Imagining the Unseen

August 29, 2022 in News

‘Imagining the unseen: Quantum Physics and Cosmology’ is the title of former Jesuit Colm Brophy’s latest collection of paintings. They will go on exhibition for a week from 3 -9 September 2022 in the Frame Expert Gallery, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 and the official opening will take place on Saturday 3 December from 4-6 pm.

Colm, who is also a qualified art psychotherapist, has had 13 previous solo exhibitions in Dublin, Sheffield, Galway, and Wicklow, working with watercolor, pastel, and oils. He presently works in acrylic.

This latest exhibition is inspired by the writings of world-renowned physicist Carlo Rovelli, who according to Colm, “Connects disarmingly with poetry, history, and philosophy as well as physics.”

The titles of Colm’s pictures are actually compressed statements from Rovelli’s books, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality is not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, The Order of Time and Helgoland. He says the books cover the basic concepts of modern physics as well as giving a more detailed history of the subject. They also take a long look at the notion of ‘time’ and include an island where great insights blossomed. “I was stunned by the simplicity of his writing as well as being amazed at the unusual facts he brought to my attention.”

Each painting is the artist’s imaginative response to the compressed statements from his books, and Colm says that he is happy to be corrected about anything visitors see in them.

Referencing the title of this latest exhibition he says if it seems a little over the top it’s because it is. “I began with a blank canvas,” he says. “The canvas of my mind”. He adds that never even studied a science subject at school and knew nothing about physics but when he discovered Rovelli he became fascinated by the subject.

The exhibition also includes a set of portraits including that of Albert Einstein. “Just one of the very many physicists who discoverd and developed the scientific facts we live by without knowing much of how they underpin our modern lives,” he concludes.