In Conversation is the new exhibition of work by Mailo Power at the Athenaeum House Hotel. Spread over three rooms, the title of the show initially seems a puzzle, but I decided that these pieces speak to me, the viewer, or stay silent in a private world of the artist who says that colour and emotion speak for her. At times it is this passion for colour that sings and dances and at its best, tells beautiful stories.
In a conference room, there are images of an American city with traffic light motifs RED MEANS GO like a still life cityscape. A girl in a bell-bottomed jeans, seems to suggest a student time, a time of exploration and hopes.
A comfy sitting room has seaside paintings in mostly dominant blue tones, some with a girl in red bathing costume. Some show hesitancy in the face of dark brooding skies – perhaps an uncertain future – a very today or tomorrow impression of the work. There is also emersion going for it as the swimmer is clothed in a raiment of waves and water.
In the long narrow Zak’s restaurant, there is a sporty theme but the viewer is drawn to the end wall where a golden-haired child in a swirling red dress is dancing, seeming to be free, until you notice she is rooted by tendrils deep into the soil. This is a beautiful evocative piece of the eternal child that can be self-hopes, expectations, child, parent, grandchild.
