(Photographer: Deirdre Power)
GAVIN HOGG:
Gavin Hogg has exhibited widely in Ireland with considerable critical success. Being a double prize-winner in EV+A ’93, selected by Gloria Moure, his work is included in many collections, both public and private in Ireland and abroad. Printmaking is also an important part of his practice and he has participated in various group shows, being an invited artist in CEAD 07 in China. Hogg has also collaborated in two poetry collections with Limerick poets, producing editioned suites of prints in response to their work.
Hogg’s engagement with painting has always been on several different levels. From his early years when painting was primarily about the language and space particular to painting and how emotion can be articulated within it, to visually more mature work that has become about developing a language with which to explore the world around him and the parameters of his own imaginative space. As an artist Hogg is constantly aware of painting as a craft and tradition that demands a technical expertise in order to fully realise its possibilities. His work is very much allied to the renowned art critic Robert Hughes’s idea of ‘art requiring the long look and being many layered and webbed’.
Hogg writes of his own work that: “The play of abstraction and representation within painting has always held a particular fascination for me. Exploring the line between what is recognisable or descriptive and what is more abstract or purely expressive. Is the former more about painting as a means of recording and is the latter solely concerned with the emotion carried by a gesture within the oil paint as material? Do the audience simply look at the painting with the expectation of it being some kind of picture or do they experience it as a living object that is expressive on a number of different levels?”
LAURA SHEERAN:
Songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Laura Sheeran from Galway has since the release of her first album this year proven herself to be one of the clearest rising stars of the alternative Irish music scene.
Her debut album “Lust of Pig and the Fresh Blood” is now available on Bandcamp:
http://laurasheeran.bandcamp.com/album/lust-of-pig-the-fresh-blood
Of her first release “Music For the Deep Woods” Open Music write that:
“one cannot help but be blown away by the sheer (no pun intended) emotional weight of her output -where she waves her fingers, or quivers her lip, beautiful music gushes forth in dischordant waves of distress and comfort”
http://www.thisisopenmusic.com/release/music-for-the-deep-woods/
Currently based in Dublin, Sheeran also dabbles in film and theatre. Laura will be launching a split 7 inch vinyl with Waterford’s Katie Kim in Whelan’s in Dublin on Sunday May 29th 2011.
TOM CLIMENT:
Tom Climent’s most recent works are more architectural than previous ones, they still contain the elusive abstract qualities which has characterised his work in recent years, but the architectural elements give the paintings a more grounded narrative. They are an amalgamation of structures , deconstructed and assembled together. There is a desire to impose order and clarity on the abstraction in previous works which has led to a more focused image in many of the pieces. The works can declare a dramatic physicality while conversely appear to be quite subtle.
His work has essentially been within the European tradition of painting, which is a “visual” one, concerned with picture space and the relations which obtain between the real world of three dimensions and the essentially illusory two dimensional world of the canvas. This idea of creating space on a two dimensional surface has always been important to him , the conflict between representation and abstraction as a means of doing this has been prevalent, there exists a push and pull between these two elements.
His most recent work tends to focus on the creation of space, investigating the boundaries between abstraction and representation as a means of conveying this, exploring the dematerialised qualities that one does not actually see in reality and to use spatial structures as a vehicle to make this quality solid and physical.
They reference spatial structures as a metaphor for duality. Visually exploring the outer as well as the inner spatial world. This exploration exists in a field of tension between two poles of visualisation, namely the artistic vision of abstraction and the physical world of representation. Combining scultural elements , the works themselves can be quite physical while conversely trying to convey an aspect of reality which is less physically present, creating works which contain memories of the past, what used to exist, what could exist and what does exist.
NELSON SILVA SOUSA:
In Nelson Silva Sousa’s work there´s a strong presence of the author. His work is a sort of a tool to connect to the world; a means of expressing the self, of analyzing and organizing it. In a certain sense, his work melds with his life experience.
At the same time Sousa’s photographs are a motivation and a process for looking at others and trying to understand them and their behavior, and their group dynamics; of studying our societies structures.
In Nelson’s images there´s a strong presence of matter, which means, in a certain way, that his focus in the very essence of reality. There’s also a permanent interest in the study of the issues of perception, of duality and multiple understandings, and also a concern with the idiosyncrasies of the medium he works with, and the arts language/communication in general.
As a major rule, Sousa tends to photograph what is there, the reality, applying to the process his own input.
(Photographer: Piluca Aguilera)
INMA MOYA PAVON:
Inma Moya Pavon from Southern Spain, moved to Ireland in 1996. She holds a First Class Honour in the Ma in Contemporary Dance Performance from the University of Limerick. She co-founded m-brella project in Cork , a multidisciplinary and collaborative dance-theatre project. She was selected for the ICNWP’07 (IRISH CHOREOGRAPHERS NEW WORK PROJECT) under the mentorship of Wendy Houstoun.
Inma received a bursary award from Dance Ireland/the Arts Council under its Choreographic Development Initiative 2007/08 mentored by artist Amanda Coogan. Inma was part of Daghdha Mentoring Programme 2007/2008. She was guest teacher at the Ma in Contemporary Dance Performance in Limerick Univesity in 2008. In 2009 she received a dance residency “Blank Canvas” in The Firkin Crane, Cork. In March 2010 she was honoured to be the first dance artist in residence at the Camden Palace Hotel Art Centre, in Cork where she holds weekly contemporary dance classes and recently completed the re.Birth:Project in collaboration with Fernando Tunon. Inma has been working as a choreographer in the production of the Opera Dido and Aeneas in the Cork Opera House and she is currently a guest teacher in the UCC Ma Advanced Theatre Studies.
http://www.therebirthproject.com/
http://inmapavon.wordpress.com/
(Photographer: Brian Kavanagh)
RAYMOND DEANE:
Raymond Deane was born in Co Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, on 27 January 1953. He was brought up on Achill Island, Co Mayo. From 1963 he lived in Dublin, where he studied at University College Dublin, graduating in 1974. He was a founding member of the Association of Young Irish Composers, and won numerous awards as a pianist.
He subsequently studied in Basle with Gerald Bennett, in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen (although he doesn’t consider himself “a Stockhausen pupil”), and in Berlin with Isang Yun.
He was featured composer in the 1993 Accents Festival (with Kurtag) and the 1999 Sligo New Music Festival (with Roger Doyle). He has featured in several ISCM festivals (Mexico City, Manchester, Hong Kong), in the festivals l’Imaginaire irlandais (Paris 1996), Voyages (Montreal 2002), Warsaw Autumn (2004), and regularly in the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (his Ripieno for orchestra winning a special prize in 2000).
He was artistic director of the first two RTÉ Living Music Festivals (Dublin 2002/2004), showcasing the music of Luciano Berio and contemporary French music respectively.
In 1992 he published Death of a Medium, a novel (Odell & Adair), and he continues to publish essays and articles on culture and politics, most regularly in the Journal of Music and on the US/based website Electronic Intifada. In 2001 he was a co-founder of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity campaign, which he chaired from 2002-5. From 2003-5 he was on the steering committee of the Irish Anti-War Movement.
Raymond is also the Cultural Boycott Officer for the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC):
In a recent online article Deane outlined the work of the IPSC:
“The IPSC campaigns for justice for the Palestinian people through raising public awareness about the human rights abuses in the occupied territories, the violations of international law and the historical causes of the injustices to the Palestinians that lie at the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict,” Deane says. “The IPSC lobbies the Irish government and the EU, campaigns on the streets and urges for a vigorous boycott, divestment and sanctions [campaign]. It also holds public talks with Israeli and Palestinian speakers and various cultural and fundraising events.” They also organize public lectures and workshops, support Palestinian refugees in Ireland and arrange exchange visits between Palestine and Ireland.
He was awarded a Doctorate in Composition by the National University of Ireland (Maynooth) in 2005. He has been a member of Aosdána, the government-sponsored academy of artists, since 1986.
Raymond Deane is based in Dublin and Fürth (Bavaria).
http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Music/Deane.aspx
KELLY RATCHFORD:
Using mixed media on canvas wood or paper, Kelly Ratchford creates ambiguous images that allude to experiences, not necessarily comfortable, easy or tasteful – sickness, accidents and children who do harm. Her interest in these lonley and anxious states competes with an enthusiasm for colour, humour and the pictures drawn by young children. It is this tension and the challenge of using simple lines to create more layred images that provide the basis for her work.
EOIN LLEWELLYN:
Eoin Llewellyn was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1973 and currently works between Ireland and Berlin, Germany. In 1998, Llewellyn earned a degree in Fine Art from the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Over the last fifteen years his work has explored numerous aesthetics and artistic philosophies, drawing on close study of the works and techniques of certain painters from the past 500 years. His initial interest in neo-expressionism led to his fusing large paintings with installation works which explored similar themes to give a richer experience to the viewer. These works received wide acclaim in Ireland and were shortlisted for numerous prizes including The AIB and Victor Treacy awards. Llewellyn also won The Taylor Art award and the Tony O’ Malley award, among others. More recently, Llewellyn decided to explore a more humanist and less metaphysical approach to the question of the human experience But the consistent concern within his work has been the exploration of human presence within art and specifically painting.
In 2011, Llewellyn was awarded the Whyte Award for painting, and was shortlisted for the Golden Fleece Award, both in Ireland.
Llewellyn’s work has been exhibited throughout Ireland, England and Germany and can be found in private and public collections throughout the world.
ENDA O’DONOGHUE:
Enda O’Donoghue is an Irish artist who has been living and working in Berlin since 2002. He originally studied computer programming before changing to visual art and has worked professionally as a web-designer, Internet developer and in various dot-com businesses to support his art practice.
His artwork is directly influenced by his experience working with digital technology and the Internet. As an artist he has continuously worked and exhibited in a wide variety of media: photography, video, net-art and interactive media but painting remains the backbone of his practice.
The images in Enda O’Donoghue’s paintings all come from the Internet. They are all other people’s images, digitally found images. Searching through popular online social networks and blogs on an ongoing basis, he compulsively collects and catalogues photographs that he finds. The photos which he works with are most often the throw-away shots which otherwise gather digital dust buried away on hard-drives, camera chips, mobile phones or uploaded and then lost or forgotten someplace on the Web. With each image he paints he is meticulous about tracing the ownership and requesting permission, partly as a way of dealing with the anonymous nature of the Internet and also a reaction to the issues surrounding online privacy and copyright.
The process of painting from these images is slow and methodical, firstly dissecting the image into sections on paper and then working over periods of weeks or months to reconstruct the image section by section as a painting. Echoing and playing with the nature digital image processing and compression algorithms, the painting process is highly analytical and methodical and yet filled with randomness and inviting of errors, misalignments and glitches.
His work was recently featured at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai and in 2009 he had a solo exhibition in New York at the Irish Arts Center. His work has also been shown in Copenhagen, Paris, London, Toronto and throughout Ireland and Germany. Over the past few years he has also been involved in organising and curating a number of group exhibitions in Berlin.
(Born in Limerick, Ireland, 1973)
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