Talbot Gallery Past Exhibitions

PARKed Life

Talbot Gallery is delighted to present Lucy Sheridan's solo exhibition, PARKed Life. This exhibition explores the natural world and, more specifically, man's relationship with it. Lucy’s work touches on ideas of anthropomorphism and the human desire to sanitise and tame nature. We are excited to be hosting such an original and imaginative exhibition. Lucy has attracted quite a loyal and eclectic following since her graduation from the National College of Art and Design in 2006 and when she represented Talbot at last year's National Contemporary Art Fair her work was highly regarded and sought after.

Lucy's subject matter is placed in minimal and unnatural surroundings; her work often references national parks, natural history museums, water parks and zoological gardens. In each of these locations the element of danger which would normally be present in a confrontation with wild animals is taken away, or at least momentarily forgotten. It is this playfulness, where elements of fear seem to have been removed to the point of anthropomorphism, that shape Sheridan’s paintings and drawings. In a sense it is not purely the natural world which is being exhibited in PARKed Life rather it is the viewer’s projection of it.

Lucy lives and works in Dublin. She studied in the National College of Art and Design where she completed a BA in Fine Art in 2006. She has recently been exhibited in Wrapping up for Christmas, Talbot Gallery (2011); VUE, National Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Hibernian Academy (2011); Claremorris Open Exhibition, Claremorris (2011); Imposing Nature, Monster Truck (2010); Something tells me it’s all Happening at the Zoo, Kevin Kavanagh (2010) and Import Export, Reykjavik, Iceland. She is also a co-founder of the artist collective Scissors|Cuts|Paper. This exhibition at Talbot Gallery will be her first solo exhibition and will contain recent examples of her current visual art practice.

Experiences of Place

Talbot Gallery and Studios is delighted to have the opportunity to promote Suzanne Mooney's work in this solo exhibition. 'Experiences of Place' provides the viewer with an insight into Mooney's current photographic practice and the research she has undertaken as part of her PhD in Tama Art University, Tokyo.

Currently studying in one of Japan’s urban centres on a Japanese government scholarship, East-Asian traditional culture and landscape provide a wealth of inspiration for Mooney. This exhibition considers the effect that globalisation; technological developments and the environment can have on both landscape and ‘lived space’, and consequently how changes to these factors can in turn affect the way people live their lives.

In March 2011, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami shook the northeast coastline of Japan, causing almost 16,000 deaths and extensive and severe structural damage. The World Bank has estimated the economic toll for this event to be close to US$243 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster in world history.

On the one-year anniversary of this catastrophe, Mooney will consider both the northeast coastline; the site of this event and the urban centres of Japan independently, providing a contrasting image of an area of destruction and of urban Japanese architectural achievement. She examines the site of this earthquake, the Tohoku region, and documents what she observes in the town of Kesennuma in a photographic series, 'Remnant Mass'. These post-apocalyptic images reveal the temporary and transient nature of Japanese dwellings and throw the scale and magnitude of the earthquake and tsunami into sharp relief. One cannot help but wonder how and when these buildings will be returned to their former inhabitants and when this former sea-side town will be restored to its natural beauty.

Japanese architecture has withstood many attacks, from both political and natural sources, as such town-planning and architectural design have become integral to the re-structuring of communities and the re-building of lives. Mooney's second photographic series in this exhibition, 'Walking in the City' examines the urban-scapes of Japan's larger cities, in contrast to the impermanence demonstrated in the previous series, these images depict highly-coloured, stylised, permanent, modern structures. Mooney allows a sense of temporality to creep in by placing a single figure in each frame, contrasted in size and scale to the surrounding buildings, this figure provides an insight into the isolation and vastness of urban landscapes.

Mooney deals with this subject matter in a sensitive manner, cognisant of the recent nature of these events and of the trauma of those affected. This exhibition allows for an exchange between the aesthetic of the city and that of the natural environment, Mooney opens up Japanese culture to the uninitiated.

Inside Out, Outside In

Inside Out, Outside In

Emmet Kierans at Talbot Gallery & Studios

February 29^th – March 14^th 2012

Emmet Kierans practice is concerned with the debate surrounding consciousness and how different ideologies on the subject influence our understanding of reality. Consciousness is both completely familiar and utterly mysterious, it’s so elusive in nature that it is impossible to quantify and categorise. What we have instead are opinions and theories. Kierans is particularly interested in the resurgence of a form of Cartesian dualism. This separation of body and mind results in a separation between mind space and real space.

‘Inside Out, Outside In’ seeks to explore these boundaries and unknowns. Some pieces have a quasi-scientific aproach, while others arise from intuition and imagination. The result is a number of pieces that play with preconceptions of reality andquestions what takes precedence, the reality of the mind or the reality of the physical world. By exploiting the inherent malleability of material the artist elicits notions of the plasticity of the reality we inhabit. The exhibition utilises elements of sculpture, painting, photography and installation and often uses materials that have a potential to exist in different states.

This exhibition is part of our Artist Initiated project. Artists Initiated is a project set up to enable artists to utilise the gallery space outside of the gallery’s program of scheduled artists. Rather than being approached by the gallery, the artists selected to partake in Artists Initiated are selected on the basis of a national open call for submissions. The agreement consists of an independent set-up on the part of the artist, while the Talbot Gallery lends not only its central location but also its valuable contacts and its experience as a widely attended and respected venue.

I See A Bad Moon Rising

                                                                                                                                   I See A Bad Moon Rising

Colette Cronin at Talbot Gallery & Studios

February 11^th – 25^th 2012

Colette Cronin's work explores the symbolic nature of the ‘home’, endeavouring to depict what can never be; a house untouched by human drama. The study of this fragmented symbolism is undertaken with an apocalyptic toned deconstruction of domestic iconography, so that the images have an eerie, confrontational quality.

The anonymous structures she conceives conceal in their simplicity the struggles that each household undergoes; there is no evidence of human contact or familial presence, save for fallen walls that bespeak a nondescript, unseen level of turmoil. 

Cronin received her BA in Fine Art, with Honours, from CCAD in 2010. In the short time since her graduation she has participated in numerous exhibitions in Cork, and her work has been taken into four collections both in Cork and Dublin. With this, her first show in Dublin, we are eager to act as a podium to enhance her exposure.

This exhibition is part of our Artist Initiated project. Artists Initiated is a project set up to enable artists to utilise the gallery space outside of the gallery’s program of scheduled artists. Rather than being approached by the gallery, the artists selected to partake in Artists Initiated are selected on the basis of a national open call for submissions. The agreement consists of an independent set-up on the part of the artist, while the Talbot Gallery lends not only its central location but also its valuable contacts and its experience as a widely attended and respected venue.

The Consoling Dream Necessity

The Consoling Dream Necessity

Cecilia Danell at Talbot Gallery & Studios

January 11th – February 4^th 2012

Cecilia Danell is a Swedish artist based in Galway. She has just been announced as the recipient of  the 5^th Annual Emerging Artists Award of 2011. Her work focuses on questions concerning, identity, dealing with such themes as perception of the self and sensations of otherness. Her media spans a spectrum of painting, photography and video, all of which are utilised toward making hazy the boundary between fiction and reality. The surreal quality of her video and photographic pieces is well complemented by the installation works consisting of such materials as twigs, safety clips and folded graph paper. The potentially mundane associations these works call to mind throw into greater relief the polarity of Utopian and Dystopian landscapes, and the notion that what we regard as personal can have universal connotations.

Danell studied at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, where she obtained a first class honours degree in Fine Arts (2007-2008) where she was awarded Paint Student of the Year. having first achieved her Bachelors Degree in Art & Design with Distinction (2004-2007). As well as featuring in innumerable exhibitions and publications, she has received several awards since completing her university education, including the Arts Council of Ireland Project Award 2011 which is funding her upcoming show here at the Talbot.

We are delighted to have this opportunity to further promote Danell’s work. Her upcoming show is comprised of a new body of work geared toward a personal search for meaning, dealing with contemporary life as coloured by her Scandinavian heritage and upbringing. With her inspiration largely deriving from our physical encounter with the landscape and the merging of the outer environment with the inner being, Danell’s exhibition promises to elaborate the metaphorical act whereby the two are made interchangeable.

Wrapping Up For Christmas

Wrapping up for ChristmasSame Size, Same price, €200                               December 2^nd – 22^nd 2011.

Opening drinks reception 6pm, Friday December 2nd 2011

___________________________________________________

This year the Talbot Gallery is revisiting its previously themed ‘Treat’ show, but with a new twist. Seeing as the Crafts Council of Ireland and Craft Northern Ireland have designated 2011the Year of Craft, Talbot Gallery & Studios seeks to present new artists in this category with a platform for their work. Thus the show will be a combination of artists who have exhibited with us in the past or will be doing so in the future, and designers selected for their innovative and experimental style.

The show will comprise of small artworks, all of the same size, being sold at the same price; 200 euro.

Alongside the small artworks, six emerging Irish designers will be showcasing pieces from their latest collections, which will be individually priced. We hope this will prove a fruitful opportunity for interested clientele to start following and supporting artists at an affordable price, while also being able to peruse the stock of Dublin’s most sophisticated designers.

The artists we host at the Talbot range greatly in terms of media and genre, and we are confident that their work and the work of our selected designers will comprise a show of diverse aesthetics as well as ample opportunity to find original, unique gifts.

Artists

Anne Hendrick    Ian John Coughlan    Bennie Reilly

Cecila Danell      Mary A Fitzgerald       Doreen Kennedy

Louise Butler      Lucy Sheridan      Michelle Considine

Laura Fitzgerald   Ciara O’Hara   Colette Cronin

Eimear Jean McCormack     Adam Fearon      Mars Wright

John O’Reilly        Sanja Trodorovic         Beatrice O Connell

Joe Stanley       Myra Jago      Stephen Morris

Nickie Hayden        Claire Halpin         Felicity Clear

Kate Murphy       Suzanne Mooney     Emmet Kierans

Miriam McConnon     Joby Hickey       Aisling Conroy

   Emma Hogan    Deirdre Hayden

Designers:

Meabh de Burca     Julie Nolan     Theresa burger

Sara Wiegersma      Justyna Truchanowska    Muireann Walshe

reconstructions

The Talbot Gallery is pleased to announce the first exhibition in its Autumn programme, reconstructions by Claire Halpin October 15th - November 10th 2011

This is Claire Halpin's second solo exhibition at the Talbot Gallery and we are delighted to show her latest work.

This exhibition is an overview of work developed over the last two years which takes its imagery from a number of sources from media photos of areas of conflict to paintings from the canon of art history from Byzantine and Early Renaissance. The techniques employed range from the traditional form and materials of icon painting through to traditional oil painting and photographic transfer.

The artist is attempting to present a contradiction within each painting, between the subject matter and its rendering through paint. In the paintings the initial shock and graphicness of the subject matter gives way to a luring in by the painted surface. The Tableau from Georgia pieces are rendered to look like romanticised landscapes but on closer viewing reveal traces of abandoned soviet architecture in the landscape. These images are taken from photos from Halpin's travels during a residency to Georgia in 2010.

Halpin is interested in the layering of imagery and meanings and changing of scales within a painting. The paintings raise questions about how we remember the past; choose to record history - the veracity of painting, photography, and the media in documenting future history. The artist is attempting to heighten the viewers’ awareness of the influencing conditions of time, place and context as influencing factors in encountering and interpreting imagery and artworks.

Artist’s Biography

Claire Halpin graduated from D.I.T with B.A Honours in Painting (1996) and went on to complete her Masters at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland (1998). Since graduating she has exhibited widely in group exhibitions in Ireland and abroad including 178^thRoyal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Dublin; Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Belfast and Cluster at Stone Gallery, Dublin. Claire has had a number of solo exhibitions including Tabula Rasa at Cavan County Museum (2011), Anaesthetic Aesthetics at Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre, Tallaght (2010), Always Now at Talbot Gallery, Dublin (2008), Eidetic Amalgams at Basement Gallery, Dundalk (2006) and solo exhibitions at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Model Arts Centre, Sligo. Her paintings are included in many private, public and corporate collections.

In October 2010 Claire participated in a one month artist residency in Tbilisi, Georgia as part of the Samkura Residency Programme. Along with two other Irish artists Claire represented Ireland at Tbilisi’s Artisterium 2010, Georgia’s annual international contemporary art exhibition.

Temporary Portal

Temporary Portal,  23rd September until 1st October 2011

Angela McDonagh, Tracy Hanna and Suzanne Mooney.

For this year’s forthcoming Culture Night, Talbot Gallery is pleased to present three artists, who while differing in their media and disciplines, depict the everydays  potential to become strange and unfamiliar.

Tracy Hanna, Angela McDonagh and Suzanne Mooney employ mediums as diverse as the two-dimensional portal of projected film and the ethereal presence of light, but all do so with a mind to question our sense of place within our environment, whether that be the gallery or the street. These artists consider the problems of perception and the relation of the part to the whole; Hanna presents us with such moving images as a girl lying in milk, McDonagh questions occurrences at sub-atomic level, and Mooney's  work is from Genius Loci  an on-going project exploring Landscape and Place in various locations around the globe. The location of the piece for this collaboration are the icebergs in Iceland.

In this way Talbot Gallery fuses for Culture Night an exhibition ripe with interaction and the potential to undergo an experience somewhat uncanny, somewhat displaced.

Culture Night will continue downstairs in Grainger’s Pub, where illustrator Maeve Clancy, renowned for her pop-up paper works, will be in residence for the evening.

Though the launch of this exhibition is dedicated to and will coincide with Culture Night on the 23^rd of September, with such a multitude of events occurring on this evening, we have decided to extend its duration until the 1^st of October.

TRACY HANNA

Graduated from Fine Art in the DIT in 2007 with a first class honours, Hanna has since exhibited in many group exhibitions, most recently exhibited a solo show at the Dock Co. Leitrim.

ANGELA MC DONAGH

Having followed her urge to explore fine art, and to allow freedom to her train of thought, Angela’s practice springs from ideas that then develop through process into any given medium- whichever is necessary to carry the work. She enjoys making random connections and piecing them together.McDonagh studied in NCAD and recently exhibited at Pallas Projects

SUZANNE MOONEY

An Irish artist currently living in Japan, Mooney graduated with a Masters Degree in Fine Art, Virtual Realities, from the National College of Art and Design Ireland (2005) and a BA in Fine Art from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art and Design (2002). She has been awarded a Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Postgraduate Scholarship for 2009-11 and is attending  Tama Art University in Tokyo.

|ˈpānti NG |

Talbot Gallery Studios are proud to present |ˈpānti NG |, a solo exhibition by artist Jane Fogarty which will run from the 12^th of May to the 14^th of June 2011. Jane graduated with a BA (hons) in Fine Art from DIT in 2010. She was presented with the R.C. Lewis Crosby Award for painting in the RDS Student Art Awards 2010 and was chosen to represent Ireland to the European League of Institutes of Arts in the NEU/NOW live festival Nantes.

Jane was also the winner of Talbot Gallery Studio’s inaugural Most Promising Graduate Award in 2010 and this show marks the culmination of her residency. The award grants one student the use of a studio space above the gallery for eleven months and a solo exhibition at the end of this term. Moreover it provides the recent college graduate with a support system and the opportunity to observe how more established artists work and earn a living by placing them in a professional creative environment. The closing of the exhibition will be marked by handing over the keys of the studio to the winner of the Most Promising Graduate Award 2011.

Jane's work roots itself in the realm of painting, exploring the ontology and materiality of the medium while placing a strong emphasis on the process of creation. |ˈpānti NG | is a manifestation of a recent body of work in which equal importance is given to support, medium and action. Through the use of time based structures, contemplative paintings and drawing emerge on carefully manipulated materials. The casting of the support mimics the layering of a painting and allows for control of the work from inception.

Beautiful Man

Inspired by the poetry of Kathy Enders, Beautiful Man is realised through the art of printmaking by both Irish and International artists.

Kathy Enders is a young Irish poet in her mid twenties and has been based in Dublin most of her life. Her mother is Irish, an artist and her father was German, born in the Late 1940’s and died when the poet was a young child. Both parents have played an important part in shaping her life and the poetry that she writes. 

When a group of artists read Kathy’s poetry they were moved by her words and the imagery it conjured. Seven of these artists have interpreted Kathy’s work by taking an emotion or a line from the poetry that draws a reflection on their own lives, they have brought the poetry to life in their own unique style.

‘Beautiful Man is a collection that began as something deeply rooted in my own life experience, but ever since the involvement of the seven artists who are responding to it, it has become for me, a reflection of all human experience, marked by the revelations and epiphanies we all share in moments of great joy, sadness, and anger. Even in our great diversity we are united in our struggles, and this exhibition is that story'.

The artists Nickie Hayden, Niamh Flanagan, Jahee Sargent, Siobhan Hyde, Marta Wakula Mac, Caroline Patten, Kath Van Uytrecht and poet Kathy Enders have come together for this very special and intimate exhibition.

A beautiful illustrated publication of Kathy’s poetry and artists prints will accompany the exhibition at Talbot Gallery Studios.

On the back of this exhibition we aim to reach even further into the local community here in Dublin .

Also to travel with the exhibition to selected visual art venues in Ireland. Our objective is to facilitate print workshops alongside poetry readings and creative writing activities to some of the schools in our locality. Through artistic expression we will strive to be an instrument in promoting positive change.

Journey to Nimbus

Louise’s investigations of surrounding landscapes, from her locality, to lands further a field, finds undiscovered new worlds that now become exposed. However, these new discoveries make her more aware of the human interventions that are marking the landscape. The idea that nature has become mediated by tourist attractions, explaining where the best places to experience nature from, thus turning the wilderness into an object to be consumed, interests her also. The more controlling human presence telling us what we should want from nature, the more we want the pure untouched ‘original’ version of nature.

Louise’s practice flows easily between 2D and 3D work, with painting at the foreground, where new landscapes are revealed and idealised places appear. Here the artificial blends with the organic in sublime and uncanny ways. This blurring of the real is created through various techniques of pouring and allowing the paint to bleed on the surface of the canvas. Memories of journeyed lands and paint become one forming these imaginary worlds. Mountains and islands make up the main body of imagery within the paintings and 3D pieces, where houses and dwellings are set in these idealistic locations making them a perfect place for an escapist’s dream. These are not all utopias though; people invade the images exploring Louise’s personal landscapes just as they would the real ones. Louise is constantly re-inventing and experimenting with new ways to convey the undiscovered foreign landscapes within, creating a new experience.

I can't go on, I'll go on

According to Henderson, her work attempts to present tangible displays of the subtle magnificence of human sentiment.  Finding inspiration in feelings of desperation, perseverance and in need, Henderson works to create still, subtle and delicate images. 

Principally working from a monochrome and muted palette the artist creates etchings, lithographs, water colours and pencil drawings, in an effort to respond to the powerful human emotion that she believes is inherent in us all.

The works of Samuel Beckett, Don DeLilo, Paul Auster and Buster Keaton have each played a part in inspiring the images made by Clare Henderson. So too has the sea, rain, mist, and fog. Henderson’s work is insightful and is reflective of the artists own sensitivity and responses to the human condition.   

Henderson received the Graphic Studio Dublin Graduate Award in 2005 and has been working there since. She has exhibited extensively in galleries throughout Dublin including; The National Gallery of Ireland and Farmleigh.

Palimpsest

"Delap’s works are the resulting product of a true creative journey. Paintings are worked and reworked leaving behind evidence of an organic evolution on the surface of the canvas. The final image is arrived at, following multiple trials and alterations. This results in his paintings displaying the figurative work and the history and narration of the development of the image. This affords an insight into the creative process of the artist.

Delap’s career began in Cork, where he originally trained and exhibited. He has since obtained a Masters Degree from the Wimbledon College of Art, and has exhibited extensively in both Dublin and London. His works are part of such collections as; the Deutsche bank, The Office of Public Works’ Art of the State Collection, and the Cork Institute of Technology’s art collection. His 2010 exhibition schedule is due to include a showing at Tupajumi, Co-Prosperity Sphere Gallery, Chicago, USA."

Drift

Wright’s works often depict ordinary scenes representing the mundane features of contemporary living. It is the manner in which these scenes are captured that result in something extraordinary. Her work evokes a tension and feeling of anticipation which resonates with the viewer. Wright juxtaposes harsh lines and architectural compositions with ethereal settings and a muted pallet. This combination presents the viewer with stark, still landscapes and brooding images. 

Wright states; that it is through the unpredictable medium of paint that she seeks to investigate and communicate the relationship between the concrete and transient.  

Wright graduated from NCAD in 2008 with a BA degree in Fine Art Painting. She has since exhibited in a number of galleries throughout the city. Talbot Gallery and Studios are delighted to welcome back Mars Wright and her new show Drift.

Auto/Mano

This exhibition explores the common threads and characteristics emerging between Byrne’s sound drawings and Stanley’s GPS drawings; an underlying interest in mark-making and seemingly random composition. In all cases the drawings are controlled by duration of the journey or soundscape being followed. The drawings form due to the accumulated layers of marks over time; yet there is no conscious manipulation of the image during the process. Removing the usual visual stimuli from the process, Stanley’s marks are made during a planned car journey between three points and Byrne’s marks are made in response to the spatial and rhythmic quality of the sound.

These two series of drawings are unique in technique and source material yet share the same approach whereby neither are made with visual reference nor with the artist looking at them; the work stimulates discussion of drawing and can be considered in relation to such artists as William Anastasi and Claude Heath.