Austin Eddy

The Pit is pleased to present Light Reflecting Distance, the galleryʼs first solo show with New York based artist Austin Eddy. The exhibition consists of ten new paintings installed in The Pitʼs newly constructed third exhibition space.

Austin Eddyʼs new body of work was conceived and created over the course of the past year. While self-isolating during the pandemic. He became interested in the idea of painting time and light from his Brooklyn studio. At first glance these works call on a sense of sublime escapism through pseudo natural references. During the past decade Eddy has been navigating painting in various forms. Over the past few years his focus has shifted to an exploration of the metaphor of birds and the spaces they occupy. Eddyʼs semi representational imagery could be considered an attempt to stave off the claustrophobia of anxiety though the visual exploration of widened landscapes and sensory perceptions. The images addressed in these works exist less as singular representations of birds, and more as formal starting points to open a discussion of various aspects of the human condition.

Particularly in this body of work Eddy mines memory and personal experience to construct abstracted narratives alluding to love and longing. Allowing the experience to be constructed through tone and color, the birds become coat racks for emotion. The titles of the works similarly pull together poetic and musical references. He collages geographic locations, weather conditions, light, and literature to allude to muddy feelings and psychological experiences. In particular for this exhibition Eddy has pulled inspiration and the idea for the show title of the poem “Winter Solstice” by Hilda Morley.

Austin Eddy (1986, USA) received a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2010). Recent exhibitions include Althuis Hofland Fine Arts (Amsterdam, 2020); Galerie Sabine Knust (Munich; 2020); Institute 193 B (NY, 2020); Hermes Riders Lounge (Lyon, 2019); and SOCO Gallery (Charlotte, 2019).