Peter McConville - Urban Mirage

Like Roy Lichtenstein, who introduced the ink-saving ‘Ben-day’ dots of comic books into his art, McConville adopted the language of commercial printing processes in his paintings. His characteristic use of fields of saturated and flat colour was informed by his early professional experience in textile design.

In his Mirage and Between Lands series, McConville inventively combined the dialects of printers, photocopiers, and computer screens with the visceral matter of paint– seemingly before the ubiquity of Photoshop. McConville often yoked photography and location sketches to create his glittering imagery. His interest in depicting the flora, fauna and figures of the Canadian landscape was informed by his experience of immigrating from Ireland. Transplanted, McConville integrated his observations through abstraction and pictorial assembly. Compositions like Skyline (2004) or Lovers (2004) demonstrate his imaginative layering of urban elements with figurative silhouettes. These shifting yet concentrated shapes seem to anticipate the multi-screen activity of today’s computers or smartphones. They echo the amalgam of his Irish-Canadian identity.