Exhibition Highlights: 2020

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.

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The Shows I’ve Seen…

“The Dark” - CCA Derry/Londonderry

Darren Banks, Liz Collini, Sinead McKeever and Agnes Meyer-Brandis

CCA Derry/Londonderry

Sinead McKeever

Liz Collini

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.

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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.

Life After Art College

A few days ago I put up a small post congratulating students from the Belfast School of Art for reaching the end of their degree show and graduating from their respective courses. There was quite a response to it so i thought it might be worthwhile expanding on any advice for life after art college. Take any following advice onboard with scepticism as there never is a one size fits all approach.

2020 was an end of year unlike any other with no shows amid the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown still in place (although it’s great to hear that students will get an opportunity to display some of their hard work in the MAC later this year). Even taking the current crisis into consideration, there seems to always be an uneasy feeling of ‘what the hell now’ especially after building up to the third year climactic degree shows.

Degree show - 2010

When I graduated in 2010 I was in the lucky position, along with others from the ballroom painting floor, to already have a studio set in place. For the first year post art college I didn’t lift a brush and instead applied for jobs to keep me in Belfast as going home to Mid-Ulster was to me a sign of defeat (I now know this is not the case and you can set up shop anywhere and still feel part of the art scene in the big towns and beyond). In that first year I spent my free time clearing out the inches of dust gathered in the attic space of 99 North Street which eventually became LOFT studios, an open planned studio space where artists with all kinds of disciplines sometimes worked on the same table! We gave each other advice, pulled together resources, moved furniture up three flights of stairs for events and basically worked alongside and on top of each other. This sense of communal activity was like the ballroom in many ways and made the transition a little smoother.

Our last ‘Drink and Draw’ event in LOFT before leaving.

In 2012 I made the decision to move home to the countryside but still refused to give up my little corner of North Street, sometimes travelling 3 - 4 times a week to paint and often sleeping in the studio to get work done for a show or just to feel close to the action. Eventually you and your peers move on to bigger and better things and the building is no more (demolished in 2016) but in those five years of helping to run LOFT on a shoestring budget and getting back into my own practice, I really learnt a lot in terms of sustaining a practice, what I really wanted to say with my work and keeping your head above water when things are stacked up against you.

Studio in 2020

Since moving my studio out to the sticks, my work has (hopefully) developed and I have been able to dedicate more time to my practice.

So that’s a brief snapshot of my years after leaving. Now onto the advice - in no particular order and notwithstanding current lockdown limitations:

• If you don’t make work for a while - that’s OK. There can be a pressure to plug on and if you feel like you should then more power to you. Just know it is OK to take a step back and reassess priorities for a while. This has also happened to myself recently; I was beating myself up about not being productive and it only had a negative impact on my practice and state of mind. BREATHE!

• Read - Watch - Learn Education doesn’t stop after graduating.

• Take a look at formed studio groups and consider applying for studio space or band together to create your own space. There can be strength in numbers but If you can’t that’s OK. Make time to clear a space in your home that you can dedicate to your practice. If you don’t want it to then it won’t be your last studio.

• Reach out to artists who you admire in an email. You could be surprised by a response.

• Apply for shows and cater your application/c.v. for each opportunity - depending on the criteria required. Try to keep C.V.s clear and concise and your keep updating your artist statement to what you’re doing right now.

• experiment with new things - keep what you were doing in uni going by all means but don’t be afraid to stretch out, learn and expand your practice.

• Volunteer with arts organisations / galleries / become a member of Catalyst Arts and take a look at Visual Artists Ireland. The latter will help keep you informed as to what is going on in the galleries from one place.

• Go to as many shows as you can and see work made from other disciplines - and not just from your floor! Artists supporting artists is a wonderful thing. Sadly there is still a feeling of competition among artists but we are all on differing paths with very different goals. If you see an opportunity that isn’t quite right for you but may be for others, SHARE IT!

• Keep in touch with your uni friends as many will be on the same boat - help each other.

• Keep a journal - everyday write down what went on, little notions, doodles - lists/goals. Writing things down is the first step in making something tangible.

• Online presence is becoming more and more important. Consider investing in a well built website and keep your artistic social media posts professional (private stories excluded).

Once again congratulations on reaching your final year. It may not have been the ending you envisaged but it is only the beginning and ultimately you have the reigns.