Megan Rooney’s Layered Abstractions Unfold at Frieze London
The artist's new works, developed through an intensely physical dialogue with canvas, arrive at the prestigious fair alongside a concurrent exhibition in Malta. Paint, pastel and oil stick converge in compositions that become temporal capsules, gradually absorbing the traces of studio life and internal reverie.
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Megan Rooney approaches the canvas as an arena of intimate excavation, where painting transcends mere application to become an act of profound retrieval. Her practice unfolds through an intensely physical exchange, one in which forms emerge gradually, coaxed and wrestled into being through an intuitive process that honours both control and spontaneity.
The artist’s works develop across accumulated layers of acrylic, oil, pastel and oil stick, each material laid down with intention before being sanded back, revealing what lies beneath. This cyclical rhythm of building and erasure creates compositions of extraordinary temporal depth. Her canvases become something approaching archaeological records, capsules that absorb not only the environmental traces of the studio itself but equally the artist’s own internal landscape and emotional terrain.
At Frieze London, presented by Thaddaeus Ropac, Rooney’s new body of work invites viewers into this meditation on process and presence. The paintings possess a luminous, breathing quality, their surfaces animated by the subtle evidence of their making. Tones shift and emerge from beneath layers, creating a visual poetry that resists easy resolution yet commands sustained contemplation.
This presentation arrives concurrently with a significant exhibition of the artist’s work at MICAS in Valletta, Malta, extending through January 2027, offering a comprehensive encounter with Rooney’s distinctive aesthetic vision across two distinguished venues.
Imagery courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac (@thaddaeusropac).
