Brian Gormley’s Introspective Art

Brian Gormley is one of the few surviving influential artists from the renowned East Village art movement of the 1980’s. His abstract pieces are what I could describe as streams of consciousness that are translated onto canvas with paint and print. He draws inspiration from what he calls the “snap and snarl” of contemporary graffiti but also ancient engravings and architecture seen in ancestral heritage sites, such as Newgrange and Egypt.

I strolled through the leafy suburbs of Ballsbridge, Dublin, an area which is closely associated with the artistic heritage of Ireland. Dubbed Baggatonia, an area around Baggot Street in Dublin 4, was a bohemia where influential Irish writers, like Patrick Kavanagh, and famous painters, like Patrick Swift, resided. On this day I was to meet another artist that now calls it home, Brian Gormley.

I arrived at his front door, admiring the architecture of the Georgian structure. After a few moments, the door opened and Brian welcomed me with a warm handshake and an enthusiastic greeting. It was clear that I was in an artist’s home. Every nook and cranny was filled with vibrant abstract pieces.

I wanted to know more about 1980’s East Village, New York. He describes it as an artistic hub which had all the trappings that would appeal to young struggling artists that wanted to leave their mark in the world. It was cheap, exciting, and dangerous. Brian lists a number of famous and iconic East Village denizens, such as the Ramones and Deborah Harry. To him, East Village was the perfect environment for cultivating influential artists, saying, “There was such a community and a cross pollination of artists”.

Gormley drew inspiration from the graffiti that covered the walls of New York’s streets. He was attracted to the rebellious nature of the artform. But he believes the artform has become gentrified, saying, “Graffiti culture, it’s homogenised. The life is gone.”

He continues, “When I was doing graffiti, it was a crime. I mean, I went on the streets a few times, you know, and I was white, and I got grabbed by the police…They said, “Man, you can go to jail for this” and “Aren’t you too old to be doing this?” If I was black, they would have beat me up because it was a crime.”

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As a young artist, he had somewhat of a notoriety  in the movement, with many characterising him as a “wildman” who had a fondness for alcohol. But Brian admits he was a young man that was trying to create an image, something I think most young men do at some point in their life.

Saying, “I was influenced, you know, by the Pollock thing”. He continues, “It was just kind of an act, you know, just kind of played around with the people. Our neighbours took it the wrong way. “This guy’s out of control””.

Brian’s father, Edward Gormley, was a successful bar-restaurant owner in Manhattan, who owned five establishments in the East 30s. He grew up around alcohol, so of course he indulged every once in a while, but it never reached a point where it controlled or destroyed him.

Many artists from the East Village movement met an early demise because of substance abuse, such as Brian’s friend, Jean-Michel Basquiat, a famous and highly influential figure from the Neo-expressionism art movement.

I asked Brian what set Jean-Michel apart from other artists in the movement. He responded, “He thought the best artists in the world were like, you know, seven eight year old kids, because they still have that innocence.”

He continues, “He kind of took after Picasso, using the Caran d’Ache crayons, the bright coloured crayons, but still keeping a part of him that was a child.” He credits Basquiat as being a key figure in black art history, stating, “He placed himself as one of the first to put, you know, blacks into museums, into history, where others before him were denied”.

He describes the magnetism and provocative nature of Basquiat’s art, saying “It had the peekaboo. Like painting something out, but leaving a little bit behind it. You want to know more, it brings you closer in to look at it with more intent. It draws them in closer, putting them on the journey of experience.”

He emphasised how quickly Jean-Michel evolved as an artist, saying “He learned very quickly, you know, he was almost uncanny… You’d think, this guy doesn’t have any talent, and all of a sudden, it’s like the devil at the crossroads. All of a sudden, this guy, in 1982, had a full form, vision, complete whole lexicon, a whole completely formed artistic vision with a philosophy and power behind it”.

After this Brian took me on a tour through his home, pointing out his many eye-catching pieces that adorn the walls. He explains his creative process, “I use the silk screen as a gestural mark. You see, Pollock splattered. I splatter kind of psychoanalytic images”. He points to a section in a painting, likening these features to a Rorschach test, which nudges the viewer to search for a deeper meaning.

He describes his painting as a spontaneous and organic process of going into “autopilot” or like “improv jazz”. It’s about feeling, harnessing your thoughts and emotions and translating them onto the blank canvas.

He explains how he uses a silk screen to print and modify the canvas, slowly building up the painting, adding texture, and adding accents. He shows me a piece which highlights how he draws inspiration from ancient and ancestral engravings. He likens his piece to a “tablet” similar to those seen in Newgrange. By printing he adds his “graffiti” or “mark making” to the “tablet”.

Next, he points to the dominant piece in the room, a large canvas with an abstract impression of the map of the United States. He points to his use of iridescent interference and iridescent colours, colours that change when viewed at different angles, a homage to William S. Burroughs’ Third Mind. His use of iridescent, metallic, and pearlescent colours creates a new sense of colour.

Many others have categorised Gormley’s art as abstract expressionism, art that is characterised by spontaneity and its emotionally evocative effect. Brian feels that his style cannot be so easily compartmentalised.

When asked about his art being labelled as abstract expressionist, he says, “It’s beyond abstract. I hate to limit it like that. It’s coming out of abstract expression. But I think I’ve added unique elements into it. I’ve made it more primitive.”

He continues, “I’ve explored colour more than other abstract expressionists. They didn’t really. I mean, the ancient world had more gold leaf, pearlescence, you know, like the Egyptians, very flat colours and stuff like that. So I’m trying to bring that sensibility, but making it my own”.

He elaborates on the complexity of recognising unique characteristics in an artist’s work, stating, “It’s hard to recognize if something’s very unique. That style kind of has to go through this supercilious diatribe for people to understand it.  So that’s why people need something that unites your work, like, Fauvism, Impressionism. They need that rallying point, that kind of collective consciousness”.

He goes on to give a beautiful and apt statement about the nature of an artist’s creative process, saying, “Creativity is like a running River, but we try to freeze just a moment of thought. It’s freezing many different layers of emotion on one pictorial plane, you know. So it’s almost like a road map of your mind. And again, you can go crazy. You get too into your own vibe. It can be frightening.”

He spoke about his competitive nature with himself, saying, “ I want to top whatever else has been done.  It’s like a high jump. I’ll start five paintings. Of those five, one will have something really powerful, just my own personal choice. So I’ll take that one painting that I think is the best and I’ll put that aside.”

He continues, “Then I’ll go back to those other four paintings and I’ll try to make the one I thought was the best, the worst. So I have, like, a model up there. So I keep painting till the worst one becomes the best”.

While I admired the piece, Brian points out that he has been working on it for 4 years.  I asked, “Well, when do you know when a piece is finished?”.

He replied, “I’ve had paintings that I haven’t sold lying around, and I’ve ruined them.” He again mentions this competition with himself, his mission of exceeding previous works. His pursuit of perfection can lead to a product that he deems less than perfect. “What I don’t like, I paint out.” I can only assume that the end point is a subjective milestone.

After speaking about his art, he spoke about his hiatus from the art scene. “I’ve kind of retreated from the art world because for 10 years my mother was dying of Parkinson’s so I just kind of gave up. I didn’t care. I was taking care of my mother. I didn’t care about my career or this or that. And so I moved over here, and I’m getting it back on track.”

To wrap up the interview, I wanted his impressions of the Irish art scene and how it compares to America’s. He speaks about the vastness of the American art scene. Thousands upon thousands of art galleries. This means that finding a skilled artist with a unique vision and portfolio could be likened to finding a needle in a haystack.

He says, “What I’m finding now is that it’s easy in Ireland, it’s easier to get gallery exposure here and to get the word out. In a small community, you could see all the shows.”

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At the tail end of the interview, he offered some advice to those who wanted to make a career out of their art. He said,  “My father asked how do you succeed as an artist? I mean, what do you have to do? And he said, I think actually the critic, Jay boy or Bell said, if you’re any good, they’ll find you. So basically, just do the best you can. Don’t look for a return.”

If you want to see some of Brian’s work in person, Wilton Gallery is hosting the Continuum exhibition at 46 – 48 Pembroke Road Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, from 20 September – 4 October 2024. This event unites the work of several visual artists engaged in the practice of abstraction and neo-expressionism: Jenny Fox | Brian Gormley | Jeremy Houghton | Alana (Svetlana) Lavery | Stephanie Sloan | Anthony Wigglesworth et al., | Jean Michel Basquiat.