INTRODUCTION

“My work is about seeing. Authentic art is a search for truth, not just an illustration of the facts. When successful it resonates with the child in each of us…that part of us that is still able to play…to wonder…to pretend…to fantasize…and to believe in magic.”

Michael Gallagher is an abstract painter who began in SoHo, New York, as one of the pioneers of the Abstract Illusionism movement that started there in the 1970’s. The defining elements of this style create the illusion of depth, as abstract elements appear to be floating above and behind the plane of the canvas.”

Today he is exploring diverse possibilities employing both traditional and non-traditional tools and techniques – paint, pigment, collage, airbrush and camera work in concert with high-tech large format digital cameras printers to create a dynamic, visual experience.

His inspiration and titles spring from an experience, a feeling or emotion, a time or place that ignites in him a creative dialog. This visual vocabulary of composition, colors, shapes, lines and forms are executed, edited, replaced and / or destroyed as part of his creative process. Or, as often, he’s just working directly out of his head.

Gallagher’s work has always had at its core an expression of myriad dichotomies – real vs illusion, order vs chaos, rational vs irrational, positive vs negative… The process itself is one of editing, creating and destroying until the work has a life of its own.