PANORAMA: An Exhibition of 3 Contemporary Irish Artists GALLERY UXVAL GOCHEZ , BARCELONA 13 - 31 MARCH 2025

Panorama - An Exhibition of 3 Contemporary Irish Artists – Aisling Conroy, Claire Halpin and Mark Redden at Uxval Gochez Gallery and Project Space in Barcelona in March 2025. The exhibition will present a curated installation of newly created artworks from each of the three exhibiting artists comprising painting, sculpture, sound and film responding to the space and context of the gallery.

Panorama, as title and concept of the show, as a human-made all-encompassing view. An artificially constructed scene that is so immersive as to completely captivate the viewer. It is something that could at one time offer serene views and a chance to calm the mind, or it could perturb with turbulent images of conflict and destruction. Either way, the scene is set to create a reaction, response or a reconsideration. 

In this vein, the practices of the three Irish artists; Conroy, Halpin and Redden offer different ways of working with similar global concerns. Their work shares holistic and compassionate responses to some of the world’s ongoing dilemmas: war, spiritual imbalance, environmental disaster. In their work these artists propose an alternate perspective - alternative histories,  viewpoints,  directions and narratives. 

From the chaos of everyday life, to the global storm we are experiencing, we are taken from the moment and reminded of something else that lies in the painted, the instinctive mark, gestural and primal, the worked surface. That in the smallest detail one can find the greatest answers, that what is overlooked is often what you were seeking.

The exhibition, Panorama, is the coming together of the work of artists who work in the realms of the collective consciousness, who seek a holistic connection with the world and create artworks that seek to steer a course through unsettling  times. That we might pause to consider and reflect on the whole body and the cells that constitute it, we might think of our part in the whole.

Official Launch: Thursday 13 March 19.30 - 21.30h

To Be Opened by Uxval Gochez

Artist in Conversation 19.30-20.00h (TBA)

For further queries, please contact: uxvalgochezgallery@gmail.com 

Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday - 11:00 to 14:00.

If you wish to visit us in any other time frame, please make an appointment: +34 627864011

Aisling Conroy: Primal Unveil, Acrylic on birch plywood, 55 x 45 x 2 cm, 2025

Mark Redden: The Reason Why, Oil on linen on plywood, 76 x 135 cm, 2025

Claire Halpin: Refugee Refuseé, Oil on Gesso on Board, 37cm X 57cm, 2024

Out of Time, The Black Church Print Studio, 13 - 26 Feb 2025

Out of Time

14 – 26 February 2025

Curated by Áine O’Hara with the support of Black Church Print Studio

Preview: Thursday 13 February 2025 from 6 – 8 pm at The Library Project, 4 Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

Masked Previews by appointment 11 and 12 February 2025.

Featuring selected BCPS and invited artists: Aisling Conroy, An Gee Chan, Caoimhe Dalton, Jamila Prowse, Paul Roy, Finnegan Shannon and Catherine Togher-Ward

Black Church Print Studio is delighted to present Out of time curated by Áine O’Hara, recipient of Black Church Emerging Curator Award 2025.

“Rather than bend disabled bodies and minds to meet the clock, crip time bends the clock to meet disabled bodies and minds” Alison Kafer

Time is often considered a linear process, we move from the past to the present and forward to the future. Crip time is a form of time travel. Disability and illness have the ability to pull us out of linear, progressive time with its standard life stages and thrust us into a realm of erratic acceleration, tedious delays and sudden endings. Disabled and sick bodies and minds do not often conform to a normative idea of time.

The medical terminology of illness attempts to reimpose linearity, discussing chronic conditions, progression, terminal stages, relapses and phase. But those living in crip time know that experience is never linear and quietly – or not so quietly – resent the calm straightforwardness of those who exist within the confines of normative time.

Aisling Conroy, An Gee Chan, Caoimhe Dalton, Jamila Prowse, Paul Roy and Catherine Togher-Ward have used printmaking, painting, sculpture, drawing, mark making, textiles and video work as an alternative way to keep time, to communicate and to connect. Time is recorded in movement and creation rather than scheduling, deadlines and hours.

Out of time invites the audience out of their daily lives into the world of crip time. Rather than us bending to meet commonplace capitalistic versions of scheduling, deadlines, hours, crip time offers you a glimpse into an alternate timeline. This exhibition aims to give space to sick and disabled creatives, as well as abled creatives who operate within a non normative idea of time and productivity.

This exhibition provides a physical space where rest is prioritised in the centre of Dublin city.

Exhibition continues until Wednesday 26 February 2025 and includes a number of associated events including workshops and talks.

Opening hours: Mon – Fri 11 am – 6 pm, Sat 12 – 6 pm.

This exhibition is kindly supported by Dublin City Council and the Arts Council.

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT: PEOPLE & CULTURE: ART: WHAT LIES BENEATH

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, People & Culture Magazine, Art: What Lies Beneath by Niall McMonagle

TOTALLY DUBLIN: INCANTATIONS: SEPTEMBER ISSUE by FEATURES EDITOR ADHAMH Ó'CAOIMH

Totally Dublin, Culture, Art, INCANTATIONS, by Adhamh Ó’ Caoimh, p. 46

THE GLOSS MAGAZINE: Artistic License: Aisling Conroy by Penny McCormick

‘Shrine Portal,’ by Aisling Conroy 

Working with paint, print, installation, experimental film and sound, artist Aisling Conroy’s new exhibition delves into the metaphysical realm …

What or kickstarted your interest in art?

I was always drawing and making things as a child and was encouraged by my
family growing up, so it always felt very natural. Art was always my own
language, my own way of expressing myself. It has helped me make sense of
the world, and still does.

‘Chladni Akustik 3,’ by Aisling Conroy

How has your artistic journey evolved from college to practice?

I started studying Animation in Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design
(IADT) in 2004 for two years. After that, I did a BA in Fine Art Printmaking in
National College of Art and Design, and from there I went on to do an MA in
Fine Art. I adopted painting soon after I graduated and rented my first studio in Talbot Street Studios in Dublin, where I was surrounded mostly by painters, so it must have rubbed off!

During that time, I was working in NCAD, in the library and archive on archival projects and managing the film and image library. Now I’ve gone full circle and I’ve been back working in the animation industry since 2017. I was an associate artist with the Olivier Cornet gallery for six years and then moved back to my hometown in Portlaoise in 2020, where I’ve continued to hone my practice.

‘Primal Nine,’ by Aisling Conroy

What was the starting point for your new exhibition “Incantations”?

Sound and meditation have been an ongoing source of interest that has
underpinned my work since 2010. I have always been drawn to sacred and
spiritual art, even as a young child, and this has followed me through to how I
think about art and how I approach making it.

I hope that the viewer of my exhibition feels that they are entering into a sacred space and it moves them. The work is very meditative and visceral. I want it to unearth something deep inside, a sense of expansion yet connected. I’ll be guiding the viewers into a deeper journey of the work through a meditation and a sound bath, and on Friday September 20, when TØN Gallery will be open for Culture Night, with a musical performance from special guests, Varo.

‘Chladni Akustik 2,’ by Aisling Conroy

How and where do you work?

I work between a home studio and for larger scale works, a bigger workshop,
both in Portlaoise. For any printmaking work, I work from the Black Church
Print Studio in Dublin, where I’m a member. I initially draw, paint and collage
in sketchbooks, then, when I’m planning paintings or printing, I work digitally
in Photoshop so I can test it before execution – this helps especially with the bigger
paintings.

You’re drawn to the metaphysical realm – how is this shown in your work?

The new work delves into the metaphysical realm guided by colour, form,
vibration, cymatics. I use symbology and repeated motifs throughout the
work to create an interconnectedness between the past and the present,
particularly in referencing ancient mark-making. The exhibition also looks at
energy, movement and the five elements that are the primal building blocks
of existence. I hope that the meditative nature of the work allows for a more
visceral experience of the metaphysical and to hint at an unseen reality.

Need to Know: “Incantations” by Aisling Conroy will open at TØN Gallery, 25A Temple Lane South, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 on August 29 and runs until September 21.

On Saturday, September 14 from 12pm-1.30pm there will be a conversation with Aisling before a sound bath and meditation session.

For more information visit www.tondublin.com.

READ THE ARTICLE ONLINE HERE

IRISH TIMES MAGAZINE: ARTFUL EMOTION BY NADINE O'REGAN

The Irish Times Magazine, Saturday 24th August 2024

INCANTATIONS at TØN Gallery 29 August - 21 September 2024

TØN Gallery is pleased to present INCANTATIONS, a solo exhibition by Aisling Conroy. In this new body of work, Conroy delves into the metaphysical realm guided by the themes of sound, vibration and cymatics. Working with paint, print, installation, experimental film and sound, Conroy’s multifaceted work invites its audience on a journey beyond the visible world, exploring the unseen forces that shape our reality. “Throughout my practice I explore the idea of intention, repetition and reincarnation, drawing on influences from mystical and visionary art as well as sound and cymatics. My work combines texture, colour and movement to create a heightened sense of introspection on the nature of existence. I create abstractions of the subconscious by using repeated motifs, shapes, colour and form in a very visceral way and always with an interest in spirituality and connecting to a higher consciousness”.

Aisling Conroy is a multidisciplinary artist using painting, print animation. She graduated from The National College of Art and Design with a BA Hons degree in Fine Art Print, 2009; and a Master of Fine Art postgraduate degree, 2011. Her work is represented in public and private collections, both nationally and internationally (US, UK, Spain, China, India). She has been working in the audio-visual sector since 2017. Aisling is the Writer and Director of the award winning animated short film BARDO (2021). She is currently working with Elk Studios as an Episodic Director, as well as having directed their short film The Last Set (2023). Conroy is a member of the Black Church Print Studio and has been the recipient of Arts Council Funding, Creative Ireland Film Bursary and the Centre Culturel Irlandais Bursary to name a few. INCANTATIONS will be Conroy’s tenth solo exhibition.

INCANTATIONS will have its official launch on Thurs 29th August, followed by a series of events throughout the month of September. All details and links below.

Thurs 29th August 6pm - 8pm: Exhibition launch and reception: No booking required.

Saturday 14th Sept 12- 1.30pm: Conversation with the Artist including a sound bath and meditation: Free event but booking is essential. Book HERE.

Friday 20th September 7pm - 8pm: Culture Night with special guests Varo: Free event but booking is essential for this performance. Book HERE.

The exhibition is open to the public on Friday 20th September 12.30 - 9pm.

For further queries, please contact:

Mark Redden TØN Gallery 25A Temple Ln S, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, D02 KV62

Email: tondublin@gmail.com

Phone: +34 722 31 43 55 / +353 87 932 4613

Gallery opening hours: Thurs - Sunday, 12.30 - 3.30pm.

Image: Aisling Conroy. SHRINE: PORTAL (2024) ; Acrylic on wood; 72 x 76 x 2cm.

Ardgillan Gallery Summer Exhibition: 13. JUNE. 2024

Ardgillan Gallery Summer Exhibition opens on Thursday 13th June from 5pm - 7pm and runs to 21st July 2024.

The gallery opens from Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm.

INCANTATIONS, acrylic on wood; 104 x 67 x 2cm, included in the group exhibition at Ardgillan Gallery.

Visual Artists Ireland: 'mini-Van' Magazine: Irish Animation | ELK Studios | Aisling Conroy →

Thank you to journalist Thomas Pool and Visual Artists Ireland for inviting me to chat about Elk Studios and the animation industry for their online magazine, 'mini Van' .

Read the full article HERE

OUTCOMES: Group Exhibition, Ranelagh Arts Centre, in assocation with the RHA SCHOOL

OUTCOMES, Ranelagh Arts 12-26 April 2024

Exhibition text by Monika Crowley

‘Being an artist in the lifeworld can be a lonely prospect. This group of artists, whom I worked with alongside Colin Martin and a host of visiting artists over the span of a year, have come together, on the back of the RHA Correspondence of 2023, to make an exhibition. I speak for all who gave their undivided attention and energy to the process, we couldn’t have wished for a better outcome: an artists-led exhibition’, James Merrigan

Outcomes is an exhibition of new work by the 2023 alumni of the RHA’s ‘Critical Correspondence Course’. The Critical Correspondence Course is a process we signed up for because each of us knew, regardless of what stage our artistic careers were at or the kind of practice we were engaged in, that something needed shaking up: a change in approach, subject matter or medium; a need to share new work on which we wanted feedback from our peers and other critical voices; a time to plumb the depths of our art making and ask ‘why?’, ‘for whom’ and ‘what if’…

We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and we didn’t want to be easy. We made new work responding to periodic in-person and written feedback sessions throughout the year (both one-to-one and in plenary) and presented it back to our group, a visiting artist, and art critic/artist James Merrigan. Then the cycle repeated.

For the current show, we committed to showing not only works we consider finished, but also works that represent avenues of exploration that are still ‘in progress’, and even those that seemed to reach interesting dead ends that became jumping-off points for other work. Every piece in the current show was created in the last 12 months and emerged out of, and in response/reaction to, the Critical Correspondence Course. What you see today are the Outcomes.

Exhibiting Artists: Aisling Conroy, Anna Boyle, Ann Marie Webb, Bonnie Kavanagh, Darina Meagher, Gearoid O’Dea, Jonathan Brennan, Lauren Conway, Lucy Peters, Noelle Gallagher, Michelene Huggard, Monika Crowley, Shane Hynan, Siobhan O'Callaghan,

Outset Xmas Open, Outset Gallery, Galway: 1st December 2023

Delighted to have this work exhibited in the Outset Xmas Open, Outset Gallery, Galway.
The show opens Fri 1st - 23rd December.
MORE INFO: outset-galway.myshopify.com

CANTA I
Acrylic on wood
26 x 20 x 1.5 cm 

GOMA’s 7th Annual Members Exhibition: 1st December 2023

GOMA’s 7th Annual Members Exhibition is launching this Friday 1st December 2023 at 6pm to 8pm.

Exhibition continues until the 3rd of January 2024. All welcome!⭐️

MORE INFO: www.gomawaterford.ie

WOMB II
Acrylic on wood
80 x 52 x 2 cm

TØN GALLERY: 36 ARTISTS HERE AND NOW: 3rd - 30th November 2023

36 Artists, Here and Now, curated by Helen Kirk and Mark Redden.

Launch night Friday 3rd November @ 5pm.
Exhibition runs until 30th November.

Artists include…

☆Suzanne Dolan
☆Moezee

☆ Aisling Conroy
☆Lorraine Lawlor
☆Pablo Marín Garcia
☆Sinead McKillican
☆Tina Poole
☆Maree Hensey
☆Nikki Foster
☆Ciaran Meister
☆Anna Marie Savage
☆Aisling Dunne
☆Kelan Molloy
☆Kevin McSherry
☆Richard Coghlan
☆Elize de Beer
☆Ishmael Claxton
☆Shane Hynan
☆Christopher Banahan
☆Julianne Guinee
☆Daria Ivanishchenko
☆Claire Halpin
☆Kam Catala
☆Kevin Judge
☆Paula Lemaine
☆Emily McGardle
☆Sheila Flaherty
☆Cynthia Fanning
☆Rachel Kenny
☆Desmond Kenny
☆Eva Vitkute
☆Sorcha McNamarra
☆Francesc Ruiz Abad
☆Tom Campbell

Punch & Fable: Interview #4: Aisling Conroy

In August 2021 I did a short interview with Steph Sheehan of Punch & Fable it was only available to subscribers at the time and now it has been published for all to read.

☆Link below☆ Lovely to be alongside the other fierce women/ artists/ creators being interviewed by Steph☆

Thanks to Steph Sheahan for inviting me to interview and asking some lovely questions, I really enjoyed it. Check out the #Punchandfable website to see all the latest interviews, art, food, yoga, poetry by P&F, so inspiring!

Read interview HERE

RHAPSODY: SOLO EXHIBITION AT RARA RESIDENCIA FEB 2022

In this new work, Conroy explores ideas of collective identity and ancestry through the mediums of painting, photography and experimental animation techniques. .

Through the alchemy of colour, moving image and sound, the artist creates a rhapsody of fractals between life and death, signifying a memento to the eternal, the collective identity; and a homage to the ancestors and community of Villanueva Del Rosario.

Kaleidoscopic images made from a local photographic archive, mirror and depict scenes of a united community; men and women at work, children playing, weddings, local parades and events, family occasions and business owners on the backdrop of rural life from the early 20th century to the present. These altered images with complex patterns are then layered with paintings and drawings akin to the artist's idiosyncratic compositions and mark making that evoke a sacred geometry as well as signs and symbols of the eastern philosophies and cosmology. Conroy continues this treatment with a short experimental animation piece, connecting these photographs with line drawings and painted textures, in a rhythmic and memorising sequence to create a lexicon of her own esoteric language. This work is also accompanied by a composition created by the artist Maria De Grandy, which incorporates sounds that both artists collected while on residency in Villanueva Del Rosario.

This type of approach, using recurring motifs, colour and abstract forms, is what the artist refers to as a “chromatherapy” with the aim of giving the selected images from the archive a contemporary “healing” or rebirth.

In recalling our ancestors, the work attempts to universally symbolise the boundless and cyclical nature of humanity, and interconnectedness between the dead and the living, and also hopes to acknowledge the ever-evolving demographic of the village, which is slowly becoming a mountainous haven for a new generation of artists and creatives from Malaga, the wider Andalusia region and internationally.

RHAPSODY is a collaboration with local historian Franciso Álvarez Curie, and Valencia based musician and sound artist María De Grandy. The exhibition is curated by Vero Frias and Cyro Garcia, RARA residencia.

ALTER / ALTAR : an essay by Ingrid Lyons

In this new series of paintings and prints, Conroy moves through an exploration of form and colour as it pertains to the processes of painting and print making. With her recent award-winning short film Bardo providing a counterpoint to investigate illustrative representation and the work within Alter/Altar considering recurrent abstract motifs in her own work, she seeks out a language of form. In these compositions she often disregards responsibility towards practical function and instead depicts structures that spring forth as manifestations of ideas that take place intuitively, leaving space open for unpredictability and imagination.

These paintings and prints incorporate references from previous works that have been deconstructed, allowing them to become part of a new piece. This process of construction and deconstruction is one of the defining factors of Conroy’s practice as fragments within the work are granted a cyclical function and so take on a symbolic meaning within each new series. Recurring motifs and gestures are applied and their reiteration demonstrates a pictorial conversation, where none are sovereign, but each are dependent on their relation to each other.

References to the dialectic of conscious and subconscious, inside and outside are ubiquitous and thus evoke the work of Henri Michaux, particularly Miserable Miracle (1956) as a poetic example of this dynamic, Michaux (1899 – 1984) was a Belgian-born poet, writer, and painter who wrote in French.

‘Among silent breakers, the tremors of the shining surface, in the swift flux and reflux martyrising the patches of light, in the rendings of luminous loops and arcs, and lines, in the occultations and reappearances of dancing bursts of light being decomposed, recomposed, contracted, spread out, only to be re-distributed once more before me, with me, within me, drowned, and unendurably buffeted, my calm violated a thousand times by the tongues of infinity, oscillating, sinusoidally overrun by the multitude of liquid lines. Enormous with a thousand folds, I was and I was not, I was caught, I was lost, I was in a state of complete ubiquity. The thousands upon thousands of rustlings were my own thousand shatterings’.

Henri Michaux’s writings have a tendency to aggravate the line of demarcation between outside and inside in his struggle to resolve his inner understanding of the world with his outer participation in it. This is a sentiment echoed in Aisling Conroy’s work whose compositions conjure a structurally evolving internal landscape that acts as a vessel for memories and meditations.

Her idiosyncratic compositions simultaneously evoke a sacred geometry as well as signs and symbols of the occult, spurring reflection on dichotomies such as absence and presence, fragment and whole and Eastern and Western Philosophies. In a series of works that often relate to each other, there is a development of terrains, landscapes, archipelagos and cosmic phenomenon like lunar eclipses and constellations. In many of the works we see a sphere or black void, eluding to the Shiva Lingam painting tradition in India, images which functioned as Hindu meditation aids in which each of the symbols had a purpose in their making. The focal point of these paintings is often a black sphere or lozenge shape at the centre to represent the cosmos or potentially the womb and the purpose of these paintings is the visualisation of shared symbols.

Embedded in Conroy’s practice is her admiration for pioneers of 19th Century abstract art like Swedish artist and mystic, Hilma af Klint (1862 –1944) and Russian painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky (1866 –1944). Consequently the work is given an art historical context that relates to developments in the medium of paint at a time when such artists were coming to terms with the diminishing emphasis or relevance of representation in painting. Both of these artists were also concerned with the Spiritual in art; how the elusive and the intangible might find visual expression.

Within Alter/Altar Aisling Conroy explores the boundaries between painting, print and her previous works in animation with a broad and experienced understanding of each process. In her work, we often witness the pictorial plane, fragmenting and compartmentalising; distilled into abstract forms. They appear as signs and symbols that might be read as part of the lexicon of an esoteric visual language and the purpose of such a lexicon is to deceive the senses and present us with a phantom world. In many ways, her work is concerned with how we represent thoughts, ruminations and dreams and she seeks out common signifiers of these thoughts as they might occur in the collective conscious.

- Ingrid Lyons

ALTER / ALTAR, solo show, 12 Sept - 02 Oct 2021, Olivier Cornet Gallery

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is delighted to present this solo show by the artist Aisling Conroy, a member of the AGA group.

'ALTER / ALTAR'

ALTER / ALTAR is a response to the current climate of transition, universal unrest and shift in the collective consciousness. In this new work, the artist attempts to create types of multi-hyphenated worlds that glean and appropriate ideas from her ongoing interest in Eastern and Western philosophies, through painting and print.

Conroy seeks to compare these multihyphenates to the new multi-hyphenated ways in which we now live, taking on numerous roles and titles often necessary to survive and advance. These new ways can often create chaos, fragmentation and even darkness before they manifest into something more transformative. There is a symbiosis happening here: when one 'alters' or changes, one also needs to purge and offer up an old part of themselves (altar). Conroy incorporates several motifs of various doctrines and philosophies (i.e. Zen Buddhism, Tantric Hinduism, Shamanism, the Occult) to simulate these shifts. The artist's process is intuitive, repetitive and ritualistic, constructing paintings that could be interpreted as a type of incantation to past lives and new beginnings.

The show will run until 02 October 2021.

For more info visit: www.oliviercornetgallery.com

Coverage/Reviews:

EILE Magazine, 23 August 2021

The Gay News, 23 August 2021

Dnote, 24 August 2021

'Aisling Conroy is Taking to The Altar, Louisa Klatt, Radius Magazine, The University Times, 7 September 2021

'The Best New Exhibitions To See This Month', Penny McCormick, The Gloss, 8 September 2021

BARDO wins at Galway Film Fleadh 33rd edition

And Maps And Plans film won ‘Best Debut Animation Short: BARDO by Aisling Conroy

On Sunday July 25, 2021 the 33rd edition of the Galway Film Fleadh came to a close after another outstanding year of film premieres, events and discussions. The annual awards ceremony was a hybrid event this year with online and in-person live screenings; and maps and plans won ‘Best Debut Animation Short for BARDO, by Aisling Conroy (Writer/ Director) and Claire Lennon (Producer).

BARDO is a Frameworks project funded by Screen Ireland and RTÉ.

The film is an original cinematic 4 minute 2D hand drawn animated short that follows a woman as she questions her lifestyle choices as the travails of urban living are one day jolted into juxtaposition with nature and a simpler way of life.

BARDO is ‘and maps and plans’ third short film release of an animated short film. Written and Directed by Aisling Conroy (first time director) and Produced by Claire Lennon. The film casts renowned actors Olwen Fouéré and Clare Barrett and the score was composed by Shane Holly with arrangements and music performed by Ros O’ Meara and Cormac MacDiarmada; and Sound Design by Michelle Fingleton.

Upcoming screening announcements will be shared on the and maps and plans Twitter page @andmapsandplans and Instagram page: andmapsand plans

Distribution: varicoloured.eu

More info: andmapsandplans.com/bardo

You can watch the trailer here:

On Paper

On Paper 20 December 2020 - 14 February 2021
A Winter group show at the Olivier Cornet Gallery, curated in collaboration with Art Consultant and Producer Jackie Ryan.
Artists: Annika Berglund, Aisling Conroy, Hugh Cummins, Mary A. Fitzgerald, John Fitzsimons, Jordi Forniés, Conrad Frankel, David Fox, Claire Halpin, Nickie Hayden, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Miriam McConnon, Sheila Naughton, Yanny Petters, Kelly Ratchford, Vicky Smith and Susanne Wawra
Jackie Ryan has also selected work by the following artists for this special group exhibition: William Crozier, Paul Furneaux, John Keating, Harry Kernoff, Eamonn O'Doherty and Barbara Rae.

(L) Greater than us , three colour screen print and collage on 220g fabriano, 50 x 36 cm. Limited edition of 5; Aisling Conroy

(R) The Nature of Things - nine colour screen print (incl. gold) on 220g fabriano, 50 x 36 cm. Limited edition of 8; Aisling Conroy

Jackie Ryan has just celebrated 21 years of collaboration with Irish artists on projects, commissions, and exhibitions in Ireland and around the world. We are delighted to have invited her to co-curate this exhibition of works on paper for our winter show.

"Fragility, Endurance, Resilience

Art on paper is one of the oldest art forms, and yet still considered by many to be fragile or ephemeral. Museums happily display three dimensional sculpture and oil paintings in the assurance that their condition will not deteriorate through the museum atmosphere or light. The irony is that many museums largest collections are works on paper, which are preciously stored away without engagement with the public. The growth of digital engagement with art is changing that. Covid-19 is changing that. Our world and the way we appreciate works on paper will be very different in 2021 and beyond.

I began to discuss my love of works on paper, and the beauty of fine art print, with gallery owner Olivier Cornet long before Covid-19 appeared in our lives. However, we did debate audience engagement with art online, and breaking down many long held stereotypes that somehow art was less tangible if seen through a screen. We use the phrase regularly about looking at art ‘in the flesh’ up close and personal, without really thinking about why we are giving that more importance than physically being with the artifact.

The past 8 months has seen the Olivier Cornet Gallery (OCG) alongside galleries worldwide embrace new ways we can engage with art through video clips of the process of art being made, through online viewing rooms and in the OCG’s case through their novel 3D Virtual Space.

So much great art emerges from the fragility of change. In the months ahead Olivier and I will collate a collection of works on paper, works that can be shared up close and personal through digital means, and which embody the resilience that underpins so much art. We will look at the longevity of works on paper, and the endurance of colour using pigments bound with oil, and inks which have outlived so many modern art movements. In the months ahead, watch and wait. We will unfold works on paper for the world to enjoy in a virtual and physical engagement which will highlight fragility and uphold endurance, and champion resilience. After all, without resilience there would be no art."

Jackie Ryan, 4 December 2020

Launch of the show: Sunday 20 December, 12 noon to 5pm at the Olivier Cornet Gallery.

Availability of the show: Due to Covid19 Level 5 restrictions, the show is available in the OCG 3D Virtual Space. Click here to view or/and download the exhibition's catalogue/pricelist.

For more info, visit www.oliviercornetgallery.com

The Morphing Feminine, a Bloomsday 2020 group show

The Morphing Feminine, is the latest show at the Olivier Cornet Gallery. This is a visual artists's response / reaction to -and possibly- re-reading of- various aspects of the feminine in James Joyce 's novel Ulysses and in the author's life. This art exhibition is part of this year's Bloomsday Festival. This exhibition will run until 20th of July 2020.  

The title of the exhibition is a reference to Dr Caroline Elbay's talk at the James Joyce Centre on 4th November 2019:“Throwing Shapes: The Morphing Feminine in Joyce”

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bean [ban]: Chapter 3

; acrylic on wood.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bean [ban] (meaning ‘woman’ in Gaelic*)  

In referencing James Joyce's alter ego Dedalus, this work reimagines the story according to a woman's perspective (“Bean”[ban] meaning woman in Gaelic).

In Joyce's first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, he traces the religious and intellectual awakening of a male protagonist Stephen Dedalus who is also an important character in Ulysses. Based on the Greek mythological figure, Daedalus was seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. In this painting I’ve represented the woman as the icon, the revered in society as opposed to what was in the past a male domain, containing male perspectives and male portraits as it were. 

The work is an abstract representation of the female portrait. On one hand we see her fragmented and constrained; commenting on a woman’s place in society and the obstacles she encounters; on the other hand we see strong bold colours; contrasting shapes; light and dark; soft and hard which in all strike as an alternative visual rendition of the woman's chapter to Joyce's Alter Ego, Dedalus - a complex symbol of female wisdom, knowledge and power.

Circe's Spell: Bloom and Dedalus

; acrylic and nylon thread on board.

Circe’s Spell: Bloom and Dedalus

This work refers to the chapter Circe in Joyce’s Ulysses. In Greek mythology, Circe was a Sorceress, and represented by the gender shifting Bella Cohen in Ulysses. In this chapter, Bloom and Dedalus face their demons and enter the dark underworld (Nighttown), where they encounter the dominating Bella Cohen (Circe). The diptych is a type of sigil magic, representing female power and energy. Both upright triangles represent the masculine, as well as being a symbol of the occult, referring to Joyce’s own personal interest with the occultism, theosophy; and the study and practice of magic. 

(Ref: Carver, Craig. “James Joyce and the Theory of Magic.” James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 3, 1978, pp. 201–214).

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