Gael Mooney

BECOMING LIGHT: Gisants and Trees

Exhibition dates:  March 28, 2023 – April 22, 2023

Opening reception:  Thursday, March 30, 2023, 5-8 PM

Gallery Talk:    In Conversation with Fr. Paul Anel:

Saturday, April 22, 2023, 4 PM

Bowery Gallery is pleased to present this exhibition of recent drawings, paintings and pastels by artist Gael Mooney.  The exhibition explores two series of works: one inspired by the interior of a Gothic cathedral in France—the Saint-Denis Basilica—and its medieval tomb effigies known as gisants—and the other based upon two trees in New York’s Central Park.

Mooney’s work on the cathedral premises is focused on capturing the ephemeral, iridescent colors and light reflecting from stained glass as they transform the architecture and sculpture and the metaphor that this mysterious process of transformation embodies, as stone which is solid is seemingly dissolved and dematerialized.   Mooney sees a similar process present in nature, as represented by the series of trees in this exhibition.  Her work reflects upon the paradox between solidity and dissolution, opacity and transparency, form and formlessness as light transforms appearances to lift our gaze from the earthly to the spiritual plane of existence.  Rather than capturing a fleeting moment in time, her aim is to immerse herself in these changes that are occurring moment by moment to see where they may lead. Her work invites the viewer to reflect upon the tenuous division between the seen and the unseen and the meaning that this paradox embodies.

Mooney has shown her work in the United States and France.  Her work at the Saint-Denis Basilica has been featured in national radio and television broadcasts in France.  Writing for The New Republic in 2004, art critic Jed Perl praised Mooney’s “delicately painted, prismatically colored impressions of the interior of the Basilica of Saint-Denis,” citing it as one of the best shows of the season.

Exhibition Catalogue:  Becoming Light: Gisants and Trees (with essays by the artist and Fr. Paul Anel)

General information:

Bowery Gallery, 547 W. 27th Street, Suite 508, New York, NY 10001

Hours:  Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm

(646) 573-8447

info@bowerygallery.org