Sharon Leahy Clark - Not Afraid of the Dark

For her solo exhibition, Not Afraid of the Dark, Sharon Leahy-Clark invites viewers to enter the unknown and to examine what it means, as she suggests, to ‘be’. Her highly intricate paintings on hand-made paper, reflect Sharon’s intuitive exploration of her experiences and beliefs that form her impression of ‘the self’.

Sharon’s new paintings reflect on the notion of ‘the self’ as comprised of billions of impalpable, tiny signifiers that are indefinable. The work makes reference to the vast and diverse array of stories, songs, sounds, images, feelings, environments, and interactions that we each encounter during a lifetime. Specific to Sharon,  her works also include themes that emanate from the religious iconography she was brought up around as a child. The work does not attempt resolution, but instead imparts a burgeoning belief in an existence beyond the self and utterly outside of the rational.

Sharon works instinctively and organically, using a variety of materials. Her works are inspired by the surrealist practice of ‘free association’, and therefore, inhabit a space on the edge of language and reason. At first glance, they appear as animal or human, but such familiarity soon collapses and images transmute into forms less recognisable, suggesting the inexplicable, intangible, and otherworldly.

References the unconscious and uncanny; themes which recur in folklore and fairy tales, in which internal and external worlds merge, Sharon taps into a primal, universal relationship with the irrational. Sharon allows her audience to enter this world, stepping beyond the boundary of traditional tales and enticing you into the dark.