Last Friday Andrew Pike and Alice Bennett gave a joint presentation on their research into how we define arts education and the misgivings of the term ‘Outsider Art’ at the (E)quality Symposium at NCAD.
See below a link to a great article that discusses some of the questions raised by Andrew and Alice: https://visualartability.wordpress.com/2019/11/17/outsider-art-discussion/
The KCAT studio is delighted to be taking part in this years Dublin Art Book Fair 2019 at the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios with a number of its publications.
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios presents Dublin Art Book Fair 2019 (DABF), the only art book fair in Ireland, now taking place over ten days from 21st November to 1st December 2019. DABF is sponsored by Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
The ninth edition of Dublin Art Book Fair platforms creative and cutting-edge publishers, big and small, Irish and international, and is a centre for the contemporary artist book. Browse a vibrant mix of books on art, architecture, visual culture and select fiction, enjoy a coffee and engage in a free programme of talks, tours, workshops and discussions in a relaxed and stimulating environment.
This year DABF is guest curated by Dr Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Professor of Art History at University College Dublin. In a series of talks, workshops, open studios, book launches and panel discussions, the theme, Art & Architecture: Learning from the Bauhaus will consider how the twentieth-century’s most innovative and influential school of art, craft, design and architecture continues to influence a hundred years on. Contributors include Martino Stierli (Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art New York); Grant Watson (London based independent curator and researcher) and Kerry Meakin (Programme Chair, Visual Merchandising & Display, TU Dublin). There will be an interdisciplinary panel discussion featuring visual artists, architects and designers on the influence of Bauhaus on their own practice; a series of artist-led workshops taking inspiration from Bauhaus ideas, including colour theory, printmaking and wallpaper design, alongside open studios with artists at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
To read more please see: https://www.templebargallery.com/exhibitions/dublin-art-book-fair-art-architecture
We are delighted to announce that Together Now: The Engagement Project is back for its third installment at The F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, Co. Down in Northern Ireland. Where it will be opened by Catherine Marshall on Saturday 23rd November 2.30pm -4.30pm. The exhibition will continue until 1st February 2020.
Together Now is a large group exhibition of painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and film by artists from the Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent (KCAT), in Callan, Co. Kilkenny and artists from very different practice contexts from all over Ireland, who have been working together in residencies and other forms of engagement since 2014. Curated by Catherine Marshall, and following a symposium at KCAT in Callan at the end of 2018, this exhibition, drawing on the work of the 26 artists, is touring to venues across Ireland.
The work on show has been made as a result of collaborations and conversations between the artists from KCAT and artists who prioritise social engagement, performance, installation and a variety of media from film and video to very un-traditional interpretations of traditional media such as painting and sculpture.
Opened in June 2019 at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Together Now next travelled to the OPW galleries at Farmleigh before arriving at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge. In 2020 the exhibition will tour to the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Ballinglen Art Foundation and Ballina Arts Centre in Co. Mayo before finishing back in Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
To find out more on the Engagement Project and the F.E McWillaim Gallery please see: http://kcat.ie/studio/engagement-project/ or visitarmagh.com/whatson/together-now-the-engagement-project/
Eileen Mulrooney’s Solo Exhibition ‘a Fair While’ was opened on the 7th November 2019 by Ramon Kassam at the The Watergarden Gallery, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny.
Eileen Mulrooney has lived and worked in South Tipperary and Kilkenny all her life. Many of Mulrooney’s drawings and paintings are based on her local scenery and direct experiences. Creating a wide variety of imagery she fixes onto canvas the landscapes she passes through every day, the buildings she encounters, and the people and her friends who inhabit those spaces.
Mulrooney’s title for this exhibition acknowledges a sense of time. Time itself is a key ingredient in her work. The content of her paintings emerges from continued and extended observations of the world around her. Her painting processes and the selection of imagery for her canvases are deliberated and considered patiently by the artist too. And, as a whole this body of work reflects on a collection of moments over time, a Fair While. The exhibition of Eileen Mulrooney’s paintings at the Watergarden Gallery in Thomastown, will include images of Ballytobin where she has worked for many years, friends, and familiar landscapes.
Eileen has a remarkable skill for creating a sense of place in her work. She has been making paintings professionally over the last 10 years from her studio at KCAT, and has built up a large body of work. Mulrooney has exhibited widely in Ireland with solo shows in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary and Mountshannon, Co. Clare. She also has an extensive record of exhibiting work internationally, participating in shows in Finland, the UK, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany. This exhibition aims to bring together an intimate selection of the paintings created along Eileen’s artistic journey to date.
Examples of Eileen Mulrooney’s work here
The exhibition will continue to run until the 28th November 2019. Open daily: Tuesday to Friday | 9:30am-4:30pm.
With the support of Southern Waste Region, KCAT offers a week of drop In mornings for up-cycling. The week will take place from 28th October to 1st November.Every morning from 10 am to 1 pm, KCAT Facilitators will help you re-imagine a small piece of furniture or a small object.Giving new life to old things helps to lessen the toll on our refuse, saves money and energy and gives all round creative pleasure.The drop in sessions ask for a five euro donation to help cover costs of materials.
Studio artists Diana Chambers and Mary Cody will have paintings exhibited in the Soul Noir Festival on 31st of October at Laragh House, Maynooth, Co.Kildare.
Soul Noir is a Dublin based festival founded to celebrate all things Gothic and Macabre with the aim to promote Irish and international artists who work with Gothic themes in their practice. The festival is founded and curated by Sinéad Keogh who has been working in collaboration with Diana Chambers as part of the KCAT Engagement Project.
Mary Cody, ‘Blue Green’, (2012) acrylic on canvas, 40x40cm.
Diana Chambers, ‘Dancers’ (2018) acrylic on paper, 71x51cm.
Studio artists Declan Byrne and Fergus FitzGerald having a great time collaborating and connecting with other artists this week at the European Art Summit hosted by Project Ability in Glasgow. The European Art Summit welcomes artists from Scotland, England, Ireland, and Germany for a three-day residency surrounding the theme of Friendship.
Busy in the studio at Project Ability, Trogate 103, Glasgow.
‘Together Now’ marks a milestone in the Engagement Project, a project where collaborations between artists from KCAT and artists from around the country have been on-going since 2014. The exhibition was launched in June 2019 at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre by project curator Catherine Marshall.
The exhibition highlights different approaches to art-making. Through these collaborations a natural re-examination of how one makes art occurs as artistic methodologies are combined. The works on show are hybrids that provide viewers with an insight into the visual dialogues between artists. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of the engagement process to date and will be installed next at the OPW galleries at Farmleigh in Dublin opening on the 26th of October.
Before travelling to, the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Ballinglen Art Foundation and Ballina Arts Centre in Co. Mayo, the F.E. McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge and finishing back in Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
(Left) Self-Portrait by Andrew Pike, (Right) Cloaking device by Nevan Lahart
Visitors engaging with artwork by Margaret Walker
KCAT Studio Artists Group Exhibition as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival
11th-18th August, open daily 11am-5pm
The Drivers of Diversity exhibition has been curated by Mary Butler, Arts Officer with Kilkenny County Council. This exhibition sheds light on the fourteen KCAT Studio artists who have been creative beacons in Callan, County Kilkenny for the last 20 years. This group has forged the way to a new understanding of diversity in the Irish professional art world. They have paved the way and laid the ground for others to find their rightful place in the diverse cultural landscape we all call home. This exhibition is a celebration of the inspirational and magnificent work created by this group of artists.
Mary Butler, Arts Officer says she was delighted to be invited to curate this exhibition. ‘It has been such a pleasure and a privilege to have the opportunity to delve into the art stores of the KCAT Studio artists. The sheer number of pieces created by the artists is incredible and selecting a small number from the storerooms of such beautiful and often challenging work was no easy task’
She also states that as Arts Officer she is more than aware of how KCAT’s work enriches the artistic and cultural life of the county and the significance of this. How their reputation and collaborations both as a studio and as individual studio artists, have helped to put County Kilkenny on the local, national and international stage. KCAT’s work and exhibitions serve to engage diverse audiences and participation in the creative sector thus broadening and developing audiences for the visuals arts and cultural activity and helping to bring the arts closer to local communities.
Mary Cody’s mid-career retrospective exhibition will open on the 2nd of August and will continue from 3rd to 19th of August 2019 at KCAT Art Centre in Callan.
Mary first began on the KCAT Art Course in the summer of 1999 and subsequently joined the KCAT Studio. She has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally in a variety of group, duo, and solo shows, with most recently a solo show ‘String’ at the University of Atypical, Belfast in January 2019.
Since then, she has evolved into a unique and accomplished painter. This exhibition attempts to document a selection of work over that time and in particular the shift in Mary’s artwork from figurative compositions to abstraction.
Through a process of layering wool and paint, Mary creates abstracted artworks that speak out to the viewer through colour, form and texture. Whereby each piece embodies a unique energy that carefully tenses the boundary between painting and sculpture.
