Oliver Sears Gallery is pleased to announce the launch of ‘In Reality’, a new exhibition of painting by Belfast born painter, Laurence Riddell.

Continuing with the theme of the horse, Riddell’s intimate and tender painting style may lend itself with sympathetic ease to the mysteries of his equine subject but that is to simplify and limit the artist’s intentions. While Riddell’s first contact with horses came professionally (he was one of those talented young jockeys who outgrew his potential), he has spent half a lifetime using them as subjects in his paintings. So, the paintings are not really about horses; they aim to create cadres of light, reflection and mortality. Inevitably, these are paintings about the human condition: anxiety, tranquillity, claustrophobia and melancholy. Riddell feels his way around the small white rectangles, filling the space with brushstrokes that flicker with truth, beauty and resignation.

He writes: “I am aiming to achieve this through the portrayal of a more accurate truth, more real than the perception of what is real, allowing for a more informed and reflective engagement with the subject matter which is often hemmed in/ confined/ transfixed. Lighting is utilised and combined with the illusion of space or the lack of it in restricting both movement and gesture. The perimeter of the image is often employed to act as a boundary further enclosing the subject matter and deepening its vulnerability.”

At the Oliver Sears Gallery
Starts: 10th November 2023 at 6:00pm
Ends: 8th December 2023