• Gavin Fahey
  • Priority Mail 2023
  • Devotional Objects 2021-22
  • American Myth 2021
  • Suburbs 2021
  • Consumption 2021
  • Political Signs 2021
  • Tabloids 2020
  • Trompe L'oeil 2019-20
  • Press/Interviews
  • About/CV/Contact
Gavin Fahey
Priority Mail 2023
Devotional Objects 2021-22
American Myth 2021
Suburbs 2021
Consumption 2021
Political Signs 2021
Tabloids 2020
Trompe L'oeil 2019-20
About/CV/Contact
Press/Interviews

These works, all of which are oil on newsprint, explore the humorous incongruity between the speed and disposability of the newspaper and the glacial labor of painting.  Rupert Murdoch can print and circulate his perverse conservative ideology 1.2 million times per day in The Sun.  My tabloid Hot Nun has its own perversion: a titillating world where the only news is “hot nun” repeated ad infinitum.  It has a circulation of one and it takes two weeks to print.  I find this irony hilarious. 


Although some of my pieces use humor to satirize serious subjects – headline sensationalism, censorship, or the RAND Corporation – I would not call them serious paintings.  They are instead memes: easily digestible jokes meant to mirror the throwaway quality of the newsprint on which they are painted.  If Warhol’s six-foot tall paintings of the New York Post elevated the newspaper headline to the status of high art, I hope that my pieces can sink the painted image down to the level of The National Enquirer.  My tabloids are to be given a brief glance at the checkout line and forgotten about a minute later. 


I am choosing to focus on the newspaper rather than a more contemporary form of media because the newspaper is itself an anachronism, a holdover from a not-too-distant past.  Formerly the fastest way of disseminating the news, the newspaper is now the slowest.  Today’s newspaper reader is making the willful choice to consume their news in a medium which is already a historical relic.  My pieces can therefore exist in an imagined past or an ironic present. 



HOT NUN (2020), oil on newsprint, 11 x 17 inches
Private Collection
abstruse schematics (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
SMELL THIS (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection

One Random Number (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
Monetizing Your Art (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
SLOW NEWS DAY (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection

TOMMY DEVITO DEAD AT 92 (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
$175
ah crap (2020), oil and instant coffee on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
$85
modern despot (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
Frontier: The Pool Issue (2020), oil on newsprint, 11 x 17 inches
Private Collection
Hard to Read (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
Meat Market (2020), oil on Chicago Tribune, 66 x 66 inches
Inquire for price

These works, all of which are oil on newsprint, explore the humorous incongruity between the speed and disposability of the newspaper and the glacial labor of painting.  Rupert Murdoch can print and circulate his perverse conservative ideology 1.2 million times per day in The Sun.  My tabloid Hot Nun has its own perversion: a titillating world where the only news is “hot nun” repeated ad infinitum.  It has a circulation of one and it takes two weeks to print.  I find this irony hilarious. 


Although some of my pieces use humor to satirize serious subjects – headline sensationalism, censorship, or the RAND Corporation – I would not call them serious paintings.  They are instead memes: easily digestible jokes meant to mirror the throwaway quality of the newsprint on which they are painted.  If Warhol’s six-foot tall paintings of the New York Post elevated the newspaper headline to the status of high art, I hope that my pieces can sink the painted image down to the level of The National Enquirer.  My tabloids are to be given a brief glance at the checkout line and forgotten about a minute later. 


I am choosing to focus on the newspaper rather than a more contemporary form of media because the newspaper is itself an anachronism, a holdover from a not-too-distant past.  Formerly the fastest way of disseminating the news, the newspaper is now the slowest.  Today’s newspaper reader is making the willful choice to consume their news in a medium which is already a historical relic.  My pieces can therefore exist in an imagined past or an ironic present. 



HOT NUN (2020), oil on newsprint, 11 x 17 inches
Private Collection
abstruse schematics (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
SMELL THIS (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection

One Random Number (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
Monetizing Your Art (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
SLOW NEWS DAY (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection

TOMMY DEVITO DEAD AT 92 (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
$175
ah crap (2020), oil and instant coffee on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
$85
modern despot (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
Frontier: The Pool Issue (2020), oil on newsprint, 11 x 17 inches
Private Collection
Hard to Read (2020), oil on newsprint, 8.5 x 11 inches
Private Collection
Meat Market (2020), oil on Chicago Tribune, 66 x 66 inches
Inquire for price