Artist Duncan McGillivray-Smith is making waves in Chicago's art scene with his debut exhibition "Ataraxia" at Ackerman Clarke gallery. The show features seven oil paintings that explore the philosophical concept of ataraxia, an ancient Greek term describing a state of tranquility achieved through detachment from external desires and focus on inner peace. While the paintings project a sense of calm, they also carry an underlying feeling of unease, creating a compelling tension between the normal and the anomalous.
The exhibition showcases seven oil paintings of varying sizes, with two smaller works measuring no more than 18 by 14 inches, while the remaining five larger pieces range from 32 by 42 inches to 84 by 74 inches. The larger paintings feature an intricate interplay between featureless figures and their shadows, transforming elevated viewpoints into mysterious narratives centered around common human activities such as skiing or cutting down trees with crosscut saws.
One of the standout pieces, "Late Day in a Small World" (2023), presents a stage-like outdoor space where the ground dominates most of the picture plane. A thin pink line at the top edge represents the horizon, while below on the blue surface, two men and a woman stand around a tree that vertically divides the composition. Behind the tree stands a black and white Holstein Friesian cow, while above the horizon, viewers can see gently sloping mountains spanning the canvas length through a row of narrow white tree trunks and dense green foliage, all set against a dramatic blue and pink sky.
The three figures in "Late Day in a Small World," all apparently dressed in pajamas, engage in animated conversation about something viewers can only speculate about. Large blue shadows extend from both the figures and trees, while a featureless man facing forward points toward the left edge of the work. Below his hand, a snake can be seen crawling out from under a boulder, adding an element of mystery to the scene.
Another compelling work, "Four of Us" (2024), presents a similar stage-like setting with a backdrop of trees, houses, mountains, and an evening sky. Two figures use a crosscut saw to cut down a thin tree or sapling, with the left figure wearing a plaid shirt, brown pants, and pink shoes or socks, while the right figure appears as a solid red shape surrounded by a blue outline. A third person positioned further back creates the apex of a triangular composition.
The shadow work in "Four of Us" proves particularly inventive, with each person casting large shadows that suggest separate figures capable of taking on lives of their own. This effect is enhanced by a fourth shadow rising from the painting's bottom edge, raising questions about the light source creating the blackish-green silhouettes that contrast sharply with the green ground speckled with blue, orange, red, and light green paint marks.
"Thaw on the Mountain, Ice in the Valley" (2024) features three skiers but four shadows on a white ski slope that diagonally divides the picture plane. The fourth shadow, showing a head and shoulders rising from the bottom right edge, indicates a person outside the pictorial space. One skier wears a sweater decorated with clouds, a sun rising in a brown sky, and the profile of a black horse on a green hill, creating a world within a world.
McGillivray-Smith demonstrates remarkable creativity in his use of shadows, splitting the skiers' shadows between the snow-covered slope and the distant valley with mountains. Two figures cast shadows that extend across the snow and onto the mountains, an improbable divide that becomes integral to the painting's logic and the world it evokes.
The artist's strength lies in his ability to embed ominous possibilities within seemingly serene scenes, where threatening outcomes lurk as shadows or uninvited elements like snakes. His use of shadows proves both inventive and uncanny, creating narratives that resist easy interpretation while maintaining viewers' attention through their confounding nature.
Critics have praised McGillivray-Smith's impressive debut, noting that each scene he builds through paint operates with its own internal logic and feels carefully constructed. The composition and elements work together to convey open-ended narratives, with these painted domains clearly belonging to the artist's unique vision.
"Ataraxia" continues at Ackerman Clarke, located at 2544 West Fullerton Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, through November 22. The exhibition was organized by the gallery and represents a significant introduction to an emerging artist whose work successfully balances tranquility with underlying tension and mystery.
