Duncan McGillivray-Smith's 'Game of Shadows': Where the Mundane Becomes Menacing

2 hours ago7 min read

In the curated silence of the gallery, Duncan McGillivray-Smith’s paintings do not simply exist; they enact a quiet psychological drama. His latest exhibition, 'Game of Shadows,' is a profound exploration of narrative tension, transforming the commonplace into a stage for the uncanny.The central piece, prefigured by a promotional image of a hunt, rejects romanticized tradition. Instead, it presents a stark, almost forensic view of figures advancing through a dusky forest.Their movements are human, but the context is stripped of heroism, leaving a raw and unsettling sense of pursuit. This is the core of McGillivray-Smith’s power: he takes universal moments—neighbors chatting, a family dinner, children at play—and, through an expert command of chiaroscuro, twists them into something deeply disquieting.The shadows are not passive but are active, sentient elements that stretch and distort against logical light sources, hinting at a hidden layer of reality pulsating just beneath the ordinary. His technique evokes Caravaggio's dramatic contrast, yet where the Baroque master highlighted the divine, McGillivray-Smith exposes psychological fissures.While his work shares a thematic kinship with Edward Hopper's isolated American scenes, it ventures beyond solitude into a territory of active, simmering unease. His narratives are built not on overt action, but through a meticulous layering of dissonant details—a misplaced figure, an overlong stare, an errant shadow.It is the visual equivalent of a film by David Lynch or Yorgos Lanthimos, a canvas where the familiar screenplay of daily life has been covertly edited into a psychological thriller. The resulting disquiet is not a fleeting shock but a persistent, philosophical anxiety about the very fabric of our perceived reality. One departs the exhibition not afraid of the darkness, but deeply unsettled by the light, and the secrets it may be holding in plain view.

#Duncan McGillivray-Smith

#art exhibition

#mysterious narratives

#uncanny art

#disquiet

#featured

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