In Sean Patrick Gallagher’s series of paintings, the sea roils red. The image is clear enough, but the title brings home the allusions the artist is leaning toward.“Wine-dark,” the famous moniker for the ocean in Homer’s classical Greek epics. The others are more contemporary, pointing to the effects of climate change. The series of paintings together act almost like a film. Move through the gallery fast enough, and the floor might feel like it’s surging beneath your feet.
Gallagher’s paintings are part of“The Falling and the Rising,” a show of his work paired with artist Tom Edwards’ show,“Observations and Obsessions,” both running at Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville through May 19. Though the artists differ in their formal execution, in their shows they share a common goal of making the viewer acutely aware of time, and the paradox of how, sometimes, it can seem to move both slower and faster at once — to devastating effect.
