Steven MacIver's Orkney-Inspired Geometric Drawings at Dillon Gallery Explore Memory and Geography

Scottish-born painter Steven MacIver presented new work at Dillon Gallery in New York from June 15 to August 12, 2016. His exhibition 'Out of Orkney' featured complex drawings on birch panels that transformed childhood memories of Orkney's topography and World War II lookout posts into precise geometric compositions. MacIver employed surgical applications of paint and copper leaf to create patterns that echo the island's coastal structures. Works like 'Aspect B' rendered utilitarian forms in ethereal white against birch grain, while 'Sentinel 1' and 'Sentinel 2' presented complementary positive and negative variations with intersecting gold lines. The artist's transition from three-dimensional geography to flat drawing planes shares tensions with mid-century geometric abstraction, referencing influences from Frank Stella's hard-edged paintings to Robert Smithson's non-sites. MacIver's work examines the accretive process of memory formation through spatial dislocation, creating liminal spaces where triangular planes cascade in works like 'Strata B'. The exhibition occupied Dillon Gallery's compact space at 487 West 22nd Street in New York, presenting spatially questioning drawings that propose an alternate view of memory's geography.