasionally improbable supports. In the past these have included rough rectangles of different natural woods and medium density fibreboard, as well as variously polished and sanded steel, in a wide range of sizes. During the late 90's, Shanahan moved inexorably towards the monochrome, painted on bevelled M.D.F. supports. Increasingly these paintings have been conceived with specific architectural destinations in mind, such as San Georgio Scarampi and Villa Pomini Castellanza.

“I was drawn by the surfaces’ lack of reflections. The material seemed to absorb the light. An effect of material density; the colour was inside not on the surface………the colour has to penetrate deep inside. And this is precisely the impression you have when you look at the works, and this is a substantial difference when compared to the work of other artists”

–Giuseppe Panza, “Memories of a Collector” Abbeville Press 2007

Shanahan has exhibited widely throughout Europe since the early 1980's and has had numerous solo shows, especially in Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. In recent years these have included major solo exhibitions at Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Dublin, the Fondazione Scarampi, Italy and the Sleeper Gallery, Edinburgh. In 2007 he exhibited at the Kunst-Station, Sankt Peter Köln, curated by Friedhelm Mennekes and in late 2009 will have a major exhibition at the prestigious Panza Museum. Seán Shanahan will show new work at the Ulster Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland in 2010-2011.

Shanahan is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin, the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery Dublin, Panza, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Rijks Dienst Beeldende Kunst, Den Haag, Gerling Konzern, Cologne and in many other collections, both public and private, throughout Europe.