Lucienne O’Mara

O’Mara explores the dynamic tension between structure and spontaneity, using the geometric grid as a static framework through which emotion and movement emerge.  O’Mara’s use of repetitive squares within squares becomes a way to examine how we understand the world around us. Her unrestrained application of paint provides a unified roadmap of her successive gestures, saturating the image with a vitality that suggests each square is on the verge of breaking free from its prescribed space. Rather than a rigid structure, O’Mara’s grid is one that attempts to impose order while simultaneously falling apart, undermining the rigidity typically associated with such a form. This tension between order and chaos reflects O’Mara’s belief that established frameworks can be challenged and imbued with subjective energy. O’Mara is interested in how physiology and social conditioning interact to produce a perception of reality that is as fluid as the brushstrokes that animate her work. Embracing the malleability of vision, her work reminds us that we must constantly negotiate between truth and expectation in our attempts to understand the world. The colours within each square are layered and juxtaposed, creating a sense of depth despite the flatness of the canvas. Not perfectly aligned or uniform, the unruly squares give the gridlike composition a sense of movement. The overlapping of colors and the imperfect forms suggest a coexistence of different states within a unified space: stability and dynamism, ambiguity and certainty.