Episode 2 | Taking Selfies, Taking Notes and Taking a Journey around the Dublin and Derry Art Scenes
In this ongoing series, avid exhibition goer Sveta Antonova gives us her thoughts on what’s happening right now, documented with selfies. This week, Sveta visited exhibitions in Dublin and Derry.
Of Shadow of Ideas| Aurélien Froment | NCAD Gallery |
‘Of Shadow of Ideas’ is a solo exhibition of Dublin-based French multidisciplinary artist Aurélien Froment. A thoughtfully curated show of nine dual aspect glass cases showcases Froment’s recent of with over 90 unmarked photographs in the NCAD’s glass-front gallery.
His approach seems very theoretical and research-base, therefore it is hard to get a grasp and overview of the exhibition at first glance. Though the more time I spent in the space, the more I was able to appreciate the installation and the usage of positive and negative spaces in relation to the artist’s ideas. Aurélien examined the life work of architecture autodidact Ferdinand Cheval, pedagogue and educationalist Frederick Froebel and Italian architect Paolo Soleri.
At first sight, the exhibition seems stripped of context but evokes a certain curiosity about the intangible installation, though so solid and present. Explaining Froment’s concept of this exhibition would result in too long an essay, but I recommend to see this show and read the accompanying texts to get a better grasp.
The exhibition continues until the 30th of March, open Monday until Friday, 1 – 5 pm.
Bill Lynch | Douglas Hyde Gallery
The main gallery at Douglas Hyde currently shows a variety of paintings by Bill Lynch. I didn’t know anything about Lynch before seeing this show and my Russian heritage was telling me: This is Russian painting! – The ornaments on his raw, aggressive, seemingly unfinished oil-paintings look like traditional Russian ornaments!
Days later, I read the exhibition text on the Gallery’s website and found out that he was inspired by Chinese and Japanese traditional painting, ups. As with art, everybody can have his/her own opinion, therefore I am still convinced that my favourite painting in the show depicts a Russian Matryoshka doll, knowing that I am wrong.
Lynch’s painting seem to be historical though they are all quite recent. He works a lot with negative spaces, restoration and folklore painting directly on wooden boards. I am still not entirely sure about the Gallery’s curating style in terms of using the space efficiently; it is not superb, but a nice show to browse through I would say. The second gallery in the back displays about six small-scale paintings by Verne Dawson in relation to the main exhibition. In addition, Verne curated the Lynch show.
Both artists are on display at Douglas Hyde until the 4th of May, Monday – Friday 11am – 6pm, Thursday, 11am – 7pm, Saturday, 11am – 4:45pm, closed Sunday.
Group Exhibition | New Dublin Gallery| Gormleys Fine Art
Recently, myself and a friend were gallery-hopping and walked into the new Gormleys Gallery space without having a clue what we were going to. It was so crowded that it was hard to see any of the artworks displayed, though this is a commercial gallery they have a good range of artists – curated poorly – but you have to keep in mind that it’s not a public space, it’s a business.
We found lots of wine, food an even a musician playing a massive golden harp in the main space, how odd is that? I really enjoyed some conversations around the value of painting looking at Stephen Forbes’ tiny people playing around on plain black and grey canvases. Another good one in this show is Stephen Johnston, whose self-portrait ‘The Artist’ was short-listed for the Hennessy Portrait Prize 2015 at the National Gallery of Ireland.
The group exhibition continues until the 27th of March.
Opening Hours are Mon – Wed: 10am – 5.30pm, Thurs: 10am – 7pm, Fri & Sat: 10am – 5.30pm, closed Sunday.
No more fun and Games | Jesse Jones | Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane
Finally I had a day off and took the chance to walk up to the Hugh Lane and see the widely discussed Jesse Jones show ‘NO MORE FUN AND GAMES’! Having heard so much positive about the exhibition and knowing that Jesse is representing Ireland at the next Venice Biennale 2017 I went there with a set opinion already, which is not the best way to approach an exhibition. Upon entering, I was politely and quickly welcomed by a performer, who immediately started the process of the performance. I was surprised, amused and fascinated about what was happening around me. I won’t tell you exactly what the performance is about, so you can go and experience it yourself if you haven’t done so yet. It was great fun! The performer was so quick that I was running behind her through four gallery spaces in order to get a good picture of the happening. She would stop in the last room, so far the rooms I ran through were filled by music only – and the performance.
The last room is surprisingly kitsch in comparison to the previous minimalistic experience. Silver walls, six paintings, a sculpture. The exhibition is accompanied by different events at the Hugh Lane and throughout the show, new publications will be available. Have a look at the Gallery’s website about upcoming events and publications. To give you a professional and not only an entertaining insight into this show, Jesse’s practice is about feminism in Ireland. For this event she created a Feminist Parasite Institution within the exhibition to explore how art by women has been valued historically.
Exhibition runs until 10th of April – open Tuesday to Thursday 10.00am– 6.00pm, Friday & Saturday 10.00am–5.00pm, Sunday 11.00am–5.00pm, closed Mondays.
Revisions | Julie Merriman | Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane
Julie Merriman’s current exhibition at the Hugh Lane ‘Revisions’ creates a surprisingly calm and intimate atmosphere. The whole show, as well as Julie’s practice in general, is about drawing as a technique outside the art world, for example used in engineering and mathematics.
This exhibition is the result of a year-long conversation between the Dublin City Council departments and the artist. I won’t go into detail about the usage of drawing within the City Council, I don’t think you have to know the background story in order to appreciate the detailed drawings. Small, big, in series or on their own – all the exhibits have something minimalistic but largely detailed, playful, calm and straight-forward in common.
Exhibition runs until the 10th of April – open Tuesday to Thursday 10.00am– 6.00pm, Friday & Saturday 10.00am–5.00pm, Sunday 11.00am–5.00pm, closed Mondays.
I can’t believe I ate the whole thing! | Group show from NCAD students | Steambox
A great name for an exhibition – a great exhibition. Sixteen second year students from NCAD gathered together to fill every corner of the Steambox with toast, prints, action toys throwing plastic food around, industrial sounds, drawings, tooth x-rays and much more.
You could tell, that somebody finally took a risk and played – as the title puts it, the show was very vivid and impulsive. The entrance area smelled like a pile of toast, because it was. I hit some people with plastic yogurt and fruits and thought about the aesthetics of the inside of my mouth for a while. I enjoyed how this exhibition engaged me to be more playful and approach art less serious – as others, I do get lost in the theory of art and history a lot, therefore it’s always good to be reminded that art is allowed to be fun!
The featured artists were: Claire Callinan, Sam Casey, Adam Goodman, Tadhg Hanway, Kevin Judge, Chris Kearney, Anja Maye, Almha McCartan, Aisling McDonnell, Róisín McGannon, Finn Mullan, Harry Phox, Andy Shilling, Donal Talbot, Elysia Tuohy and Ross.
The group show was running from the 10th – 12th of March.
Night Falls, Day Breaks | Annie Wenzel | VOID
Derry, the city of the intriguing VOID. Spending a day in Northern Ireland I visited the VOID in the city centre of Derry: an autonomous, contemporary art space with three perfect white-cube galleries.
Night Falls, Day breaks a solo show by German-born artist Annie Wenzel, who is permanently based in the Netherlands. Her work is inspired by rather brutal and deterrent images. She is a sculptor working in ceramics in an untraditional way: aggressive, big and imperfect.
Her sculptures are unbelievably heavy and involve a time intensive making process. The busts for example, look strong from afar, but are fragile and torn when seen from up close. Large chunks of their faces are missing and pieces seemingly dripping down their chest. This is the perfect exhibition for those who like the dark and grotesque, love ceramics or just like looking at extremely detailed work.
On display until the 16th of April (open Tuesday – Saturday 11.00am – 5.00pm)
What we Recognise in Others | Ciara Phillips | CCA
‘What we recognise in others’ by Ciara Phillips was on display at the CCA (Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry) until the 12th of March.
Phillips, nominated for the Turner Prize 2014, is well known for her collaborations and workshop based practice. Since this doesn’t seem to be her overall focus, she wanted to create an exhibition with prints and pieces without a workshop or social element to it. Hence, the exhibition feels quite traditional in terms of curating and organising, but considering her previous practice, it makes sense.
For this exhibition, Ciara had the whole space painted in different colours and placed 12 prints on the walls, some etchings, mostly screen-print – big, small, framed and raw. The first space is half white and half painted in different shades of turquoise. The back gallery is partially painted in various shades of a peachy orange colour. Both walls work with graphical patterns, left-out spaces in each individual colour strip.
The exhibitions talks a lot about repeating pictures in different graphic surroundings, all introduced by the sentence ‘Every Woman a Signal Tower’. This sentence is not anything I would love to have as a tattoo. Ignoring that, I really enjoyed how Ciara works with spaces, in reality -as in the gallery, as well as in 2D, printed on paper.
The next exhibition ‘Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone’ opens on the 24th of March; open Tuesday to Saturday, 12–6pm.
