Singing in the Air

Jason Turner’s Solo Exhibition ‘Singing in the Air’ will open next Friday 31st of January 2020 at the Courthouse Art Centre, Tinahely, Co. Wicklow.

Jason Turner’s exhibition Singing in the Air is his first solo presentation of paintings of birds. It brings together a body of work set into motion in 2014 by an inquisitive fascination for these creatures of the sky.

Turner first began his creative career in Kingsriver Community where he pursued the art of willow weaving and wood carving before becoming a member of the KCAT Studio in 2006. Since joining the KCAT Studio, painting has formed the basis of Turner’s practice. He has exhibited in both national and international contexts, and currently has work touring Ireland as part of a major group exhibition Together Now. Over the years, Turner has explored a variety of themes ranging from abstraction to figurative skyscapes of the solar systems, developing an intuitive and strong handling of the medium.

In 2014, Jason took a decisive turn in his practice and began using painting as a means to explore various species of birds, a direction inspired by childhood memories of his foster father keeping pigeons. Jason’s father came from a tradition of keeping pigeons, a family trait that he was keen to honour in his painting. Jason is meticulous in his approach and keeps a written record of all birds examined. The act of painting provides Jason with a freedom to examine the anatomy and dynamic foliage of birds. The paintings also engage with the personalities of his chosen feathered subjects, by capturing moments that illuminate their temperament, psyche and nature. The result is that his paintings embody a spectrum of marks, textures, colours and observations that are a lyrical ode to these beautiful animals.

Singing in the Air provides an insight into Jason’s expansive study of birds, drawing our attention to birds that are found in our everyday environment, that we may often overlook.

“I can’t tell you the way I paint, I would have to show you. This my approach to painting”. States the artist.

The exhibition will continue to run until the 21st February 2020, open Tuesday to Saturday 9:30am-5pm. To see further examples of Jason Turner’s work see here

Periodical Review #9

Sinéad Keogh and Diana Chambers next to their work at the opening, December 2019.

Congratulations to KCAT Studio artist Diana Chambers and to Sinéad Keogh who will have a collaborative art piece featured in this years ‘Periodical Review #9’ at Pallas Projects selected by Workhouse Union

Diana and Sinéad began working together several years ago as part of the KCAT Engagement Project and also currently have work on show in the F.E McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge as part of the ‘Together Now: The Engagement Project Exhibition’

Periodical Review is an annual survey of recent Irish art, selected in collaboration with invited curators/peers from around Ireland. Each year, Pallas Projects invite two peers – artists, writers, educators, curators – to review and subsequently nominate a number of art practices, selected via an editorial process. Such a review-type exhibition within Irish art practice acts to revisit; to be a reminder, a critical appraisal and consolidation of ideas and knowledge; to facilitate and encourage collaboration, crossover and debate.

Not a group exhibition per se, Periodical Review is a discursive action, with the gallery as a magazine-like layout of images that speak (the field talking to itself). This is the exhibition as resource, in which we invite agents within the field to engage with and re-present what were for them significant moments, practices, works, activity, objects: nodes within the network.

In looking at self-organised exhibitions, off-site projects, commercial gallery and museum shows, performances and publications, Periodical Review looks to share a spectrum of practices, creating dialogue and critical reflection to help develop and support Irish contemporary art as a whole; and to act as an accessible survey of contemporary art for a wider audience, expanding the access to and experience of art practices from around the country. Selected by Seán Kissane, Workhouse Union, Mark Cullen & Gavin Murphy

Opening performance, Friday 6th December 2019
Léann Herlihy performs Tengu from the Graeve Collection Continues:7th December 2019 – 25th January 2020
12–6pm, Thursday–Saturday (Closed from 22nd December – reopens 9th January)

Outsider Art Discussion

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/

Dublin Art Book Fair 2019 Art & Architecture: Learning from the Bauhaus

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

Together Now: The Engagement Project at The F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, Co.Down.

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/

a FAIR WHILE

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.

Up-cycling Week

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.

Soul Noir Festival

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.

 

European Art Summit at Project Ability

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.

Here is studio artist Fergus FitzGerald’s account of his time spent engaging at Project Ability
 
‘Declan Byrne and I were doing art at Project Ability with some other art centers and some Scottish Camphill at Newton Dee and I have twice gone to Newton Dee. It was a part of The European Art Project and I painted some pictures of places. I have gone to and wrote onto them before I started some etching and printing art and I wrote onto some of it. It was Valerie’s idea. She is a native of Cork and of Middleton and is Irish but now that she lives in Scotland for many years and in Glasgow, she has a Scottish accent! She coordinates the studio at Project Ability for a few years now. We prepared for a European Art Project exhibition in relation to the opposite of Brexit’ (Fergus FitzGerald).

 Busy in the studio at Project Ability, Trogate 103, Glasgow.

 

Together Now, The Engagement Exhibition  

‘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