Wednesday 26 October 2011

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Press Release


Conceptual Work in Clay
Galway Celebrates Ireland's Year of Craft 2011
3x2 is an exhibition of Contemporary Clay, showing work of six ceramic artists at The Shed, Middle Pier, Galway City Harbour 3-19 November 2011, opening reception 3rd November at 6.30pm.
Three of the artists Claire Curneen, Andrew Livingstone and Clare Twomey are established makers living in the UK, the other three artists, Kate Howard, Anne O' Neill and Nuala Ní Fhlathúin are emerging Irish makers whose work in-corporates installation based contemporary practices in clay and mixed media.
The exhibition set in a large industrial space intends to open up ceramic practice to a wider Irish audiance, but also offers an opportunity to see conceptual work in clay by artists who rarely show in Ireland. Claire Curneen orgionally from Kerry and previously represented by the lamented Keane-on-Ceramics makes sensitive sculptural figures encompassing elements of human experiences: love, loss, suffering and compassion. Clare Twomey works with clay in large-scale installations, sculpture and site-specific works. Previous work includes Trophy an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, where 4,000 birds made from Wedgewood Jasper Blue Clay were scattered on the gallery floor and could be taken away by the audience. Andrew Livingstone's research operates within the expanded field of ceramics and investigates the employment of and interface between digital media, film, animation, photography and non-ceramic intervention. Crucial to this arena is the re-definition of an authentic positioning for ceramics, Andrew has been selected for the 2012 Taiwan Ceramics Bienniale.
The exhibition is co-curated and organised by Kate Howard and lecturer in Fine Art Ceramics at GMIT Rob D'Eath. The programme includes a lecture by artists Claire Curnneen and Andrew Livingstone on November 3rd from 1.30pm, Theatre 903, at GMIT Dublin Rd Campus. This exhibition is kindly supported by the Craft Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Galway Harbour Company and Irish Ceramics in Education (ICE).
Press Contact: Kate Howard caithoward@hotmail.com 086 8456773
Both Rob and Nuala are on a road trip to Sunderland, Amsterdam and Cardiff to collect our UK artists work!!

Monday 10 October 2011

Nuala Ní Fhlathúin Galway Based Artist

Nuala Ní Fhlathúin is from the Gaeltacht area in the West of Ireland. She received a BFA in Ceramics from the GMIT School of Art in 2008 and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2011. 

Her art practice has been an investigation of material processes and procedures, a craft-led enterprise embarked upon to explore the mysterious divide between material reality and the disembodied world of abstract sequenced thought. In her practice she works directly and experimentally with materials, constructing open-ended arrangements of order and entropy, conservation and decay. She works with soil, string, fragments of paper and other cast-offs, paying attention to their distinct physical properties – their weight, their balance, their particular way of occupying space, how they impinge on each other. In exploring these dynamics her art consistently operates on the plane of the personal, the particular and the intimate - the world of cataclysmic, hairsbreadth differences, irrational attachments and temporary stop-gap measures.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, in Ireland, the USA and Georgia.






ANNE O' NEILL GALWAY BASED ARTIST


Anne recently graduated from GMIT with a first class honours degree in
fine art ceramics. Her work explores connections; clay’s journey of
transformation in the earth; our existence on and from the earth and
the innate connection that is inherent in all of us. She is interested
in what connects and disconnects us one from the other,that, that is
not always obvious; what lies above and below the surface, the surface
of the earth and the surface of our skin, both internal and external
landscapes.
 Some of the exhibitions Annes' work has been selected for over the
past few years include; Ceramics at the Hallward, the Irish
Contemporary Ceramic Awards; Insight Outsight, Contemporary Sculpture
Exhibition, St Brigit’s gardens, Slow Burn, Craft & design collective,
Belfast and The Claremorris Open. She carried out her first
collaborative performance at the Flatlake festival in June of this
year. Anne will be traveling to Finland for a two month residency in
early 2012.


Clay Dig Connection



Lake




Harvest

Delivery



Tuesday 4 October 2011

Public Lecture by Artists Claire Curneen and Andrew Livingstone

On Thursday the 3rd of November from 1.30pm the public are invited to attend a lecture by artists Claire Cureen and Andrew Livingstone at GMIT Dublin Road, theatre 903. This lecture is kindly supported by Irish Ceramics in Education (ICE).


Claire Curneen

Andrew Livingstone



Contact: 
+353 (0) 86 8456773


CLAIRE CURNEEN IRISH ARTIST

Claire Curneen born in Kerry and studied at the Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, University of Ulster, Belfast  and  University of Wales Institute Cardiff where she gained a Masters Degree in Ceramics. She is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Ceramic Studies, UWIC, Cardiff.

Curneens  figurative ceramics command a quite yet charged presence. The figurative pieces often refer to images of Christian Iconography, quoting narratives of sacrifice and devotion. Her figures encompass elements of human experiences: love, loss, suffering and compassion. Although the work often provokes an awkward silence, they always embody hope. The translucent, delicate and the ethereal nature of porcelain lends itself to the understanding of her work. The textural finish is central to their making with dripping dribbles of glaze and gold accentuating the rich quality of the porcelain.

Claire Curneen has exhibited her work internationally including being selected for the 3rd World Ceramic Biennale at the Korea International Competition 2005 and the Taiwan International Ceramics Biennale in 2008. Her recent solo exhibitions include ‘Claire Curneen’in the Ruthin Gallery,Wales 2008, ‘Otherworldly Messages’ Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany 2009 and ‘Lost Certainty’ with Alice Kettle at Contemporary and Applied Arts, London 2011.

Urchin

Builders

Stick Figure

Saturday 1 October 2011

ANDREW LIVINGSTONE BRITISH ARTIST

Dr Andrew Livingstone works as an artist and a Senior Lecturer and Subject Leader for Ceramics at the University of Sunderland. 


Andrews work uses a range of media which acknowledges the interface between both traditional practice and new media. Recent exploration aims to challenge and expand contemporary locations in respect of the traditional positioning of ceramics. The integration of digital media and new technologies has become central to his practice where new media is often positioned and juxtaposed with more traditional elements.
Investigation focuses on interpretation and reaction to situations both as a result of direct and indirect experience. The challenge to material structures and familiarity are positioned centrally as is the search for innovative outcomes that explore both process and visual significance. This often includes elements and situations that represent both micro and macro visual perspectives which in turn explore frameworks within both local and global culture.
The notion of visual complacency is a recurring event where the reading of the ‘familiar’ presents strategies for investigation. Using installation and new media, familiarity with material, artistic process, and the hand of the maker, are continually exposed and reconstructed to offer new interpretations. 

Britannia 
2010


Postmodern Animal
2010

Surfeit 621 
2011