Phil Darrah

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Phil Darrah, “Barn Light,” 2021, acrylic on canvas, 53” x 68” (courtesy the artist)

At first glance, Phil Darrah’s 11 paintings, on view at Calgary’s Wallace Galleries until April 20, look like an academic exercise. Perhaps not surprising, given Darrah’s art education in Britain some 60 years ago and his teaching duties from 1968 to 2003 at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

His paintings, part of Works Within a Continuum, a two-person show with Edmonton artist Robin Smith-Peck, recall American artist Mark Rothko and Toronto’s Jack Bush. Each painting has a sombre, translucent and meditative background with a few broad brushstrokes that float over top. The overall effect is a subtle playfulness. These works invite viewers to draw closer. Once you do, you can spot tiny cracks or fissures in the paint and discover some white blocks are actually paper. 

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Phil Darrah, “Pavillion,” 2001, acrylic on canvas, 43” x 34.5” (courtesy the artist)

Darrah, despite his nod to these other artists, has created his own niche in colour-field painting. His work is visually complex and often evokes a sense of place. He alludes to nature with browns, greens or blues. One piece evokes the sun with its orange-yellow brushwork. The juxtaposition of broad horizontal or vertical strokes with the rectangles creates an attractive tension. In several pieces, a rectangle is placed on the edge of the canvas, subtly suggesting a door or window. The brush marks seem to float in or out of these mysterious openings. An escape, perhaps?

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Phil Darrah, “Brown Key,” 2021, acrylic and collage on canvas, 48.5” x 33” (courtesy the artist)

Darrah gives some paintings titles that suggest possible meanings or inspirations. Brown Key suggests a door and a circular brush stroke calls to mind an eyeball. Could we be looking through a keyhole? Even before I read the title, I saw Pavillion as a foreground structure blocking the view of three sentinel-like figures ­– the vertical brush strokes in Darrah’s paintings read like figures. The turquoise square in the upper left corner suggests a view of the sea through a window. 

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Phil Darrah, “Proun Minor,” 2021, acrylic on canvas, 25.5” x 32” (courtesy the artist)

The title of another painting, Proun Minor, refers to Russian artist El Lissitzky, who produced a large body of work between 1919 and 1927 that he referred to as Proun, an acronym for “project for the affirmation of the new” in Russian. Knowing this, one can’t help but think the paintings in this show, all from 2021, may be metaphors for the mysteries of our new pandemic world. 

While many of these works are dark, the longer you contemplate them, the more you notice hopeful elements, like a stroke of colour or a door that suggests a way to move forward. Like life, Darrah’s paintings are complex. Each of us will see, feel and think something different – and that’s a good thing. ■

Works Within a Continuum at Wallace Galleries in Calgary from April 2 to April 20, 2022. 

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