Brian Fallon once described John Shinnors as a modern day ‘Baroque tenebrist’ due to the artist’s fondness for creating drama in his work through ‘collisions of light and dark’. Tenebrism is a visual effect employed most notably by Caravaggio and de La Tour where a painting which was otherwise dominated by darkness had important aspects within it illuminated by a spotlighting effect. Shinnors’ inclination towards tenebrae can be traced back as far as the 1980s and his ‘Resurrection series’, where a similar ‘spotlight’ in each of the works penetrated the gloom.
Eddie Rafferty’s love affair with Africa is manifest at his first major survey exhibition on view this summer at the FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, writes Riann Coulter.
