JANUARY 7 - FEBRUARY 19, 2025

Exhibition Opening with the Artist
Thursday, January 16, 5 - 7 PM

SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Lonesome Whistle, a solo exhibition of seventeen new small-scale paintings by artist Keiran Brennan Hinton. The gallery will host a public opening reception with the artist on Thursday, January 16th from 5:00 – 7:00 PM. This will be Brennan Hinton’s first exhibition with SOCO Gallery.

Lonesome Whistle is inspired by the 1951 Hank Williams’ song about the sound of a train passing in the distance. The majority of the paintings featured in the exhibition were created by the artist in Corsicana, Texas during a residency at the Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency from October to December 2024. Brennan Hinton often heard the freight train that passes through the small Texas town, all through the day and night, blowing its horn much like Williams describes. The sound at first kept him up at night, but soon became a constant in his everyday life. 

Brennan Hinton imagines the train whistle as a metaphor for the experience of being away from home–with alert eyes and ears that make you pay intense attention to your surroundings. He adds “a lot of the paintings have come out of this state of alertness, trying to capture the moments throughout a day that often pass unnoticed.” The artist’s practice relies heavily on this sentiment – he paints en plein air, using his senses and observations to find beauty in the small moments that pass us by. 

This body of work showcases Brennan Hinton’s exploration and thoughtful consideration of the area, capturing unique subjects like the rare sighting of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) that was visible in October in Corsicana Comet. Other paintings reveal angled street views, oil tanks, window reflections, or direct views from his studio or bedroom window. In Pink Skies, the evening glow of the sunset contrasts with shadows forming inside a room filled with a table adorned with coffee mugs. Brennan Hinton’s compositions are quiet, cropped, and sensational. His curious perception of the world is evident in his careful brushstrokes and his ability to sit still and notice the world around him.

A few paintings in the exhibition were created in his Toronto studio prior to the residency, which is also on a train track, allowing the “Lonesome Whistle” to be a connecting thread through the entire body of work.

Keiran Brennan Hinton (Toronto, B. 1992)

Keiran Brennan Hinton (b. 1992, Toronto) lives and works between Toronto and  Elgin, Ontario. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2014 and his MFA from Yale University in 2016. The principal focuses of Brennan Hinton's practice include the formal painting process; the act of observation; reflections of domestic intimacy; the plein-air discipline; and interiority. In terms of finding beauty in the mundane, the moments that compel him to choose a particular painting subject are fueled by feeling but often incidentally rooted in parallels with specific art historical references. Brennan Hinton's practice relies on 'felt space' rather than learned linear perspective or the prioritization of technical accuracy. He describes his formal process as such: "I paint from observation. I start with a limited palette, mixing the colors specifically from life, paying attention to the temperature of the light or saturation of a shadow. I am interested in capturing tactility and texture; how the limited range of textures available in a brushstroke can articulate different senses. The evidence of my process-paintstrokes and removal-remain visible in the final painting. The medium of painting, both the history and process, is primary to my practice; the subject of the work is often secondary. Painting, for me, is an exercise in patience and concentration, which requires a willingness to be surprised. It is about looking without assuming or generalizing. It is an invitation to linger on everyday life and to become aware of the details that previously blended into the surroundings."