Exhibition Archive

Niki Purcell's 'Sea Change' - 11th May 2009

The exhibition of new work by Wicklow artist Niki Purcell was launched in the County Buildings on Monday 11th May 2009.

The exhibition was officially opened by the Cathaoirleach Derek Mitchell and County Manager Edward Sheehy. Niki, who is originally from Greystones and now lives just outside Arklow in a lovely spot by the coast, is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design.

Niki uses her surrounding to inspire here vivid, energetic, colourful work. Her pieces are alive with movement, figures and wildlife and range from large canvases to smaller framed works. The exhibition consisted of 22 pieces, which certainly inspired and excited the imagination of the on-looker. As part of the Wicklow County Council Bealtaine Programme, Niki hosted a workshop on May 22 in County Buildings, which was free to attend. A large crowd of family, friends and local people from Wicklow and Dublin attended the exhibition. It was open to the public from Monday to Friday in the County Buildings until May 29th 2009.

"Wicklow" an exhibition featuring works from the ESB Art Collection - 2nd March 2009

Wicklow County Council was delighted to host a new exhibition of painting from the ESB’s Art collection.

The exhibition was officially opened on Monday 2nd March by John Redmond, Company Secretary ESB, Edward Sheehy County Manager and Derek Mitchell Cathaoirleach. Featured are works by well-known artists Sean Keating, Liam Tracey and Yann Renard Goulet alongside works from contempory artists Cathy Henderson, Cathleen Moran, Orna McGovern, Barbara O’Meara, John Keating, David King, Claire Kerr and Jennifer Trouton.

The exhibition was well worth a visit, all the works selected are either painted by Wicklow Artists or feature Wicklow scenes and offer a varied and wonderful insight into Wicklow scenery. The ESB have a large and varied art collection, they are very generous supporters of the Arts on a national basis and this selection of paintings reflects their support of the Arts from a Wicklow perspective.

Several local schools visited the exhibition over the four weeks as part of their Leaving Certificate Art studies, as the exhibition spans a considerable time frame and demonstrates a variety of artistic styles.

Three of Sean Keating’s fine watercolour drawings feature sketches based on construction work that took place in Pollaphuca in County Wicklow, Yann Goulet’s wonderfully animated version of Turlough Hill gives us a colourful and personal interpretation of the scene. While David King’s atmospheric painting of ‘Ice Road, Sallygap’ allows you to almost feel the cold wind blowing over the mountain.

This exhibition ran for the month of April 2009 at County Buildings, Wicklow Town.

ESB Brochure - 413kb

As Built Drawings, New Works on Paper 18th October - 28th November 2008

Wicklow County Arts Office presented ‘As Built Drawings, New Works on Paper is a visual arts commissioned featuring new works by Colleen Lambe, Sarah Lincoln, Nina McGowan, Julie Merriman and the architect Dominic Stevens and curated by Eilís Lavelle.

Through the medium of drawing, this exhibition set out to explore the relationship between representation and place, essentially 'drawing' and 'building' and the disparities that arise between them. 'As Built Drawings': architectural term for a drawing produced by the contractor to identify finished state of building at hand over, highlighting changes made relative to design documents during the construction process.

Wicklow County Buildings serve as a forum where public and private concerns meet and where through the activities of committees, advisory groups, meetings these concerns negotiate and engage with each other. Taking this function of the exhibition site as a starting point and using software commonly used in architectural design Nina McGowan considers an alternative world where such forums are absent and what might take their place.

Colleen Lambe's work, a study of the Charlesland Sport and Recreation Park in Greystones, promoted by the developers as the main amenity for this large estate, Lambe's work focuses on the meaning of the facility within such a community.

In Blessington in the late thirties and early forties many houses were vacated and bridges demolished in anticipation of the flooding of the valley for the Poulaphuca hydroelectric power station. Julie Merriman’s detailed drawings look closely at the remaining bridges of Blessington reservoir and the Poulaphuca power station’s architecture.

Influenced by the writing of Hannah Arendt, Sarah Lincoln's works explore the relationship between physical and mental constructions and the ways in which we attempt to make sense of global and celestial scale and location. Her method of working involves the appropriation of such representational tools such as maps and photocopies that she manipulates through repetitive actions.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comic strip by the architect Dominic Stevens. Taking planning regulations as its theme it offers an alternative way of thinking about house ownership. The participants have responded to the commission with reflections on the built environment, the public sphere, architecture and the philosophy of building and all have explored the potential of drawing to communicate these ideas.

This exhibition was curated by Eilís Lavelle. Lavelle is a freelance curator and Gallery Manager, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray Co. Wicklow.

As Built Drawings Brochure - 1492kb

Curious Things .. and other bits and pieces 12^th July 2008

"Collecting as a process works in the shadowlands, making its meaning on the edge where the practices of the past, the politics of present power and the poetic capacity of each human being blur together." Susan M. Pearce

Wicklow County Arts Office presented ‘Curious Things…and other bits and pieces’, an exhibition curated by Sarah Ross, Public Arts Coordinator, Wicklow County Council. Featuring the work of artists Henry Pim and Vanessa Donoso Lopez, this exhibition was accompanied by a critical text by artist, writer and critic, Mick Wilson. An opening reception was held on Saturday 12th July at 2pm in Wicklow County Council, County Buildings, Wicklow Town.

The work of Henry Pim and Vanessa Donoso Lopez while different in terms of creative medium, share a likeness or commonality that involves collected objects and things. The processes evident in both artists work are those of material manipulation, adjustment, dismantling and reconstruction, a creative approach that gives particular objects a whole new lease of life- a new set of meanings. In the accompanying text, Mick Wilson responds to the artists work with a stream of consciousness that conjures up a rich layered tapestry of fluctuating imagery that suggests new and ever changing meanings and in doing so invites the reader to imagine and engage with the work in a similar physical, cerebral and organic way.

For this exhibition, Henry Pim has created wall sculptures or ‘Conglomerates’ that are made from paper clay and found objects. Fragments of his mother’s best tea service, old ceramic tobacco pipes, and bisque limbs from 19th century German dolls all make an appearance. The work addresses the way that experiences and 'facts' accumulate to form personal and universal histories. These are objects in transition, partially formed, and partly decayed: in the process of becoming something else.

Vanessa Donoso López is a Spanish artist who lives and works in Dublin. Her work is defined by carefully constructed compositions and installations that utilise her collections of everyday found objects, which includes toys, sculptures, and mechanisms. Each individual work creates scenarios with endless imagery and references that display her metaphorical investigation of issues relating to sexuality, childhood and the playfulness of the imagination. The artist’s exploration of taboo and fantasy is played out through hybrid worlds and objects frozen in time. The work on exhibition displays López’s play with humour and irony and this is ever more evident in the title of each work.

The Tommy Byrne Photographic Society Exhibition 9^th June 2008

An exhibition of photography was officially opened by the Cathaoirleach Anne Ferris and the Arts Officer Jenny Sherwin, on Monday 9^th June in the County Buildings, Wicklow Town.

This is a wonderful exhibition of images from Wicklow and a few from beyond, all the photographers are members of the well known Tommy Byrne Photographic Society, Arklow.

This society was established in April 2005 and since then has grown from strength to strength. Having a membership of 35, they enjoy many practical sessions both in studio and in the great outdoors. One of the main aims of this society is education - the spread of knowledge within the group is such that anyone new or in the process of learning can benefit and members are only too happy to help. Indeed, many established members still learn something new at each meeting. As a result of this support numerous members have been successful in obtaining distinctions in the form of Licentiate and Associateships from the Irish Photographic Federation.

Because the members enjoy their photography so much, they have worked with various groups in the locality, spreading their enthusiasm. More recently they have worked on an East Wicklow Youth project with children in Arklow.

The glue that holds all this together is President Robert Hudson; Chairperson Stewart Case; Secretary Paul Sheedy and Treasurer Julie New. The Society look forward to many years ahead with the same fun and banter they know and love while getting on with the love of photography in all it's forms.

Drawn to Blackditch 9^th May 2008

A collaborative exhibition by the artist Yanny Petters and Bird Watch Ireland celebrating the Biodiversity of the East Coast Nature Reserve, County Wicklow.

This exhibition featured a number of large drawings of the plants found in the East Coast Nature Reserve in Newcastle, County Wicklow along with colour photographs of the wildlife which depends on this important habitat.

The drawings (some of which are up to 2.5 metres high) were carefully executed to show the detail and the variety of wild plants of the fens, wetlands and meadows, while the vibrantly colourful photographs mostly taken by Bird Watch staff on the reserve brought us close to the birds and animals which make this nature reserve one of the most important in Europe.

The exhibition was officially opened by Éanna Ní Lamhna, the well known botanist, writer and President of An Taisce on 15 May at 5.30pm at County Buildings, Wicklow Town.

During the exhibition Bird Watch staff and the Artist, Yanny Petters hosted an awareness day on 21 May guiding the participants through the exhibition and demonstrating how the drawings were executed.

The exhibition coincided with International Day for Biological Diversity, on the 22 of May.

New Art Exhibition Cellscape 28^th March 2008

The Wicklow County Arts Office was delighted to announce a new exhibition of works by two young artists, Kate Minnock from Newcastle Co. Wicklow and Damien Flood from Bray. The title of the exhibition was ‘Cellscape’ and was a collaboration of two very different minds, two very separate ways of thinking and offered us a unique perception of not only our world but the ‘other world’, the world of the imagination.

Kate’s work comes from the perspective of science, her methods almost represent the methodology of working in a laboratory. She has interpreted scientific imagery, and turned them into individual works. Using many printing techniques such as sugar-lift and deep steel embossing, the plates are photographed through a microscope and then digitally printed. Kate’s work is installation based, so where each piece is specifically placed within the space.

In complete contrast, Damien’s work is more imagination led, he focuses on the unknown, the unchartered. Damien works on canvas, his paintings are a form of escapism and fantasy. Much of the influence of this exhibition comes from the work of 19^th century drawings from the ship HMS Challenger, which explored the oceans, taking note of all the ‘otherworldly’ creatures it encountered.

The official opening by Eìlish Lavelle, Gallery Manager of the Mermaid Arts Centre, took place on Saturday 8^th March.

New Work by Rachel Alanna Webb February 4^th 2008

The Arts Office in Wicklow County Council was delighted to announce an exhibition of new work by the Bray based artist Rachel Alanna Webb.

The exhibition was opened by the Cathaoirleach Cllr. Anne Ferris and the County Manager Edward Sheehy on Monday 4^th February 2008 in the County Buildings.

Rachel lives in Bray and studied at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art & Design from where she graduated in 2005. Rachel uses photography as her medium as has developed a most interesting method of making art.

This exhibition was well worth a visit, the subject theme being plants, but plants like you have never seen them before. Rachel introduced us to a new way of seeing, she presents the subject devoid of colour, forcing us to see only the essence of form and shape. On display you will see a most striking exhibition of work in black and white, marvellous shapes and strong images.

The strong influence of Japanese art is also evident. Many of Rachel’s photographs have been published in ‘The Irish Garden Magazine’ and the ‘Irish Independent’.

This exhibition ran from Monday to Friday, 4^th to the 27^th of February in the County Buildings, Wicklow Town.

New Paintings by Sinead Ní Mhaonaigh 5^th November 2007

Wicklow County Arts Office presented an exhibition of paintings by Sinead Ní Mhaonaigh. The exhibition was officially opened on November 5^th by Cllr. Anne Ferris and County Manager Edward Sheehy and ran until the 29^th November.

Local artist Sinead who lives in Bray has had solo exhibitions in 2004 and 2006 and her work features in many collections such as the Office of Public Works and Dublin Institute of Technology.

In Sinead Ní Mhaonaigh's paintings, the desire to capture space, time, emotion and experience cannot be neatly captured on a canvas, with the result that her works are suggestive rather than representational. There is a suggestion throughout of flux, and a strong sense that the journey towards an image, rather than the creation of a fixed, specific representation, is key.

Present in Ní Mhaonaigh's latest paintings are echoes of the vague constructions, frames and vessel motifs that have typified previous works. These new works displayed the delicate balance struck between non-representational and emblematic imagery, seductively proffering invitations which suggest they may be read figuratively.

This artist is been represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery.