Erin Lawlor’s recent work delves more deeply into the idea of place.
While she has long seen painting as a space for both imagination and psychological exploration, her process — working horizontally and using a wet-on-wet [alla prima] technique — turns the canvas into a physical ground, shaped by focused, immersive labour.
Each painting captures a layered, evolving process — a moment in time built up through action and intuition — yet each one must ultimately hold together as a complete, cohesive whole.
The title divining speaks to both a careful, almost scientific reading of the surface, and an instinctive, emotional response. It also points to the search for something ideal or imagined, a sense of discovery that lies somewhere between the real and the hoped-for.
A Highlanes Gallery National Tour curated by Aoife Ruane.
ERIN LAWLOR was born in 1969 in Epping, England. She received her Bachelor of History of Art degree in 1992 from Paris-Sorbonne University, France.
She has had numerous solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include Invincible Summer at Wellington Arch and Earthly Delights at Vigo Gallery (2023), both in London, and accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Dr. David Anfam; Erin Lawlor - la vie en rose at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York (2022); entre chien et loup, at Luca Tommasi Arte, Milan (2021); Memory of a Free Festival, at Fox/Jensen/McCrory Gallery, Auckland (2020); Erin Lawlor at Miles McEnery Gallery, NYC (2019); “cat on the raz,” Espacio Valverde, Madrid; hiraeth, Fox/Jensen Gallery, Sydney (both 2018); Erin Lawlor, Rod Barton, Brussels (2016).
In 2017, a survey exhibition of Lawlor’s work, onomatopoeia, took place at the Rothko Museum in Daugavpils, Latvia, and her work was showcased in Maleri.Nu/Paint.Now at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, in 2016.
Recent group exhibitions include The Cabin LA presents: a Curated Flashback, at the Green Family Foundation, Dallas; Making a Mark: Abstraction in the Ahmanson Collection, Irvine, CA; Raven, at Fox/Jensen, Sydney; 10, at PM/AM, London, and Holding Hands, at Union Gallery, London; Hallucinogenic at Gallery Gerhard Hofland, Amsterdam; British Painting 2019 at Space K, Seoul; A brief History of Abstraction, Rønnebæksholm; L’Echappée Belle, Erin Lawlor/Bram van Velde, at Galerie Pauline Pavec, Paris; Drei Künstlerinnen der Gegenwart, at the French Institute Mayence/Mainz; Bête Noire/Candyman, The Neutra Museum, Los Angeles; A full open hand, drippings, and carefully masked lines, Galleri Jacob Bjørn, Aarhus (…)
Her work is present in numerous private collections. Public collections include the New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, UK; the Rothko Museum, Latvia, and Kolon Group Art Collection, Seoul, South Korea.
Erin Lawlor currently lives and works in London.
