A two-man exhibition always has its inbuilt dangers, since stylistically the two may clash or even annul one another. This one, however, fits together as well as a seasoned doubles team in tennis, and part of this is explained by the fact that the artists involved share a background in St Ives in Cornwall. As the preceding show was by Jane O'Malley - her best to date, in my estimation - the Taylor Galleries this season has a decided Cornish tinge.
Breon O'Casey, who has given up jewellery-making recently, is seen in the triple capacity of painter, silversmith and sculptor. Purely as a painter, he has grown steadily over the past decade and while most of the pictures he shows are small, rather informal pieces, they have a range, a visual wit and a lyrical conciseness which is constant throughout. He is also a subtle colourist, mostly in the warm range, and he combines a note of improvisation with an abstract sense plainly indebted to the masters of St Ives.
His sculptures are numerous and varied, some of them being small bronze birds which suggest some ritual purpose, and combine a primitive quality with visual wit. There is also a whole range of small animal and human motifs, again with a primitive and even a prehistoric character, virtual miniatures but with a presence well above their size. Finally, the silver bowls in particular are superbly "massy" and put you in mind of certain Celtic treasures in the National Museum. Conor Fallon, in the upstairs rooms, mounts two of his large, intricate, "open-work" steel pieces, but otherwise shows mainly bronzes on a modest scale. Horses and birds make up the bulk of the subject matter, though varied greatly in format, and the overall impression is that his style has grown rather more classical and elegant, but not tamely traditional.
A notable innovation are the two small bronzes of the forelegs of a horse, omitting the rest - an idea which could simply produce an unbalanced fragment, yet formally it is wholly convincing. It is also noticeable that while most of his earlier work was in cast steel, in this exhibition castbronze pieces are numerous and that overall there are more classical curved forms than angular ones.
Runs until December 14th.
