The Exhibitionist 11 | LOBBY PART II
Lots going on this week in the art world. My recommendation this week is to take a look a LOBBY PART II, an exhibition of work by collaborating artists Tamsin Snow and Sarah Tynan at the Oonagh Young gallery over on James Joyce St. D1. They have been collaborating on large-scale, domineering architectural installations for a year now and just this week they have been shortlisted for the Converse x Dazed Emerging Artists Award 2015 . Their piece at the Oonagh Young gallery is definitely worth a look for the sheer scale alone.
The area around the LAB is busy this week with Ella de Burca’s solo show GOBO opening tomorrow evening at ArtBox and the continuing group exhibition Welcome Disturbances at the LAB. I’m also looking forward to seeing The Pattern Exchange at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios which opens this week, as well as Garrett Phelan’s A VOODOO FREE PHENOMENON at Project Arts Centre.
News and Round-up
Paper Visual Art Announces Regional Art Writing Programme 2015
In 2015, PVA, the journal of contemporary art criticism, will launch an innovative programme of events around Ireland, aiming to rejuvenate art writing and connect artists, writers, and audiences around the country.
PVA has been in operation since 2009. It has been involved in a number of projects since then, aiming to generate art writing in response to the vital activity taking place in the visual arts around Ireland. With this regional programme, the organisers hope to revitalise debate, providing a crucial supplement to the visual arts infrastructure.
To do so, a series of workshops will take place in February and March in conjunction with exhibitions at a number of galleries and arts centres around the country: the Galway Arts Centre, VISUAL in Carlow, and the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Derry-Londonderry.
These workshops – for writers at all levels interested in writing about art – will be led by PVA editors and art critics Nathan O’Donnell and Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll. These are open, welcoming sessions, kindly supported by the Arts Council, exploring some of the major questions facing the writer on visual art, and asking what it means to produce a regional art criticism.
Further workshops will take place in autumn 2015 in Drogheda and Wexford.
Dates:
Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Derry-Londonderry
Workshop #1 Saturday, 7 February, 10 am – 5 pm
Workshop #2 Saturday, 7 March, 10 am – 5 pm
Galway Arts Centre
Workshop #1 Saturday, 14 February, 10 am – 5 pm
Workshop #2 Saturday, 14 March, 10 am – 5 pm
VISUAL Carlow
Workshop #1 Saturday, 21 February, 10 am – 5 pm
Workshop #2 Saturday, 28 March, 10 am – 5 pm
For further information please contact:
Nathan O’Donnell | Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll
t: 086 6622671
e: [email protected]
www.papervisualart.com
Shortlist for 2015 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award
Arts, Business and Social entrepreneurs all of whom are less than 3 years in operationare vying for the title, “2015 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award”! The overall winner will be announced at a ceremony in the offices of Mason, Hayes & Curran on Tuesday 17th February 2015, and will take home a prize package of cash and mentoring worth over €100,000. The three finalists in the arts category are:
- Matthew Nevin & Ciara Scanlan, MART.
MART is a platform for new and emerging creatives and artists, it provides a physical working environment and imparts knowledge and education. MART is based in Rathmines, Dublin; - Bebhinn Flood, The Design House.
The Design House brings designers, craftspeople and artists together under one roof and offers customers a wide array of high quality design and retail products and services. It is based in Dawson Street, Dublin. - Sarah Davis-Goff & Lisa Coen, Tramp Press.
Tramp Press is an independent publisher which is changing the landscape of what Irish publishing is capable of accomplishing, and in so doing, brings great new writing to readers.
The overall winner and winner in each of the Arts, Business and Social categories will be announced at a ceremony in the offices of Mason, Hayes & Curran on Tuesday 17th February 2015 by Dr. Chris Horn, chair of the panel of judges and guest speaker, Emma Manley, Owner and Creative Director of Manley.
The winner of 2015?s Emerging Entrepreneur Award will take home a prize package worth over €100,000 – comprising of €10k in cash and mentoring and consultancy services from a range of companies. The €100,000 mentoring and consultancy services are provided by Deloitte, Business & Finance, Crowe Horwath, Enterprise Ireland’s Mentor Network, Content Kings, grainne byrne PR, Image Now, Islandbridge Brand Direction, Kendlebell, Mason Hayes & Curran, Newmarket Consulting, Pigsback.com and Thesaurus Software.
In addition to first prize, each category winner receives €1,000 in cash. During 2015, all 9 finalists will be invited to a number of workshops organised by the David Manley Awards committee on Marketing, Finance, Legal and Management.
Judges for the David Manley Media Award are Dr. Chris Horn, Professor Thomas Cooney, Professor in Entrepreneurship, Dublin Institute of Technology, and Nicola Byrne, Founder & CEO, 11890.
More info here
New Director/Curator Appointed to LCGA
Limerick City and County Council has announced that Úna McCarthy has been appointed as Director/Curator of Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA). A native of Charleville, Co Cork, Úna McCarthy has worked as Head of Festivals with The Arts Council since 2004. She is due to take up her position as LCGA Director in Limerick on Monday, 16th February.
Úna has worked in arts management since the early 80’s in Ireland and the UK. Prior to joining The Arts Council, she held positions as Director of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo; Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and the Old Museum Arts Centre in Belfast.
For more info go here
Jane O’Sullivan at The Dock
A Passionate Silence
This exhibition is curated by Alice Lyons
6 February – 28 March | Opening: 6 February at 6pm
The Dock, St. George’s Terrace, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim
Gallery opening hours: Tuesday to Friday 10.00am – 5.30pm, Saturday 10.00am- 5.00pm
From a carefully curated combination of handmade and re-appropriated found objects, Jane O’Sullivan creates works of poignant reflection. A thready impulse is at work here, and part of the fascination is the innovation shown in the methods for stitching and layering together various materials, images and ‘beloved objects’. A delicate Victorian sensibility is countered by a roguish punk ethic in a tough commitment to making, which also includes limited edition artist books, zines and garments. Jane O’Sullivan was born in England and moved to Ireland in 1990. She has studied as an artist/maker in Theatre and Fashion and graduated with a BA in Fine Art from GMIT. O’Sullivan lives and works in County Mayo.
Jason Thompson at The Dock
The non-random survival of randomly varying replicators
This exhibition is curated by Alice Lyons
6 February – 28 March | Opening: 6 February at 6pm
The Dock, St Georges Terrace, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim
Gallery opening hours: Tuesday to Friday 10.00am – 5.30pm, Saturday 10.00am- 5.00pm
This is Jason Thompson’s first exhibition in Ireland. His paintings have recently been nominated for two major awards in the UK, the Liverpool Art Prize (2014) and the John Moores Prize (2010). Thompson’s paintings are unlike quite anything else around: they are playful yet rigidly systematic, wildly colourful yet somehow restrained, hinting at both primitive and digital worlds. The title of the exhibition comes from evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, which is apt in light of what the artist says about about his process of copying and recopying as he paints. Thompson says, ‘I like to imagine all this is analogous in some way to the natural evolutionary processes by which living things are formed and consciousness is developed’. Jason Thompson lives in Liverpool.
Seamus Dunbar at Leitrim Sculpture Centre
The Lost and Found Office
30 January – 14 February | Opening: 30 January at 5pm
Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim
Gallery opening times: 11am-4pm
From October 2012 to February 2013, Dunbar walked the dismantled Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway from Enniskillen to Ballysadare, covering approximately 50 miles (80 km) in 13 stages. The railway line offers a predetermined route through a rural landscape. As a 19th century venture capitalist enterprise, it raises questions that trouble contemporary anthropology, issues of how we exist in relation to landscape, whether as colonial ‘occupiers’ or indigenous ‘inhabitants’. Now effectively a ruin, it juxtaposes wildness with cultivation and management.
Shadowing the physical journey is a socio-cultural one, that cuts an exploratory trench through layers of history, from the contemporary threat of hydraulic fracturing, through Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’, back through the history of colonisation to the early Christian era, and deeper still into the iron, bronze and stone ages. As a strategy for walking, Dunbar developed the persona of the ‘milesman’- employees of the Railway Company whose job it was to inspect and repair designated sections of the railway. The project reflects his interest in the phenomenological nature of creating and experiencing artworks, and in walking practice as a primary tool in research and art making. The current work invites viewers to undertake their own journeys by drawing on personal memories and experiences while physically interacting with evidences from the artists own walk.
Thursday to Saturday – Doors open at front of house.
Tuesday and Wednesday – Go first to central reception at the side of the building.
Exhibition supported by the Leitrim Sculpture Centre and the Arts Council.
‘Structured Worlds’ | Video and Multimedia Installation at Galway Arts Centre
Structured Worlds
30 January – 2 February | Preview: 30 January at 6pm
Nuns Island Theatre, Galway Art Centre, Galway
The installation will be accessible to the public until Monday the 2nd of February 2015. The exhibition will be publically opened by James Harold galway City Council Arts Officer at 6pm, om Friday the 30th of January 2015.
This is the culmination of the ARTS & HEALTH ARTS & DISABILITY ENQUIRY Artist Action Research Project Award.
This art and multimedia video installation has manifested out of of the Artists Action Research Project Award, where artist Aideen Barry collaborated with the artists of “That’s Life” Collective based in the Brother’s of Charity in Galway.
Mark Clare at 126 Artist Run Gallery
DemocraCity
5 – 21 February
126 Artist-Run Gallery, 4 Commerce House, Flood Street, Galway City
Opening hours: 12-6 Monday to Saturday
DemocraCity is a solo show by Mark Clare presented by the board of 126 Artist-Run Gallery.
The title DemocraCity comes from an animation the artist produced using the 3D modeling program Google Sketchup and takes the contradictory ideologies of B.F. Skinner and Theodore John Kaczynski as its starting point and an edited version of Arvo Part’s Fratres for violin and piano as its soundtrack. It is a combination of Architectural models, some appropriated from 3D Warehouse and original models created specifically for the animation.
This is accompanied by a slide presentation of a series of temporary sculptural interventions the artist has made in recent years.
Preview on the 5th of February 2015. Runs until Saturday 21st of February. Opening hours 12-6 Monday to Saturday.
www.126.ie | www.markclare.com
‘The Romantique’ | Group Exhibition at Gallery Revival
The Romantique
30 January – 26 February
Gallery Revival, Moneygall, Co. Offaly
Opening hours: Sunday 2pm – 6pm, Tuesday – Saturday 12noon – 6pm. Closed Mondays.
The Romantique exhibition at Gallery Revival featuring works from over 20 Irish artists in all media and will run from the 30th of January to the 26th of February.
The gallery is located 1 minute drive from Obama Plaza exit off M7.
Closed Mondays Contact – mobile: 083 0074910, email: [email protected]
www.facebook.com/galleryrevival
Róisín de Buitléar at Solstice Gallery
5 February – 17 April | Opening: Thursday 5 Feb, 7.30pm
Solstice Arts Centre, Railway Street, Navan, Co. Meath
Róisín de Buitléar has been working in the medium of glass as a primary material since 1983. Recognised as a pioneer in the field of contemporary glass in Ireland, this exhibition provides a cross section of her recent practice including her body of work Ortha, a series of glass sound objects made to create an Irish incantation and a harmony of voice. Irish cultural heritage is a predominate feature of de Buitléars’ work, where ideas of traditional legacy, ornament and narrative are explored through innate qualities of her material.
The opening of this exhibition is accompanied by a performance by Liam Ó’Maonlaí and and by Peter O’Toole (The Hothouse Flowers). With an introduction and narrative by artist Róisín de Buitléar, Liam and Peter manipulate de Buitléar’s glass as sound objects in this special one-off concert at 8.00pm, Thursday 5 Feb.
Tickets: €12 Duration: 90mins (On-stage seating)
The Abbey Road Community Artist Residency Scheme
Athlone Arts and Tourism are delighted to announce a new initiative at Abbey Road Artists’ Studios in association with the Westmeath County Arts Office: The Abbey Road Community Artist Residency Scheme.
Funded by Westmeath County Arts Office, the Abbey Road Community Artist Residency Scheme will offer one studio space in Abbey Road Artists’ Studios to an artist interested in facilitating workshops with community groups for a 6 month period. In lieu of paying rent, the artist will give of their time to facilitate workshops with community groups arranged through Athlone Arts and Tourism. 2 workshops per week will be arranged by Athlone Arts and Tourism in the upstairs facilitation space at Abbey Road: upstairs@studio5.
These workshops will aim to engage a number of groups from the community including: school groups, active retirement groups, special interest groups, adult learning groups and special needs groups.
The ideal Abbey Road Community Artist Residency Scheme candidate will be an artist who has special interest in working in the community with previous community / participatory art experience. This programme aims to nurture artists’ development in community work.
Closing Date 8th February 2015
Further information about the scheme and how to apply can be obtained by contacting Luan Gallery directly on: [email protected] or 0906442154 or by visiting: www.athloneartsandtourism.ie
Community groups interested in participating in the artists’ workshops should also contact Luan Gallery directly.
Chloë Dowds and Magda Bethani at Signal Arts Centre
NEW GROUND
2nd – 15th February 2015 | Opening Reception: Friday 6th February 7-9 pm
Signal Arts Centre, 1 Albert Ave, Bray, Co. Wicklow
Gallery Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 10am -1pm/2pm – 5pm; Saturday/Sunday: 10am – 5pm
In this exhibition, entitled NEW GROUND, two award-winning ceramicists, Magda Bethani and Chloë Dowds, showcase their new work. Their aim is to celebrate new ideas and fresh beginnings. The exhibition will feature functional ware such as teapots, mugs, jugs, bowls, carafes, and vases as well as one off decorative pieces made to an excellent standard of craftsmanship.
Having both graduated from the Design and Craft Council of Ireland’s Ceramics Skills and Design Training Course in July 2014, Magda Bethani and Chloë Dowds set up their ceramics practices in Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow.
Bethani enjoys creating functional ware and one-off pieces of high quality. The inspiration for her pots comes from a series of 13th century B.C. pan shaped bronze vessels found in Mycenaean tombs. The intention is the work to carry a sense of these ancient artifacts while at the same time maintaining a contemporary and fresh look. She often combines other materials with ceramics such as wood, stone and slate. The use of attractive green and blue glazes with smooth matt and glossy finishes is what distinguishes her work.
Dowds aims to make her functional work as tactile as possible. With soft curves and glassy surfaces the hand is invited to touch and hold the work. Her intention is to create a delight within the user, engaging their sense of touch. Her vases are inspired by music, the forms of which are directly influenced by the structure of the saxophone. She uses clean, precise lines juxtaposed with the soft spiral of thrown clay to imitate the vibration of music. She aims to question pre-conceived ideas about where ceramic objects are placed. This, in turn, increases her sense of play and creativity.
For more information please contact Signal Arts Centre on (01 276 2039).
Or visit the artist’s websites at www.magdabethani.com and www.chloedowds.com
Thomas Brezing at Droichead Arts Centre
The Road is Paved with Good Intentions
Droichead Arts Centre, Barlow House, Narrow West Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
Exhibition runs until 28 February
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10.00am – 5.00pm
The gallery is transformed into one large mixed media installation piece.
For the artist, road-kill acted as a catalyst for the inquiry into the speed we live our lives in.
www.droichead.com | thomasbrezing.weebly.com
Keith Lindsay at the nag Gallery
5 -19 February | Preview: 5 February at 6pm
nag Gallery Basement, 59 Francis Street, Dublin
A sound and visual installation by Keith Lindsay.
For further information www.nagallery.ie
‘LEVEL’ | Group Exhibition of Emerging Artists at MART
LEVEL
4 – 14 February | Opening: 4 February at 6pm
The MART, Rathmines, Co. Dublin
Open daily from 1 – 6pm Monday – Saturday
Roisín Bohan, Dave Mathúna, Bren Smyth, Kevin O’Shea, Peta Beagan, Hayden O’Donnell, Elouise Flannery
The exhibition will feature photography, drawing, video, installation, and performance work.
Liz Meaney (Arts Director of the Arts Council of Ireland) will open the exhibition at 7pm on Wednesday the 4th February, The MART, Rathmines, Co. Dublin.
In The Making Exhibition at ID2015 Design Hub @ Dublin Castle
ID2015 Design Hub @ Dublin Castle
30th Dec – 17th March
Tues-Sat, 10-5pm, Sun 1-5pm
Irish Design 2015 recently launched a new gallery, the Design Hub in Dublin Castle. In The Making, curated for the Design Museum by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, captures objects mid-manufacture and puts the aesthetic of the unfinished centre stage. Varying from the Macbook to the Triathlon Knee System, a surprising range of familiar objects are exhibited in an unfinished state, celebrating the intriguing beauty of the making process and revealing the unexpected quality that everyday objects have before assuming their final, recognisable form.
DESIGN BITES on alternate Thursdays is a new lunchtime talks (1.15-1.45pm) series of informal design and innovation discussions over a cuppa. Thurs 29th Jan – Skyker / Thurs 12th Feb – Deanta Design / Thurs 26th Feb – Gazel / Thurs 12th Mar Love & Robots (1.15-1.45pm)
FAMILY DAYS are fun design and making workshops for children and familes on alternate Saturdays (10.30am + 12noon) Sat 31st Jan – Paper Pencils / Sat 14th Feb – Cut-Out Prints / Sat 28th Feb – Building Bricks / Sat 14th Mar – Stiched Slitors. Email [email protected] to book
www.irishdesign2015.ie/programme/single/in-the-making | www.irishdesign2015.ie/programme/single/design-bites
Lisa Malone at Graphic Studio Gallery
Rainbow For Sale
5 – 27 February | Opening: 5 February at 6pm
Graphic Studio Gallery, 8a Cope St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Graphic Studio Gallery is very pleased to announce an exhibition by a Belfast based artist, Lisa Malone, opening on Thursday 5th February between 6pm – 8pm.
Malone’s works often present alternate realities; exploring the narratives between singular beings and the world at large: looking at structures; containment; people’s interactions with each other and the landscapes they have created for themselves.
This new body of work suggests that the containment of these worlds may be slipping; sometimes expanding; fragmenting, and often in flux.
This series uses an array of techniques from mezzotint, photo polymer intaglio, mono and screen-printing to reveal an intimate view of the world and asks questions about our place in it.
National Campaign for the Arts: ‘The Arts in Session’ Valentines Fundraising Event
THE ARTS in SESSION!
Love the arts? Hate Valentine’s Day? Our friends in the O’Reilly Theatre have the perfect proposal, just for you …
Escape the schmaltz and the ‘table for two’ with The Arts in Session! A ribald evening of liquor, lamplight and laughter in support of the NCFA.
Enjoy comedy, music, fine wine, craft beer and craic in a cabaret style setting. Join us from 7.30pm.
We promise not to stare deep into your eyes. Or hold your hand across the table…
Saturday 14th February
7.30pm – 10.30pm
O’Reilly Theatre
Tickets on the door on the night. Suggested donation €10. All proceeds to the NCFA.
What’s not to love?
http://ncfa.ie
‘The Pattern Exchange’ | Group Exhibition at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
The Pattern Exchange
Guest Curated by Hollie Kearns and Rosie Lynch
06 February – 28 March 2015 | Exhibition Launch: Thursday 05 February, 6-8pm
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin
Paul Bokslag, Sarah Browne, Gareth Kennedy, Sarah Lincoln, Fiona McDonald, Studio Weave
The Pattern Exchange is an exhibition, guest curated by Rosie Lynch and Hollie Kearns, which will present existing work from Irish artists Sarah Browne, Gareth Kennedy, Sarah Lincoln and Fiona McDonald (all IE), with new commissions by Paul Bokslag (IE/NL) and architecture practice Studio Weave (UK). Taking pattern as a point of departure, the exhibition will explore patterns of knowledge, material production, labour, and patterns of movement and change within urban and natural landscapes. The exhibition planning began with a consideration of the historical context of the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios building as part of historic development along Dublin’s Liffey, as a one-time shirt making factory and as a building which is currently used for artistic production and presentation. This exhibition intends to open up aspects of artistic and design practice through an active programme of events developed by the selected artists. Traditionally peripheral aspects of making an exhibition; screenings, talks, design, workshops and gallery information have been brought to the forefront as part of the whole project to examine patterns of encountering artistic practice. It is seen that in this way, the presentation of existing works are public moments within ongoing bodies of research for each of the artists. As part of this, each artist will present a public event, screening, or talk during the run of the exhibition, as an extended aspect of the work on show, with events taking place on a weekly basis.
For more information, please visit here
Tamsin Snow & Sarah Tynan at the Oonagh Young Gallery
LOBBY PART II
29 January – 12 February | Preview: 29 January, 6 – 8pm
Oonagh Young Gallery, 1 James Joyce Street, Dublin 1
Opening hours: 11.00am – 1.00pm & 2.00pm – 6pm, Wednesday – Friday or by appointment
Oonagh Young Gallery is pleased to launch LOBBY PART II, the second of a two-part installation by Tamsin Snow and Sarah Tynan.
Snow and Tynan work collaboratively and explore the relationship between art, architecture and design, constructing large scale built environments in order to raise questions about the political and ideological underpinnings of architecture and social spaces.
Following on from LOBBY PART I where the artists transformed the gallery into a tableau alluding to vacant commercial spaces with displaced and abstracted advertisements; PART II delves deeper into the transience of designated spaces where particular activities are commonly ascribed. A fabricated lobby built in the gallery presents the viewer with a reconstruction of an imagined space, and draws attention to the very materials that create the artifice through exaggerated pattern paintings mirroring the surfaces of their original.
‘City, Assembled’ Exhibition at City Assembly House
City, Assembled
26 January – 8 February
City Assembly House, South William Street
City, Assembled is a moving panorama inspired by the Dublin Civic Exhibition 1914, on display at the City Assembly House, South William Street, from 26 January to 8 February 2015.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the School of Architecture, University College Dublin and the National Film School at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
cargocollective.com/cityassembled | cityassemblyhousepano.wordpress.com
‘CASTING TERRITORY’ | Collaborative Project by Martina O’Brien and The Dodder Anglers Club
Casting Territory: A Contemporary River Keepers’ Index of Lesser Known Patterns
4 – 28 February | Opening: 4 February at 6pm
Locations: RUA RED’s Pop Up Exhibition Space, Tallaght | Royal Dublin Society Library and Archives, Ballsbridge | Waterways Ireland Visitors Centre, Grand Canal Quay
Casting Territory: A Contemporary River Keepers’ Index of Lesser Known Patterns, is a collaborative art project by artist Martina O’Brien and The Dodder Anglers Club, Dublin, which utilizes the art of fly-tying to explore the angler’s inherent knowledge of flora and fauna, physical geography and role as guardians of the River Dodder.
Enabled by a process of exploration into the fundamentals of imitation in conjunction with specific accumulated knowledge, the angler’s’ insight into the river is visually conveyed within these alternative flies. The exhibition is divided across three locations allowing a complete narrative to unfold along the length and breath of the river’s axis. Casting Territory was supported by an Arts Council Artist in the Community Scheme Project Realization Award managed by Create, National development agency for collaborative arts.
Ella de Búrca at ArtBox
GOBO
6 February – 14 March | Opening: 5 February at 6pm
ArtBox, Unit 3, James Joyce Street, Dublin 1
ArtBox is delighted to introduce Ella de Búrca’s solo exhibition, GOBO.
As part of GOBO, a performance of /portals/, a play written by Ella de Búrca and starring Jill Harding, Bob Kelly and Aine Ní Laoghaire, will take place at ArtBox on February 12th and 13th (from 7pm). Seating for this performance is limited and can be booked here
www.artboxprojects.wordpress.com
Amy El and Shauna Blanchfield at Culture Box
Whimsy & Eye
30 January – 14 February | Opening: 29 January at 6.30pm
Culture Box, 12 East Essex St., Temple Bar, Dublin
Open daily from 11.30 – 5.30
Black Box presents Whimsy & Eye.
Opening Thursday 29th January @ 6.30pm in the Culture Box, Temple Bar.
Whimsy & Eye is the first collaboration between Amy El and Shauna Blanchfield. The show deals with issues of mental health, self image and femininity by two young artists from Co. Laois.
Amy El is an artist working mainly with distorted figurative forms. She studied in Limerick School of Art and Design for two years before undertaking a tattoo apprenticeship in Newark, UK. Her first solo exhibition, “TOSKA”, took place in the Pantry, Portlaoise in 2014. Amy uses a fluorescent palette and layers of dry mutilated paint to reveal figures with unclear boundaries between subject and background. Her work seems almost fantastical in nature with typical visual motifs transformed into mystical alternatives drawing us into her delicate aesthetic world.
Shauna Blanch is a painter focusing on issues of mental and physical health. She splits her time between the MART Casino Studios and the study of Arts Management in IADT. Former group exhibitions include ‘Voices across Cultures’ 2007-2009 and ‘Serendipity II’. Her only solo exhibition, ‘Urban Ruin’, opened in Abbeyleix Library in 2010. Shauna works in with deep tones on black canvas. Flirting occasionally with mild abstraction, she usually focuses on melancholic forms concerning body dysmorphia, depression and ultimately, hope. Recent work includes experimentation with canvas slicing and reconstruction using thread, zips and studs to accent the 2D surface.
www.templebar.ie/culture/article/culture-box
‘Welcome Disturbances’ | Group Exhibition at The Lab
Welcome Disturbances
29 January – 11 April | Preview: 29 January at 6pm
Exhibition opening hours: Monday – Friday: 10am – 5pm | Saturday: 10am – 6pm
The LAB Gallery, Foley Street, Dublin 1
Admission Free
The LAB, in association with UCD Art in Science, is pleased to invite you to Welcome Disturbances, a group exhibition of new work by Cindy Cummings, David Stalling, Sofie Loscher, Maeve O’ Connor, Emma Finucan, Siobhan McDonald, Mark Cullen, curated by Sheena Barrett and Emer O’Boyle.
This group exhibition shows the diverse practices of recipients of the UCD Science Artist in Residence Award. UCD Art in Science is a dynamic practice based programme that brings artists and scientists from undergraduate to professional levels, together in collaborative work. Since the pilot residency in 2012, the artists in residence have engaged with scientists in neuroscience, cognitive science, marine biology, plant biology, geophysics, paleobotany, advanced optical imaging, spectroscopy and astronomy.
www.thelab.ie | www.facebook.com/thelabgallerydublin
Garrett Phelan at Project Arts Centre
A VOODOO FREE PHENOMENON
30 January – 9 April | 29 January at 6pm
Project Arts Centre, 39 East Essex St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
You are welcome to join us for the opening of this exhibition at Project Arts Centre on Thursday 29 January from 6.00pm – 8.00pm.
In a newly commissioned solo exhibition for Project Arts Centre, Garrett Phelan explores the power and influence that cultural traditions and artefacts have on the contemporary psyche. Through the recollection of his experience of witnessing the winter solstice at Newgrange, and numerous visits to ancient sites throughout his life and travels, he questions the power such antiquated relics hold over us today.
The exhibition comprises two new video works and sculpture. The first video work is divided between a storytelling monologue by the artist and a dramatically filmed grouping of ambiguous gold objects. These real and imagined encounters with ancient monuments and relics are punctuated within the gallery by sculpture composed of microphones, cables and glass. The second piece is a throbbing animation, both hand-drawn and computer animated, flicking through many of Phelan’s most emblematic images.
Phelan’s visiting and imagining of ancient monuments plays on a deeper exploration of personal politics, the desire to decipher the world and the limitation of our understanding. Phelan asks if we can ever really be free from inherited social practices? From the conditions and belief systems that shape and accompany us through our formative years and thereafter? Can we be free from institutions? Free from symbols? Free from history? It is an agonised position and these are agonised questions. But they are questions asked around the proximity of neolithic stones, of enduring objects which in Garrett Phelan’s way of thinking may have achieved this idea of freedom.
A VOODOO FREE PHENOMENON is running at Project Arts Centre from 30 January to 9 April 2015.
www.projectartscentre.ie/event/voodoo-free-phenomenon
Ruby Wallis at Burren College of Art
Unfixed Landscape
28 January – 28 February
The Gallery at Burren College of Art, Newtown Castle, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare
The Gallery at Burren College of Art is pleased to present Unfixed Landscape by Ruby Wallis. Through her practice she argues for a return to the senses by engaging with the landscape through the ‘haptic’ experience film can provide. She has chosen Coolorta, a small alternative community in the West of Ireland where she lived as a child, for the location of her research. Three artworks, Autowalks, Moving Stills and Turlough Swim are made through lens-based art practice and explore the boundary between empirical and phenomenal forms of research. Drawing on the writings of Judith Butler, Maurice Merleau Ponty, Laura U Marks and Vivian Sobchack Ruby has engaged in walking and filming, ‘slow film-making’, ‘the close up’ and the ‘point of view shot’. This cinematic approach moves over the course of the project from a perspective which privileges sight above the other senses, to an engagement with haptic filmmaking, which seeks to explore the inter-subjective experience involved in the relationship between the spectator, subject and filmmaker.
The exhibition will be opened on Wednesday 28th Jan, at 5pm and will run until February 28th.
‘Centred’ by Ceramics Ireland at CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery
Centred
6 – 28 February 2015 | Opening : 5 February at 6pm
CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery
Opening Hours: Wed – Sat 10am – 6pm
Centred showcases the work of 35, Irish and Ireland based makers, selected by an independent panel, working across the spectrum of clay practice from functional and decorative vessels, figurative to abstract sculpture to ephemeral and video installations.
The selected group includes the work of established makers like Frances Lambe, Nuala O’Donovan, Sara Flynn, Deirdre McLoughlin alongside makers who are embarking on their careers, Andrew Whitelaw, Gemma Dardis, Evelina Wojtowicz.
‘An exhibition that includes a functioning teapot as well as a concept based installation is very comfortable in its own skin, there is no sense of selection by intellectual hierarchy only by merit, which is a tribute to the exhibition selectors as well as the makers. The vapid art versus craft debate obviously has no place here. That is very healthy.’ Les Reed
This touring exhibition began at Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin and ran in conjunction with the International Academy of Ceramics, 46th General Assembly, Dublin Castle in September 2014. The exhibition was conceived by Ceramics Ireland to take advantage of the opportunity to promote the work of makers of and from Ireland to this distinguished international audience which was comprised of makers, collectors, writers and curators developing connections for Irish contemporary ceramics abroad. To mark the designated year of Irish Design 2015, Ceramics Ireland are bringing ‘Centred’ to CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery.
Billy Dante at Backwater Artists Group
A Day in the Life
5 – 26 February | Opening: 5 February at 6pm
Backwater Artists Group, Wandesford Quay, Cork
A Day in the Life, is an exhibition of new works by the artist Billy Dante. Currently in the process of completing a 9-month awarded graduate residency at the Backwater Artists Group, this exhibition showcases Billy’s interest in ‘Life Drawing’, and also challenges what it is to practise in the traditional form of ‘Life’ drawing in todays fast paced world of instant media.
The exhibition will open on the 5th of February at 6pm, in the Backwater Artists Group, Wandesford Quay, Cork. The exhibition will be opened by artist Megan Eustace. The exhibition will run until the 26th of February.
www.billydanteart.wix.com/billydante
Michael O’Connor Poster Collection at Limerick City Gallery of Art
Prints from Life
Curated by Caitlin Quinn
23 January – 13 March
Limerick City Gallery of Art, Carnegie Building, Pery Square, Limerick
The Michael O’Connor Poster Collection is made up of approximately 2800 international poster; ephemeral and historical items dating from the later 1960’s to the early 1980’s. Michael O’Connor of Listowel, County Kerry, categorically amassed the collection over the course of 20 years, at the great personal expense. He generously donated it to the Limerick City Gallery of Art in 1989. This eclectic and personal collection grew alongside Michael O’Connor’s years, taking its shape from the line of his life.
The collection contains posters from provenances as diverse as celebrated American graphic designers and the Polish Poster School – an aspect of the Polish cultural phenomenon that lasted from the later 1950’s throught to the later 1980’s. Michael meticulously catalogued his posters, categorising them according to country or origin and sub-categorising them by theme.
The still-growing collection was initially displayed during Listowel Writer’s Week in the early 1970’s. While the posters were still in Michael’s possession, his chosen method of storage was to keep them in his loft, rolled in cardboard tubes. Michael died in 2010. The specific details of the motivation for and methodologies behind his collecting remain elusive.
This exhibition of posters was selected to be dynamic, vibrant, ecletic and honest; it reflects the nature of the Michael O’Connor Poster Collection as a whole. Dut to the vast and delicate nature of the poster collection, it has rarely been seen by the public; this exhibition of posters is the largest to date.
Anthony Haughey at Limerick City Gallery of Art
EXCAVATION
Exhibition curated by Helen Carey, Director of Fire Station Artists Studios, Dublin.
23 January – 13 March
Limerick City Gallery of Art, Carnegie Building, Pery Square, Limerick
Anthony Haughey is an artist who explores contested territories in Ireland and Europe. In a premier for Limerick City Gallery of Art, Haughey returned to Bosnia to make a new film. UNresolved reflects on the twentieth anniversary of genocide in Srebrenica. Haughey presents a haunting memorial to the victims of the Bosnian war of 1992-95. The title relates to the UN Security Resolution 819, passed on the 16th April 1993 declaring Srebrenica as a ‘safe’ area for Muslim refugees – the prelude to what was the largest act of genocide in Europe since the holocaust. Following Haughey’s earlier work in Bosnia, between 1998-2002, he gained exclusive access to buildings and atrocity sites in Serb controlled territory, areas that have hitherto been off limits. Breaking the silence of this film is a recording of eyewitness accounts of massacre victims collated from archives such as Human Rights Watch and also directly from people encountered on research visits to Bosnia, with accounts of resistance and survival, testimonies from young Dutch soldiers who were serving in Srebrenica and conflicting accounts from UN personnel and Serb military commanders. The film explores ideological and political narratives informing this emerging and contested history. As Walter Benjamin stated, ‘articulating the past historically does not mean recognizing it ‘the way it really was.’ It means appropriating a memory as it flashes up in a moment of danger’ (1990).
Also for the first time in Limerick Haughey presents his acclaimed Settlement series, for this work he photographed ‘ghost estates’, a manifestation of the spectacular collapse of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy. These ‘ruins’ are a symbol of failed economic and social strategies implemented by government policies of the early 21st century. Haughey’s unsettling images attract and repel in equal measure, evoking a ‘dystopian sublime’. Not only does he capture iconic images of this time of crisis, he also probes the fallout and legacy that followed. His photographs of ghost estates are recast as eerie ‘monuments’ – testament to the end of Ireland’s gold rush and the resulting cost of unregulated growth and institutionalised speculation. At this moment of fragile economic recovery, ‘Settlement is a positive political response to a world of negative equity’.
www.settlementexhibitiondotcom.wordpress.com | www.gallery.limerick.ie
Abigail O’Brien at Limerick City Gallery of Art
With Bread
23 January – 13 March
Limerick City Gallery of Art, Carnegie Building, Pery Square, Limerick
With Bread is an exhibition by Abigail O’Brien of photographs, sculptures and video currently on exhibit at Limerick City Gallery of Art from the 23rd January to 13th March 2015.
With Bread and the craft of making it are nearly as old as civilisation itself, Pain au levain was the first leavened bread, probably discovered in Egypt six thousand years ago. Artist Abigail O’Brien’s interest in bread, its elemental properties, the magical process that takes place in its making, its centrality in human daily life across race and culture and religion, its familial, social and cultural importance, and its rich symbolism, spans some twenty years.
With Bread has three key elements. The first is a series of large framed photographs taken in four bakeries in Ireland: McCloskey’s Bakery, Drogheda; Barron’s Bakery, Waterford; the Bretzel Bakery, and Il Valentino Bakery, both in Dublin. To the viewer, the images cannot be obviously linked with any particular bakery. Each is named after a female artist, because, O’Brien says, “the image suggests something to me about their work”.
The second element is the bread sculptures – ethnic breads that have been put through a process of firing and silvering, their nourishing and life-giving properties now suspended forever. Their titles refer to monetary currency – Peso, Euro, and Pound – and, as objects of beauty, O’Brien believes, “they still have ‘currency ‘and may even have ‘value’ in their metal substance”.
The third and final element is a video projection, titled Grande Dame, a three minute piece capturing in slow motion a levain or sourdough starter at the moment of rising. For O’Brien, this represents fecundity and fertility.
www.abigailobrien.com | www.gallery.limerick.ie
Aislinn O’Keeffe at Friars’ Gate Theatre
As if she had a right to be there
5 – 27 February | Opening: 5 February at 7.30pm
Friars’ Gate Theatre, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick
As if she had a right to be there – an exhibition of paintings which inspires thoughts and discussions on the subject of the origins of our nation and in particular the role of women by Aislinn O’Keeffe will open on Thursday 5th February @ 7.30pm.
All are welcome.
More info here
‘THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE’ | Alan Magee in Group Exhibition at Berloni Gallery, London
THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE
Curated by Paul Carey Kent
30 January – 14 March | Private View: 29 January at 6pm
BERLONI, 63 Margaret Street – Fitzrovia, London
Rachel Whiteread, Liane Lang, Maria Marshall, Anni Lepalla, Martine Poppe, Nika Neelova, Bronwen Buckeridge, Alan Magee, John Smith, Jason Oddy, Blue Curry, Giorgio Sadotti, Stefana McClure, Ian Bruce
It’s often said that negative space is as important as positive shapes in a composition. The works in this show turn around a parallel feature of content as opposed to form: namely, what is not present is at least as important as what is present in the work – and so it is that a key role is played by the paradoxical sounding ‘presence of absence’ in work by fourteen artists across a wide range of media. Films by John Smith and Liane Lang use buildings, outside and in, to animate our understandings of what we cannot see. Maria Marshall’s films pivot on the removal of substantial elements of the action, while Giorgio Sadotti’s sculptural presentation of found images operate purely through removal. Stefana McClure gives us a much the longest film – albeit, it could be said, without images or duration. A sound installation by Bronwen Buckeridge creates an illusory space in the midst of the Berloni Gallery itself. Nika Neelova presents a sculpture which seems to stand in for an absent other work, echoing Rachel Whiteread’s characteristic use of the negative. Blue Curry’s found object groupings stand indirectly for people and for differing constructions of their self-images. Alan Magee calls literal attention to two absences by filling them in. Anni Leppala and Jason Oddy exploit the uncanny ability of the photograph to freeze what isn’t there, as well as what is, into permanence. Two painters complete the line-up: Martine Poppe’s images come and go as we circle around them, and Ian Bruce plays with the absence and presence of people in their surroundings.
www.berlonigallery.com | www.alan-magee.com
