The Red Winds
The Something Machine
October 7—November 5, 2023
Bellport, NY
The Red Winds take shape when the surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer and the east winds blow weaker. Also known as “The Devil Winds,” they are known to wreak havoc on weather patterns, agricultural stability and even mental health. Their effects are felt both topographically – they can cause both drought or flooding, leading to malnutrition, heat stress and respiratory diseases – as well as culturally – the Santa Ana "red winds," a protagonist in Raymond Chandler’s eponymous collection of short stories, describes a society reeling from corruption. In Chandler’s words: “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.”
It is this atmos and climate that contextualize Gwen O’Neil’s debut exhibition with The Something Machine. Holding a mirror to our cultural imaginary, O’Neil marshals her signature neo-Pointillist application of paint on raw canvas to make manifest spiraling, alluring, and often haunting atmospheric compositions. O’Neil imbues color with celerity and clarity; her pictures planes envelop the beholder, welcoming them to confront a cosmic power of paint and reckon with the looming dangers that reside outside their windows and within their minds. O’Neil’s corpus of Red Wind paintings simultaneously radiate warmth and urgency: viewers can viscerally feel The Red Winds breezing throughout the space, controlling our air, and awakening our perception. O’Neil’s visionary painting is rooted in the alchemical transformation of matter that caresses the air we breathe and controls the colors we perceive.