Austin Eddy

Austin Eddy

With the high spirits and prolific outpouring of youth, Austin Eddy assembles antic interiors buzzing with saturated, high-key color and giddy mark-making. These paintings are packed to the gills with pattern and decorative detail. Even Eddy’s omnipresent armchairs do not appear inviting; they are rather like portraits of gregarious loud talkers – charming but right up in your face.

The fun in Eddy’s work is the straightforward celebration of painting itself, its opportunities for overstimulation and material improvisation. His imaginary interiors serve as armatures for engineered collisions of color, form, and surface. His chairs are often made of two off-kilter squares, one for the back and one for the butt. These supports play off the rectangular support of the canvas to further subdivide the surface of the painting. Eddy makes similar use of walls, stairs, rugs and coffee-tables: all are reduced to patterned subdivisions of the rectangular surface, with plants in curling counterpoint.

These paintings seem to be crafted with and for enjoyment. Looking at the seats Eddy depicts, one is reminded of Matisse’s well-known remark that he envisions his paintings as “a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” Matisse is an obvious source for Eddy, and just as Matisse’s paintings defied expectations, Eddy’s well-appointed salons and summer patios are not the ideal places to go if you’re looking for a quiet moment. These paintings ask us to bring a case of beer and join the party.

Profile by Daniel Gerwin