Erin Lawlor
B. 1969, Epping, England.
Lives and works in London.
For Erin Lawlor, the medium is the muse: Her saturated abstractions celebrate the fluidity of paint with wide, exaggerated brushstrokes that wriggle and intertwine across the canvas. Typically large in scale with rich, enticing colors, these works feel like monuments to markmaking itself.
This monumental quality is on full view in Lawlor’s current exhibition, “Invincible Summer,” organized by Vigo Gallery at the Wellington Arch in London. Here, the artist presents works that find resonance with the landmark’s martial history—the heroic, three-paneled battle (2021), for example, draws inspiration from war paintings by the Italian Early Renaissance artist Paolo Uccello. Formally, Lawlor’s piece more obviously bears the influence of Abstract Expressionist painters like Lee Krasner.