Tony Curran

Tony Curran tries to paint people but they change so quickly. The only solution is to paint the change. Rather than holding the subjects in a frozen pose, he uses their constant flux as a means to access the subject from multiple vantage points in time and space. Curran is interested in how contemporary philosophies of self are at odds with the typical ways that we continue to portray individuals. Today it’s taken as a given that people are constantly-evolving entities whose constant shifts in memory, physiology and environment alter their character from one point in time to another. Essentially, it is argued time and again that there is no core central self or soul but that individuals continue to produce and develop new aspects of our self from one day to the next.

Tony Curran’s paintings emerged after noticing how his sitters were struggling to spare the time to pose for extended periods. He decided to paint people where they were – at work or home, and found that once people knew they could move freely, the paintings took on a dynamic and visually complex aesthetic. This aesthetic presents an ideology of self as a shifting temporal process. This temporal process is extended to the viewing experience as the colours, curves and patternation of the field speed up and slow down its reception. The viewer is tasked to piece the fragments together over time.