Ian Mackay’s exhibition 'Learning to Stay with the Trouble' is on now at the Red Head Gallery, until Jan. 27 2018.

The press release says "Drawing on the legacies of both figurative and abstract painting, Mackay creates speculative situations containing energetic motifs that seem to be actively managing, even fighting, the limitations of their depicted environments -the limits of the canvas itself. Paintings such as Broken Hotel Window (2017) and Painter’s Bag of Tricks Open for Customs Inspection (2017) are imaginary responses to recent troubling events. In depicting the unthinkable, or the impossible, Mackay’s paintings convey anxiety and urgency while doubling as allegories about the limits, mobility and efficacy of the painted image."

Anchoring a response within a frame to something not unimaginable but unthinkable is going to be difficult but such is the challenge of the artist. Ian is up to the task.