Abattoir is pleased to present Triangle, Circle, Square, Shawn Powell’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.
This show continues Powell’s exploration of previous themes that question the artifice of painting—abstraction, representation, the subject as decoy. Always keen on everyday objects, Powell renders his subject matter with a signature delightfully deadpan manner, enlarging detailed views of pencils and cigarettes into weighty presences on canvas. He invites close analysis and the pleasure of simple looking simultaneously, layering art historical references onto uninflected close-ups that shift legible forms into the abstract.
