Michael Corkrey’s new paintings reveal elements of the romantic notions typically associated with the seascape genre yet are simultaneously cloaked in an air of cool detachment. Utilising photography as his source material, the artist adopts a more analytical approach to the subject. The paintings begin as exquisitely crafted academic images that are then systematically eroded through a series of compositional devices that relate to photographic and cinematic processes and allow the artist to play with the illusion of three-dimensional space. Finally wax or varnish is applied to the surface, which on one level distances the viewer from the image yet simultaneously makes them aware of the physicality of the painting’s surface. By creating new possibilities for meaning we are presented with the enigma of the ocean in its many guises, from purely elemental to allegorical, and ultimately our own vulnerability in its presence. Corkrey reminds us that the sea does not possess a mystical ability to answer the questions we put to it, but in essence our relationship to it is a complex confrontation with ourselves.