Usually at this time of year I do a run down of my favourite shows I’ve been to the past 12 months. It will be a short list this time around so I also want to include some exhibitions that I couldn’t get to see but wish I had.
The Shows I’ve Seen…
“The Dark” - CCA Derry/Londonderry
Darren Banks, Liz Collini, Sinead McKeever and Agnes Meyer-Brandis
From the CCA website: The Dark presents a constellation of new and existing works by artists from Northern Ireland, England and Germany. The artists look out into space, back at Earth and consider science fiction, fact and artist projections.
This group show was my first look at Liz Collini’s work first hand, making you slow way down when reading the intricate architectural scaffolding around the text. Sinead McKeever’s globe with continents of charcoal eroding away speaks of climate change but also of other threats.
“A False Dawn” - Ulster Museum, Belfast
Ursula Burke
Mural installation by Ursula Burke in the Ulster Museum, Belfast
From the Ulster Museum website: A False Dawn is the culmination of Ursula’s recent work. Much of her art practice deals with issues of representation and identity, exploring abuses of power in both social and political sphere.
This exhibition taking up the two large rooms on the fifth floor of the Ulster Museum holds the space impressively with the aid of the ambient lighting. From a distance the busts are classical in nature but look a little closer there are signs of trauma and violence.
“Put It To The People” - Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
Joy Gerrard
Gallery one of Joy Gerrard’s “Put It To The People” exhibition in the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
From the Golden Thread Gallery website: Gerrard’s most recent work documents the huge protests against Brexit in London between 2018 and 2019. Here, her monochrome palette comes to invoke the binary oppositions of contemporary British politics, its elemental simplicity belying a more complex meditation on the imaging of protest.
I have admired Joy Gerrard’s work for some time and to see them up close was a feast for the eyes. The small works, which I’ve seen similar before, are delicate in their application but it was the transition to the larger scale works that took my breath away. The imagery still has the immediacy of the smaller works but it was the gestural mark-making on the larger works that brought the crowds in the protests to life.
The Shows I Wished I’d Seen… (and one I still hope to)
“Penumbra” - FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge
Sinéad Aldridge, Hannah Casey-Brogan, Susan Connolly, Sarah Dwyer, Fiona Finnegan, Alison Pilkington, Yasmine Robinson and Louise Wallace
Photo by Simon Mills
From the FE McWilliam Gallery Website: Penumbra brings together artists who are connected by their gender, their associations with the island of Ireland and their commitment to testing the limits of painting.
A painting exhibition with artists of this calibre should have been right up there on shows to get to this year. Sadly it wasn’t to be. No two artists in the show are alike and that shows the dexterity and the medium of painting still has in the right hands. Susan Connolly’s installations always push what defines a painting and I would have loved to have seen Sarah Dwyer’s paintings first hand.
“Echoes are Always Muted“ - VOID Gallery, Derry/Londonderry
Alan Phelan
Installation shot of “Echoes are Always Muted” by Alan Phelan in the VOID Gallery, Derry/Londonderry
From the VOID Gallery website: Alan Phelan’s exhibition echoes are always more muted is part of an expanded series of exhibitions that encompass his continuing research into the intersections of history, sexuality, material culture and politics which have evolved through sculpture, participatory events, and photography.
Alan Phelan’s multidisciplinary practice has explored the Joly photographic process for some time and this show seems to have included augmented reality that seems really engaging. This exhibition looks as though it was a colourful exploration of historical elements with the usual injection of humour and I’m sorry to have missed it.
“Obedience and Defiance” - IMMA, Dublin
Paula Rego
Installation view - “Obedience and Defiance” Paula Rego - IMMA, Dublin
From the IMMA website: Obedience and Defiance is a major retrospective by one of the most influential figurative artists of our time Paula Rego. Spanning Rego’s entire career from the 1960s, comprising more than 80 works, including paintings never seen before and works on paper from the artist’s family and close friends.
Rego needs to introduction as she is probably one of the most influential artists working today so to get to see a large retrospective like this on the island of Ireland has to be a not-to-be-missed event. Thankfully it is running until May 2021 so all being well I will get down to see the works in the flesh.