STOWAWAY is pleased to present Table Talk, a solo exhibition of twelve paintings by Andrew Shea, opening with an artist reception on February 22, from 5–8PM.

Shea’s works begin as loose sketches of daily subjects done from observation in graphite or watercolor. He then translates these sketches into oil, a lengthy and unpredictable process in which the initial images evolve through disruption, invention, deletion, and recovery. Many of the paintings in “Table Talk” emerged from drawing sessions Shea held with fellow painter Ashley Bergner, during and after shared meals. In Shea’s works, talking, drawing, and eating happen simultaneously: plates, forks, and knives mingle with drawing tools, while scraps of leftover food are strewn among scraps of notebook paper.

The exhibition’s title, “Table Talk,” hints at the shared ancestry of the English word “table” and the French word for paintings: tableaux. Shea writes: “I like to think about how a painting’s surface ‘talks’ to us, how it recounts an experience through its residual gestures—much as the disheveled remains of a table setting tell us something about the meal that just took place, moments ago.” The title also refers to the literary genre of the “table talk,” in which a philosophical dialogue is framed within a meal shared by its interlocutors. Likewise, these paintings seem to suggest that insight (if not always understanding) can occur in the most ordinary of settings. Using the material of paint to engage the mysteries of looking, remembering, and recording, Shea’s work speaks to the resonant epiphanies one may find in life’s quiet moments.

Andrew Shea (b. 1994) is a painter working primarily in oil. He has participated in group and two-person exhibitions in New York City; Providence, Rhode Island; and Portland, Maine. This is his first solo show. Also an extensively published art critic, he has written reviews of museum and gallery exhibitions in publications such as the Brooklyn Rail and the Wall Street Journal, as well as catalogue essays for commercial and institutional exhibitions in New York and Boston. He is based in Providence, where he teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design, and commutes weekly to New York City to teach at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He received his BA (English Literature, Studio Art) from Dartmouth College and his MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Recent, current, and upcoming exhibitions include 1GAP (Brooklyn), THERE (New York), the Shirley Fiterman Art Center (New York), East Manning Projects (Providence), Field Projects (New York), and Alice Gauvin Gallery (Portland).