In collaboration with Şule Gazioglu Gallery, Winsor Birch is delighted to announce an upcoming solo exhibition of work by Hector McDonnell at Gallery Eight, London. It is the first time SG Gallery is presenting an exhibition in London. These atmospheric paintings of Istanbul celebrate a remarkable career and ‘his enduring fascination with place, light and memory.’
McDonnell does not approach Istanbul as an architectural document or an exoticised image of the city. Instead, it becomes a living field of memory, where light, objects, people and lived experience converge. Bringing the spaces he observes in Istanbul into his studio practice in Ireland, the artist paints less the city’s physical reality than its atmosphere and the emotional imprint it leaves behind. His approach brings together Istanbul’s different historical and cultural layers within a single visual language, while creating a striking sense of familiarity in the viewer: “I have never been in this room, yet somehow I feel I know it.”
