Sean Cairns:
Wearing Away the Mountain
12.26 invites you to experience Wearing Away the Mountain, a solo
exhibition by Sean Cairns that expands on his previous body of work inspired by
serene depictions of music and nature.
The nine large paintings of landscapes and interiors sometimes border on the verge of abstraction and are pared down to an almost monochromatic use of color, each one operating like a distinct ambient tone emphasizing mood and atmosphere. Influenced by his childhood in rural Illinois, Cairns channels his expansive appreciation of German Expressionism, Nabis, and Color Field Painting into depictions of timeless moments of tranquility. With their brilliant use of color, his emotionally charged landscapes often feel paradoxically familiar and otherworldly.
The figures, when presented, are almost always opaque or illusive, like distant transcendent memories. This isn’t done to conceal their activity but to invite you to discover and interpret their worlds. The closer you get, the more is revealed... the surface is a symphony of texture, ranging from sand and gravel to dried pieces of paint found in his studio. What initially looks like a simple brush stroke reveals itself to be a woman practicing her dive into a river or a cat patiently perched atop a wooden post, waiting for its chance to pounce on a bird. These tender moments, inspired by the down-to-earth frankness of American folk art, are consistently imbued with Sean’s keen spiritual appreciation of the everyday.
Sean Cairns (b. 1988, Sparta, IL) received his MFA in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2014) and his BFA in Sculpture at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (2011). Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: 12.26, Dallas, TX (2023); Valley House Gallery, Dallas, TX (2023, 2021), among others. Cairns lives and works in Dallas, TX.
The nine large paintings of landscapes and interiors sometimes border on the verge of abstraction and are pared down to an almost monochromatic use of color, each one operating like a distinct ambient tone emphasizing mood and atmosphere. Influenced by his childhood in rural Illinois, Cairns channels his expansive appreciation of German Expressionism, Nabis, and Color Field Painting into depictions of timeless moments of tranquility. With their brilliant use of color, his emotionally charged landscapes often feel paradoxically familiar and otherworldly.
The figures, when presented, are almost always opaque or illusive, like distant transcendent memories. This isn’t done to conceal their activity but to invite you to discover and interpret their worlds. The closer you get, the more is revealed... the surface is a symphony of texture, ranging from sand and gravel to dried pieces of paint found in his studio. What initially looks like a simple brush stroke reveals itself to be a woman practicing her dive into a river or a cat patiently perched atop a wooden post, waiting for its chance to pounce on a bird. These tender moments, inspired by the down-to-earth frankness of American folk art, are consistently imbued with Sean’s keen spiritual appreciation of the everyday.
Sean Cairns (b. 1988, Sparta, IL) received his MFA in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2014) and his BFA in Sculpture at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (2011). Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: 12.26, Dallas, TX (2023); Valley House Gallery, Dallas, TX (2023, 2021), among others. Cairns lives and works in Dallas, TX.
