The Exhibitionist | 3 | Feat. Hexagon
Hexagon
It would be remiss of me not to plug my own exhibition this week, Hexagon, opening at Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray on Thursday and continuing until January. It is the culmination of a six month long collaboration between three artists from Wicklow and three from Cork experimenting with different aspects of printmaking. It’s been an extremely interesting process that will hopefully be reflected in the final show. http://www.mermaidartscentre.ie/exhibitions/details/hexagon1
Emerging Visual Artist Award | Dragana Jurisic
This week Wexford Arts Centre announced the winner of this year’s Emerging Visual Artist Award as Dragana Jurisic who is an artist working primarily in the medium of documentary photography. More information on the award and her work can be found here.
Worth a look if you are making a trip to Cork is ‘The Land of Zero’, a seminar and exhibition at Crawford Art Gallery examining art in a recession and the changing face of artistic production. More here.
Round-up
Shows opening in Dublin this week:
Sinead McDonald at Draíocht Arts Centre
Uchronia
29 November – 7 February
First Floor Gallery, Draíocht Arts Centre, The Blanchardstown Centre, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15
‘Uchronia refers to a hypothetical or fictional time-period of our world, in contrast to altogether fictional lands or worlds. A concept similar to alternate history but different in the manner that uchronic times are not easily defined’ – Wikipedia
A series of real and imagined self-portraits, these images investigate fate, free will and predestination, truth and longing and look at how decisions, accidents and circumstances can change us utterly. What is it that makes us who we are? What if we could go back and undo things? Do we really have the power to shift our own narratives?
Sinead McDonald is a Dublin based artist and NCAD graduate. She has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad, with recent work shown in the U.S., Estonia, Latvia, the UK and an ongoing community arts project in western Finland. She works in a variety of media, most notably photography, video and physical computing. Research trajectories explore the sciences and collaborative practice and how using different disciplines can help navigate and illuminate difficult and taboo subjects, allowing us to tell stories and ultimately, explore the most human of desires and yearnings.
Draíocht’s Galleries are open Monday to Saturday 10am-6pm. Admission is free.
http://www.draiocht.ie/events/sinead_mcdonald
Gerry O’Mahony at Draíocht Arts Centre
Keepers of Silence
29 November – 7 February
Ground Floor Gallery, Draíocht Arts Centre, The Blanchardstown Centre, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15
‘In my work I seek to confront the instinctive realities of human and cultural challenges in a world which fluctuates between the familiar and the unknown, an odyssey that shows humanity’s struggle to find ways to inhabit the planet in a peaceful, productive and co-operative way. These pieces show the influence of patterned, colourful symbols of ancient and primitive art where the creations are a celebration of a life that is simple and uncontrived: an art without ‘art’. The work is a response to all of these influences and yet none of them – a separate entity created from the inter-mingling of both major and minor influences. The work is an expression of a vision of the world, an invitation to observers to share that vision and create their own. It is both a statement and a challenge.’
Gerry O’Mahony is a graduate from Limerick School of Art & Design. He has taught art in Ireland and has travelled extensively, spending long periods in both Israel and Malawi. These travels have been a huge influence on his art practice. He is a permanent member of Contact Studios, Limerick and has exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Draíocht’s Galleries are open Monday to Saturday 10am-6pm. Admission is free.
http://www.draiocht.ie/events/Gerry_OMahony
The Nom Nom Collective at White Lady Art
NOMSTALGIA: The Exhibition – A selection of new work from The Nom Nom Collective
29 November – 23 December | Opening: 29 November at 6pm
White Lady Art, 14 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2
White Lady Art Gallery is proud to invite you to the group exhibition of The Nom Nom Collective!
NOMSTALGIA: The Exhibition is a celebration of heroes and villains, the characters we loved in our childhood who still hold a special place in our hearts, and in the hearts of the Nom Nom Collective artists. Nomstalgia is a tribute to the movies, TV shows, cartoons, toys and video games that shaped and inspired the Nom Nom Collective and in turn their artistic practice. This generation of artists grew up with ninja turtles and He-Man, their heroes were pixelated super plumbers and ghostbusters and Nomstalgia pays homage to these characters that hugely influenced the Nom Nom’s style and subject matter. A celebration of youth and popular culture, Nomstalgia features diverse influences and common themes arising from the Nom Nom Collective’s artistic creation, imagination and inspiration. Nomstalgia will fuse these elements and investigate the parts of pop culture that have shaped the Nom Nom Collective style and art, from Lego to Nintendo and everything in between. Join the Nom Nom Collective on Saturday the 29/11 at 6pm in White Lady Art and enjoy free refreshments, live music, and a fantastic new body of work that will take you back to the future.
The Nom Nom Collective is a group of unique artists hailing from this world and others. From its humble beginnings in the Irish street art and graffiti scene, the Nom Nom collective has grown to encompass diverse artists from all four corners of the globe whose love of street art and graffiti unite them. The Nom Nom Collective are Loki (Ireland), Splink/Lamp (Ireland), Lints (Denmark), Poncho (Ireland), Jine (Ireland/Canada), Askim (Brazil), DS (France/Ireland) and Met10 aka The Assistinator (Denmark)
(Over 18s for the opening night – all ages welcome during the exhibition duration).
Nom Collective on Facebook.
Blue Moon Lost Wednesday at RHA Gallery
Wednesday 26/11, 6pm – 10.30pm
RHA Gallery, 15 Ely Place, D2.
How: Tickets are €15, this includes entry + three complimentary Blue Moon beers Go to www.rhagallery.ie to purchase tickets.
10th November, 2014: On Wednesday the 26/11 people are invited to lose themselves in the magnificent yet intimate surrounds of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) with a spectacular mix of events lined up, featuring some of Dublin’s most innovative creatives. Taking place every 8 weeks over the next year, the second Blue Moon Lost Wednesday is coordinated by the RHA and the alternative space loving, DIY promoter HOMEBEAT.
This highly anticipated evening will be an imaginative look into the colourful and creative world of Dublin’s flourishing art scene and the best experimental live music, DJ’s, art and food the city has to offer.
For more information on the event, please visit here: www.rhagallery.ie/product/blue-moon-lost-wednesdays-tickets/?added-to-cart=3352
Eilish Moore at Ranelagh Arts Centre
16 – 30 November
Ranelagh Arts Centre, No. 26 Ranelagh, Dublin 6
Ranelagh Arts Centre is open 12 – 6pm Monday to Friday and 12 to 5pm Saturday and Sunday.
Eilish Moore spent most of her creative working life organising music events around the city of Dublin from the 1960s onwards. The venues include the Meeting Place, the Civic Centre in Ballyfermot, the Oscar Theatre in Sandymount and Mother Redcaps in the Liberties.
Among the performers she promoted were her brothers Christy Moore and Luka Bloom as well as De Danann, Mary Black, Clannad, Donal Lunny, Paul Brady and of course the Fallen Angels. Eilish was a founding member of the Fallen Angels and sang with them for five years. She also helped create the Dublin Folk Festival which was a major success in the ’70s
When she moved away from the music business her creativity found an outflow through her paintings. From her bright and bold colours we can see the influence of her artistic heroes, Monet and Gauguin. Some have compared her work to the vibrant pictures that Kadinsky produced in his early career.
Eilish finds peace and healing in doing her paintings. For her it is a contemplative practice which has been instrumental in helping her get through some periods of depression during her life. We can feel the uplifting nature of her work in the bright vibrant colours in her watercolours. These pictures will add light to the coming winter evenings.
For additional information please email: [email protected]
Dermot Seymour at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery
Fliskmahaigo
20 November – 20 December | Opening: 20 November at 6pm
Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Chancery Lane, Dublin
Kevin Kavanagh is pleased to present Fliskmahaigo, an exhibition of new work by Dermot Seymour.
‘Contemporary politics is the whim of man promulgated through propaganda of imagery and symbolism. In this manner society has been provided with a new gospel for the faithful that positions questioning and interrogation as part of a dissident heterodoxy. Herein we find Dermot Seymour’s current exhibition, Fliskmahaigo.
Seymour’s paintings draw upon his Belfast childhood experience that saw nature as an escape from the troubled streets of the city. With his subsequent move to the bucolic idyll of the foothills of the Partry Mountains, Seymour continues to find obvious comfort from landscape that is changed only by the seasons. His view of this landscape, even with the placement of utilitarian structures, becomes unsettled by the interference of people, monuments and appropriated symbols that are inured with a stark and frightening power when placed outside of their usual context.
These paintings are mixed with raw human existence that compel us to question humanity’s propensity for damaging itself; an accusation that permeates Seymour’s work. Nature has a stability against which is placed the festering of a society torn apart by a continuation of an outmoded identity. Abuse, decay, and political wrangling are placed at the forefront of Seymour’s images. His customary animal protagonists stare at us from the canvas to disconcert us by their simplicity as we look at this torn manmade world that surrounds us’.
– Noel Kelly, Director, Visual Artists Ireland
