Stephen Conroy
Marlborough
Stephen Conroy is a young artist whose work evokes a strange sense of déjà vu. At first sight, walking into a show of his is like happening upon a show of 19th-century paintings . There, in plain black frames, are works showing elements of Georges de Ia Tour—the same limited color range and interest in lighting, but without the obvious religious content; a bit of Joseph Wright of Derby, right down to the depiction of archaic-looking scientific instruments; profile studies that recall Renaissance portraits; and cut-off figures emerging from bathtubs, which hint at Degas. There is no obvious