LEAN
Mary A. Fitzgerald & Marc Reilly
Preview 2nd February 6pm-8pm

The LAB.
Foley Street,
Dublin 1

A drawing using volume, structure and shadow.

LEAN has been created specifically for the Cube space at the LAB. The scale and content of this work has been dictated by the double height of the CUBE space, which is viewable from outside and in and also from above, three distinct viewpoints. The combination of structure, ambient light and sound, with projected film and fragmented recorded sound allows the opportunity for a narrative to be imagined.

A drawing will be constructed within the space. The materials for this project have been gathered and altered over the past number of months. The Hazel from woods in Wicklow, the sound recordings from various locations in Dublin, and the footage, a selection of studies of light, shadow and movement, recorded in the autumn as chance permitted.

The work emerges as a series of decisions in response to materials and the space, between the artists, as they gather, manipulate and install. The CUBE is a unique venue for the meeting of these disparate fragments.

This is the third in a series of drawing based collaborations between Mary A. Fitzgerald and Marc Reilly. The first piece Here and There was shown as part of Culture Night, at Independent Studio Artists in 2009, followed by INVISIBLE a group exhibition curated by Margaret O’Brien, John Graham and Oliver Dowling at The Back Loft and eleven venues across Dublin in 2010.

For further information:

www.thelab.ie

Image: The Opera, courtesy of Varvara Shavrova

Varvara Shavrova | The Opera
The Gallery of Photography, Dublin
January 20 – February 26 2012

To celebrate Chinese New Year 2012, the Gallery of Photography is presenting the Irish premiere of The Opera, Varvara Shavrova’s spellbinding work on traditional Peking Opera.

The Opera is an artist’s insight into the fragile world of the Peking Opera, one of the most revered artforms of the Chinese national scene.

The work focuses on the transformation from male to female, and from female to male, of the Peking Opera artists. Balancing moments of pure visuality with behind the scenes footage, the video underscores the striking avantgardist qualities of this most traditional of artforms.

The Opera is accompanied by a specially commissioned score by composer Benoit Granier which incorporates elements of traditional Chinese and contemporary electronic music.

The Opera is complemented by related works in other media, including limited-edition photographic prints and two time-lapse projection works. Also included are selected pieces from Windows on the Hutong, a series of photographic lightboxes with sound, which offer a fascinating glimpse into the street-life of Beijing’s traditional alleys.

The launch event takes place on Friday January 20th at 6.00pm, when The Opera will also be projected outdoors on the big screen at Meeting House Square. The exhibition marks the keynote visual arts event of the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival.

An exciting programme of Family Events will take place in the Gallery during the Festival.
Saturday January 21st – The Opera Make Up workshop, in association with Design for Stage & Screen Make-Up students of IADT. Transform yourself into a Peking Opera character – and record your transformation in a short time-lapse photo sequence to take home with you!
Sunday January 22nd ­– The Opera Family Portrait & Costume Studio. Choose from a selection of Han Dynasty style robes and make your own Family Portrait, Chinese style!
All events are free, booking is essential, 01 6714654.

About the artist: Born in Moscow, Shavrova studied fine art at the Moscow Poligraphic Institute. After 15 years in London, she moved to Beijing, where she lived and worked for over five years. Now based in Dublin, Shavrova has recently been commissioned by Espacio Cultural del Tanque, Tenerife and will be exhibiting in the Museum of the History of St Petersburg in Spring 2012. Her work is in many important public and private collections. She is represented by Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London.

For further information, press images, or to arrange an interview with the artist, please contact Darragh Shanahan, Gallery of Photography Ireland on info@galleryofphotography.ie 01-6714654

www.varvarashavrova.com

Image: 'Manhattan's Wolf' Oil on canvas 2011 courtesy of the artist.

The Crossing | Gabhann Dunne
Friday 20th January – Friday 9th March 2012

Preview Fri. 20 January 2012

“Things separate from their stories have no meaning. They are only shapes.” (Taken from “The Crossing” by Cormac MacCarthy, Picador, 1994). “The Crossing” illustrates Gabhann Dunne’s capacity to tell a captivating story through the medium of paint. Cerulean tones enchant, bidding the viewer to explore the underlying tale that this artist delicately treads through his work.  Exploring the tradition of the romantic landscape Dunne considers marginalisation as it occurs in the animal world and it’s reflection on humanity.

Gabhann Dunne studied fine art in the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and recently completed a Master of Fine Art at The National College of Art and Design (NCAD).  He is the 2011 RDS Taylor Art Award winner and has in the past won the Craig Hennessey Scholarship award and the Whytes Award for his entry to the 2009 Royal Hibernian Academy’s Annual Show.

This is a touring exhibition curated by VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow.

www.gabhanndunne.ie

Image: courtesy of Liam O'Callaghan 2011

Bit Symphony
Liam O’Callaghan
16 December 2011 – 4 February 2012
Preview & record launch: Thursday 15 December, 6 – 8pm
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios / 5-9 Temple Bar / Dublin 2

Bit Symphony is an audio-visual installation consisting of an assemblage of turntables, amplifiers and speakers, reconfigured and manipulated so as to autonomously perform a complex musical composition of looping records. Liam O’Callaghan creates the sound by forcing loops, changing speeds, warping and physically scratching records, fading volume in and out and altering tones. Through these simple techniques the original sound is altered to be unrecognisable from it’s source and transformed into something new entirely; a series of unique sonic/music compostions.

As is the case with most of O’Callaghan’s work, the aesthetic of Bit Symphony is lead by necessity. The function of each component of the installation is clear, and no attempt has been made to hide the basic methods and materials used to make the work operate the way O’Callaghan wants it to. With no auto tuner or auto timer in sight, the music cracks, clicks and creeks it way along with it’s own interior sense of purpose, in and out of time, through noise, sound and music and those moments inbetween, wherever they may lie. All the work’s blemishes are there to be heard and deployed as the players, independent of a performer, spin into action and work to find and maintain their own harmony.

O’Callaghan’s starting point was the desire to make music, and how, as an object-making artist and as a non musician, to achieve this aim. The resulting work borrows some of the musical vocabulary of early tape loops technics from the mid 60’,s and sampling technics of the 70’s onwards. While it is difficult to classify the compositions into any one type or genre of music, it is clear that O’Callaghan has achived his aim of making music while also creating a hypnotic and engaging art work.

Liam O’Callaghan’s work uses found, used and discarded objects to create  sculptures that expose the methods or mechanics in their construction, challenging the viewer to construct meanings beyond their constituent parts. O’Callaghan’s sculptures and photographs delight the viewer with irreverence and humour, while also inducing meditations on the fragility and transience of life and the roll of improvisation in human endeavours. O’Callaghan has exhibited at, among other venues, The Irish Museum of Modern Art 2011; Dublin Contemporary 2011, the Douglas Hyde Gallery 2010; Rasche Ripken, Berlin 2009; Rubicon Gallery, Dublin 2008; the Royal Hibernian Academy, 2006

http://thegoodroom.com/Site/news.html

Image: 'Larkin Irish worker' Courtesy of the artist.

Alan Phelan

BLIND PRIVATE PARTY

Dec. 9, 2011 – Jan. 12, 2012

Preview: Friday Dec. 8th 2011 at 7pm

The Black Mariah, Triskel, Tobin Street, Cork

Obviously this is not a party, it’s an exhibition. The show is a selection of videos, fabric pieces, and sculptures gathered from different projects and places made over the last few years. While there should not be any connection between the pieces they actually cohere. As with many recent exhibitions of his work, Phelan has combined contrasting works to re-narrativise them, using old and new pieces to chart out another story, in this case a party of objects, blinded by ego.

There is always a mix several references with Phelan’s work, not just a semantic play, but proposing conflicts between given understandings and interpretations. This is an attempt to undermine the certainty of cultural assumptions through what has been termed as an “infrastructural aesthetic”. This concept allows for several parallel narratives to exist, linking the physical to the political to the societal to the individual. Visually the starting point is civil engineering, re-routed with unlikely content and materials. As with much of Phelan’s work there is an attention to detail and uncommon use of materials which constant shifts the viewer back onto the artwork.

The works in the show are therefore eclectic so as to reflect a complex reality of contemporary life [in Ireland] via the man behind our bankrupt economy, an overarching utopian failed fantasy, an emasculated super hero, a misogynist secret camera, the questionable futility of protest, engineering as non-functional decoration, and a
fascination with assholes.

In association with Crawford College of Art and Design, Alan will deliver a lecture on his recent projects and exhibitions at CCAD, Sharman Crawford Street, Cork, beginning at 12.30pm on Thursday Dec 8. All are welcome.

Alan Phelan (b. 1968 Dublin. Lives and works in Dublin, Ireland)  studied at Dublin City University, Dublin, 1989 and Rochester  Institute of Technology, New York, 1994. In Ireland he has exhibited widely including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, mother’s tankstation, Dublin; MCAC, Portadown; Limerick City Gallery of Art, and Solstice Arts Centre, Navan. Internationally he has exhibited in Oksasenkatu 11, Helsinki; Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco; Cabinet, New York; Chapter, Cardiff, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; SKUC, Ljubljana; Feinkost, Berlin; SKC, Belgrade and other venues in Denmark, USA, UK, and Holland. He was editor/curator for Printed Project, issue five, launched at the 51st Venice Biennale, and has curated exhibitions at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and Rochester, New York. Phelan was short-listed for the AIB Art Prize in 2007 for his work on the IMMA commission, Goran’s Stealth Yugo, 2009. He has completed several public art projects in Ireland, Wales and New York including projects for Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and the Department of Communications. His work is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Limerick City Gallery of Art, The National Self-Portrait Collection and several private collections.

www.alanphelan.com

Image: 'A better life' 2009 Courtesy of Kerlin Gallery Dublin

Balsa, jesmonite, paint, toughned glass, MDF, bject  45 x 35 x 50cm

Isabel Nolan

A hole in to the future

Produced in collaboration with Le Musée d’art moderne de Saint-Etienne.

10 Dec. 2011 – 12 Feb. 2012

The Model

The Mall, Sligo

Opening reception: Saturday December 10, 2011 at 6pm

Preceeded by a public talk with Isabel Nolan and Director, Seamus Kealy at 5pm

Nolan’s practice includes abstract & figurative elements: sculptures, paintings, drawings and fabric works. Her work was included in exhibitions at Smart, Amsterdam, 2009, The Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea, 2009; Mediation Biennale, Poznan, Poland, 2008, the 2005 Venice Biennale and is held in many collections in Ireland and internationally.

The exhibition will feature sculpture, paintings and drawings, and as part of this project The Model has also commissioned a new work by Isabel Nolan, which will be erected outside The Model building. This steel sculpture will be on long term display in the grounds of The Model and will be unveiled at the opening.

This is Nolan’s first solo museum exhibition. Alongside the outdoor sculpture and the show is a new publication on the artist’s work from 2005 to the present. This book, Intimately Unrelated, was produced in collaboration with Le Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole in France and includes essays on Nolan’s work with contributions from philosopher Graham Harman, critic, writer and academic Declan Long, Séamus Kealy and Isabel Nolan.

Nolan is a Dublin-based artist, and was one of a small number of artists who represented Ireland at the 2005 Venice Biennale, she has previously exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Beijing Art Museum of the Imperial City, De Appel and SMART, in Amsterdam, Artspace, Auckland, Le Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole and she is represented by Kerlin Gallery, Dublin.

www.themodel.ie/exhibitions

www.kerlin.ie

Image: 'In Repertory' 2011 Courtesy of the artist.

Abrons Art Centre

466 Grand Street

NY NY 10002

www.henrystreet.org
A process-based project installed underneath a theater with viewers responding to installed props, mixing with actors employed in a subtle, interspersed fashion, and being incorporated into a video installation. Explores the breakdown of drama in the ambiguous historical relationship between theatrical props and sculpture, referencing theatrical props by three twentieth century sculptors: Giacometti, Hepworth, and Noguchi.
The project will be launch on saturday evening will take the form of a casting call for performers, and will provide (limited) access to non-participants.
The processed work will be presented at the end of the project on Monday, November 14.

http://11.performa-arts.org/event/gerard-byrne

Niamh McCann

Solo exhibition at The Void, Derry

Curated by Damien Duffy

October 25th – November 25th 2011

For further information:

www.derryvoid.com/exhibitions.htm / www.greenonredgallery.com

 
LFTT  -Library for the Translation of Things – LIVE LIBRARY FINAL WEEK EVENTS

Broadstone Studios,

22 Harcourt Terrace,

Dublin 2

T: 01 642 5722

contact@broadstonestudios.com / www.broadstonestudios.com

Thursday 27th 7-9pm
“Timo’s Tales”
Currently touring libraries and venues around the country, Paul Timoney will be reading and performing selections from his animated stories “Timo’s Tales” See http://www.timostales.com/

Friday 28th 4-6pm
“Standing-Alone-Together”
Monica Flynn in collaboration with the LFTT will be giving a divination and bibliomancy workshop around questions of private and public agency on the fringes of subjective ‘presence’. The workshop will incorporate experiments in stillness and cesation in both charged and meditative atmospheres.

Saturday 29th 2-4pm
“Storm Center” (1956)
Afternoon Movie Mattinee.
Bette Davis as a renegade librarian fighting against censorship and bureaucracy in 1950′s America. Warning* this movie contains blatant political bias which the LFTT feels do not pose a danger to the average conscious human being.

Saturday 29th 5-8pm
“Library Jam”
Informal traditional music session to celebrate the closure of the LFTT library. Frank Tate (Bouzouki), Katherine Atkinson (Violin) and friends. Ceol agus craic! Budding seanachai’s and dangerous foot lifting welcome. Bring an instrument if you fancy joining in the jam.

All events are free with a suggested donation of 5 euro for Saturdays events. BYOB

www.lftt.wordpress.com

The LFTT or Legs Foundation for the Translation of Things is a flexible, international art collective formed in 2009 by current members Helen Horgan and Danyel Ferrari. We seek to produce works that directly engage the public in a process of knowledge transformation through reinterpretation by the movement of things and ideas.  An idea with reach is said to have “legs” and the word translation was historically used as a term to describe the movement of objects, particularly sacred ones, from place to place.

Image courtesy of The Irish Times 2011

And now back to the studio

*GEMMA TIPTON*

Sat, Oct 22, 2011

Artists’ studios have nothing of the mystique of galleries. A look
inside gives unexpected insights into their ways of working and the
things they draw inspiration from

THE VISITORS WHO peer into the Francis Bacon Studio at the Hugh Lane
gallery in Dublin aren’t just pilgrims coming to pay homage to the space
where Bacon created his paintings. There is also the sense, the hope,
that some of that creativity might rub off or that somewhere, in the
midst of the chaos Bacon worked in, we can gain an insight into the
source of his greatness.

Artists’ studios are fascinating places. Bacon liked disorder, but, as
you can find out today by visiting the workplaces of any of more than
250 Irish artists, in the Visit 2011 programme, order is more usual.
Perhaps it’s procrastination, and the impulse that says, “I can’t
possibly get down to work until all this is tidy.” Or maybe it’s to
ensure that once you’re in the flow of work, you won’t be distracted by
trying to find where you put down that red paint.

They are also unexpected. The noticeboard in Samuel Walsh’s studio in
rural Co Limerick is home to pictures of old masters’ paintings, even
though his own work, currently on view at Visual Carlow, is abstract and
contemporary. Many, including Nick Miller’s PT truck, which he converted
into a mobile studio and drives around the wilds of Co Sligo, are
covered in paint. Maud Cotter’s space in Cork city is a trove of the
mysterious and everyday objects that she uses in her fabulous creations.

There’s also a pleasant, casual feeling to the studio. Away from the
rarefied space of the gallery, no one speaks in whispers, and art is
handled rather than touched reverentially with gloved hands. You’ll find
an artist lick a finger to wipe a smear from a surface, or add a dab of
paint to something not quite finished. In the studio, an artwork is
still full of potential and hasn’t yet become a commodity. Perhaps
that’s why they are such exciting places.

Artists have different relationships with the spaces in which they make
their work. Donald Judd thought the studio was the perfect space for
viewing, and created a living museum of his own in Texas. Philip Guston
felt a sense of the separation between making and being, saying: “I am a
night painter, so when I come into the studio the next morning the
delirium is over. I come into the studio very fearfully, I creep in to
see what happened the night before. And the feeling is one of, ‘My God,
did I do that?’

Irish artists, who had been unwillingly at the vanguard of
gentrification, were squeezed out of their work spaces, particularly in
cities, during the boom. But groups such as Pallas took advantage of
unwanted buildings; one of their former homes was in a block of
condemned council flats. Studios are not confined to cities, though, and
the Good Hatchery in Co Offaly is an example of artists getting together
to create a workspace in a former hayloft.

Is there such a thing as the ideal studio? Most artists say they prefer
northern light, as it is constant and indirect. Beyond that, studios are
as varied and idiosyncratic as artists themselves. From Alice Maher and
Dermot Seymour, who built a modern studio as part of their house in Co
Mayo, to a whole Georgian building on Henrietta Street in Dublin, where
former tenements are now populated by artists, a phenomenal level of
creativity is going on behind closed doors.

You can get tantalising glimpses of studios in paintings, such as
Matisse’s /The Red Studio/ . You can see a reconstruction of the
sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s studio at the Pompidou Centre in Paris,
and that of FE McWilliam at Banbridge in Co Down.

Or make the most of Visit 2011 today, which also includes bus tours and
guided walking tours.

See www.visitstudios.com for more general lists of studios see www.asni.info
and www.visualartists.ie

————————————————————————
*Artist and insitution: Mary-Ruth Walsh*

‘I have been at Imma since June. The timing is funny, as I just built a
new studio in Co Wexford, where I live. It’s a beautiful space, but the
Imma studio is fantastic and really well run. I’m used to working in
different places. I had a residency in Philadelphia, which I remember
for being freezing cold: it was -8 outside. One of the pleasures of the
Imma studios is having other artists around. We have a good rapport, and
it’s plenty of fun between work.

‘Different spaces change my work. Any new space effects change, yet the
core of your work doesn’t really alter. In a new space I try to get
stuck straight in, to make the space my own. It takes a little time to
become friends with a new studio space – does that sound weird? I’ll
make drawings, research online, and I recently took up drinking
sparkling water instead of coffee, although I discovered dark chocolate
helps the concentration. Sometimes I’ll put music on.

“It has been a busy year, and I’ve just finished an installation, Real
E-State, where I put up an estate of town houses (without planning
permission), then auctioned them off. So now I’m working on editing the
film footage of that. Then there are some drawings about mapping for
Building Material, with the Architectural Association of Ireland, and
I’m currently working on a project with Katherine Waugh relating to
Eileen Gray.

“I collect many things, bits and pieces from everyday life, usually
making lots of notes, drawings and pictures that I edit and re-edit all
the time. I keep them in the studio, and eventually some go in the bin,
and some go on to better things. To be completely honest, the studio is
pretty untidy when I’m in the middle of getting work ready for a show.
Then, when I’m done, there’s a clean sweep and it’s immaculate again.
The studio is clean now, smartened up for a Dublin Contemporary 2011
visit. Then it’ll be time to adjust to the new space in Wexford.”

See www.maryruthwalsh.com; www.imma.ie

*Artist at home: Una Sealy*

“Seven years ago I borrowed money from the bank and built my studio at
the end of our garden. Before that I had worked in an upstairs room, but
we needed it for a kid’s bedroom. Before I had the house I had studios
in the city centre, including one of the first in Temple Bar and one on
Henrietta Street.”

“I lived in San Francisco for two years in the late 1990s and had a
studio in the Mission district, which is the Mexican part of town. My
work there was definitely influenced by the streetscape and by the
people I met. I don’t think the different studio spaces themselves
change the work, but what is outside the window, and who is in the
locality, certainly do.

“Most of my paintings are done directly from life, and I rarely start
with drawings. I get an idea, persuade someone to get involved, and just
go for it. There would be a fair bit of coffee involved. My recent
painting Neighbours’  winner of the Ireland-US Council/Irish Arts
Review Award at the RHA happened because I could see the fantastic
black and silver wallpaper in my neighbours bedroom from my studio, and
I asked them to pose for me.

“I have lots of books about artists in my studio, but I don’t stick much
stuff on to the wall, because there’s no room, with all my own paintings
stored there too. I like having the paintings around they keep me
company  but storage is a huge problem. I’ve already filled my parents’
garage and most of our house. My studio, like my home, is totally
disorganised. It’s not that I like it like this; it’s just I seem to
have a serious aversion to tidying things up. My favourite thing there
is my chair that turns into a bench for unexpected visitors. It was
designed by my furniture-designer sister, Brigid Sealy.

Music is essential: it helps get me to the mental place I need to
produce. It takes my mind off other things, even though I hardly hear
it. It could be anything, but it?s mostly ancient cassette tapes I’ve
had since the 1980s. It never gets lonely, with kids, husband, cats,
friends and seagulls providing interruptions, which I don’t mind. It’s
part of having a studio at the end of the garden, and provides relief
from the intensity of painting. The downside is that the space can fill
up with lawnmowers, old bikes and general junk.”

Una Sealy is showing with Mick O’Dea and James Hanley in Undressed at
the Imagine Arts Festival, Waterford, until October 31st. See
www.imagineartsfestival.com, e-mail unasealy@yahoo.co.uk

*Artist abroad: Alan Phelan*

“My first studio was at Fire Station Artists’ Studios in Dublin. Before
that I had worked from home, until storage became a real issue.

The space at the studios really helped me to be more ambitious in
scale, although right after leaving there I made even bigger works in a
tiny space at Broadstone Studios. I have been with them since, and we
have moved to a fantastic building on Harcourt Terrace. The
neighbourhood is certainly a big change from where studios are normally
located.

I am in Helsinki for three months, since August, at the Helsinki
International Artist Programme. It’s an exchange with Temple Bar Gallery
+ Studios. The studio spaces here are in a huge cultural complex in a
former Nokia cable factory. It’s a live/work space, so I roll out of bed
straight into work. It’s great for a short period like this, and I have
really enjoyed being so close to the work. This was the set-up at Fire
Station Artists’ Studios for almost three years. This situation can get
a little claustrophobic after a while, especially with a partner.

I’m not sure what an ideal studio would be. Living in a Dublin
apartment now, I will never be able to build a studio in my garden,
because I haven’t got one, so the group studio is the best solution. I
really enjoy the social aspect of the group studios. It can lead to
lengthy spells of procrastination, but sometimes you need to escape and
come back to what you are doing with fresher and more caffeinated eyes.

The big concern with group studios is tenure and the stability of
leases. With the property crash this has become even more uneasy, but
there have been some great opportunities. Broadstone shifted from a bad
situation to a brilliant one. Making these new spaces into long-term
commitments is the issue. The reality, however, is that you just have to
move on every few years. Many studios do get crucial Arts Council
support, giving artists a chance to have somewhere to work. Full
commercial rents would have all artists working from home.

Like many artists, I work on several projects and pieces at once. How
it happens is a combination of several factors, and it’s always an issue
to find the time to get the work done. I work part-time to support
myself, and so time away like this is a real treat.”

Alan Phelan’s next exhibition is in Helsinki; his work will be on show
in December in Cork with The Black Mariah at Triskel. See www.alanphelan.com

Copyright 2011 The Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/1022/1224306262339.html