HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY

Halsey McKay is pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings by Dylan Bailey. This is the first solo presentation of the artist’s work with the gallery. These new abstract paintings, Bailey’s first works on canvas, combine echoes of traditional craft with evocations of modern mass-production. They are built up with dozens of layers of atomized acrylic, creating a sheen and depth reminiscent of translucent ceramic glazes. This painstaking method yields a smooth, uniform look more typical of printed or digital images, obscuring the works’  handmade character. Bailey takes inspiration from fifteenth-century European tapestries, with their rich palettes, their reliance on simple chiaroscuro to create forms, and their extensive use of irregular foliate all-over motifs. Rather than stag hunts or knights errant, Bailey’s paintings capture the ghostly, unstable imprints of building numbers and plastic party decorations – distinctly contemporary detritus.

Dylan Bailey was born in Londonderry, Vermont in 1985 and studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, before settling in New York City in 2008. Solo exhibitions have been with David Nolan Gallery and 55 Gansevoort , and The National Exemplar, NY. Among others, Bailey’s work has been featured in group exhbitions at Clearing, Brussels; Karma, New York; and Tony Wight, Chicago. Dylan Bailey is represented by David Nolan Gallery.