Octavia Art Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition of Regina Scully’s recent paintings and works on paper.
Scully’s exhibition, Terra Incognita, focuses on a new series of intricate and compelling micro-universes. Inspired by the idea of discovery and pushing boundaries in painting, Scully’s new works are the result of her intuitive creative journey wherein she views each blank canvas as an unexplored terrain for her imagination. Her paintings and works on paper incorporate intuitive mark-making in thick bold gestures along with extremely delicate lines, layered with rich and subtle color. The result of which are works that have an on-going dialogue between abstraction and representation, as well as the familiar and the unknown. Moreover, Scully’s use of multiple perspectives, close-up lyrical spaces and her imagined aerial views of multi-faceted urban and rural environments suggest archaic, futuristic, and fantastical worlds. The viewer is invited to go inside these beautifully executed paintings, to experience shifting boundaries, remnants of objects in hidden places, and to follow the movement of the work rhythmically.
The artist attempts to paint from an open universal point of view so that the viewer may explore a painting and find familiarity. Scully explains, “I try to discover new imaginary spaces that reference an archetypal entrance into the subconscious. My paintings are meant to become a personalized dreamscape for the viewer, an enveloping labyrinth to enter and travel through, wherein the viewer experiences his or her own recollections and thoughts through association and memory.”
The thematic framework for the exhibition, Terra Incognita, is Latin for “unknown land.” These words were commonly printed on old maps to refer to unexplored territories – places where the imagination could take hold – where all kinds of mythological beasts and serpents reigned. Scully finds this term from the past equally relevant today, as our advanced technology has begun to find many unexcavated remnants of ancient civilizations beneath the earth and oceans, and our explorations in space excel.
Regina Scully lives and works in New Orleans, LA. She was born in Norfolk, Virginia and received her BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from University of New Orleans. In 2013, Scully had a solo exhibition at C24 Gallery, New York and she has an upcoming exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland in 2014. Her work has been included in Prospect1.5, New Orleans, LA, Prospect.2 Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, and in group exhibitions at C24Gallery, New York and Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA. Scully’s works are included in various private and public collections including the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation Collection, Los Angeles, CA and the Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, WA.
