Threshold – New Paintings by Ed Morrissey at the Index Gallery, Waterford Central Library
THRESHOLD
New paintings by Ed Morrissey
1 – 31 October 2026 – Index Gallery, Waterford Central Library.
What happens at the edge of things?
At the edge of the water, between strangers, between departure and arrival, between memory and the present moment — these are the spaces inhabited by Ed Morrissey’s new paintings in Threshold. Bringing together landscape and figurative work, the exhibition explores the uncertain territory between observation and memory, solitude and connection. Morrissey’s figures are rarely caught in moments of obvious action. Instead, they pause. They wait. They immerse themselves. They look away. They appear to exist just before or just after an event, leaving the viewer to imagine what lies beyond the frame.
For Morrissey, painting is a way of paying attention to these moments — to the spaces where something seems to be changing, even when nothing outwardly appears to happen.
“I’m interested in those quiet moments when we find ourselves between things — between where we have been and where we are going, between being alone and being with others. I don’t always know what has happened before a figure enters a painting, or what will happen afterwards. That uncertainty is important to me. I want to leave enough space for the viewer to bring their own experience to the work.” — Ed Morrissey
Water is a recurring presence throughout the exhibition. Rivers, swimming places and the sea become more than settings: they are places of transition. A body partially submerged occupies two worlds at once; the shoreline becomes a boundary between the known and unknown. In these paintings, water can suggest escape, immersion, renewal or simply a moment of stillness.
This interest in the meeting point between human experience and landscape continues Morrissey’s ongoing engagement with the places around him. His Witness series developed through close observation of the landscape along the River Suir, exploring changing light, weather, water and the passage of time. In Threshold, that relationship with landscape moves increasingly into the figurative work. The distinction between the two becomes deliberately blurred.
Morrissey’s paintings are characterised by a balance between immediacy and ambiguity. Loose,
expressive marks sit alongside more carefully observed passages, allowing the paintings to
retain the physicality of the act of painting while resisting a purely literal reading. Blues, greens,
muted earth tones and flesh colours create atmospheres that can shift between tranquillity and
unease.
There is a quietness to the work, but it is a quietness charged with possibility.
The closed eyes, turned backs, solitary figures and moments of waiting suggest an interior life
that remains largely unseen. Rather than explaining these figures, Morrissey allows them to
remain unresolved. The viewer is invited to enter the space of the painting and complete
something for themselves.
“I think painting gives me a way of holding onto a moment without having to explain it,”
Morrissey says. “A landscape can carry a memory, and a person can carry a landscape
within them. I’m interested in that connection — the way a place can affect us and stay
with us long after we’ve left it.”
The title Threshold reflects this central concern. A threshold is both a boundary and an
invitation: a point at which one state ends and another begins. Across the exhibition, Morrissey’s
paintings inhabit that space — between land and water, solitude and connection, memory and
experience, stillness and movement.
Ultimately, Threshold asks the viewer not simply to look at a place or a person, but to pause
within the moment.
About Ed Morrissey
Ed Morrissey is an Irish artist based in County Tipperary. His multidisciplinary practice
encompasses landscape painting, figurative work, drawing and mixed-media processes.
Working primarily in oil and acrylic, Morrissey’s work is rooted in observation, memory and the
experience of place. The landscape of Tipperary and the River Suir are recurring sources of
inspiration, alongside an ongoing interest in the human figure and themes of presence,
connection and the human experience. His work explores the relationship between the observed world and the emotional world, often focusing on moments of stillness, transition and reflection.
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