Rachelle Bussières

"Approaching the darkroom as a sculptor – cutting, layering and manipulating photographic materials – I create architectural forms that are rooted to site-specific locations by recording the light of those locations. I have a developed a sky palette by using the lumen print process through layers of natural and artificial light, of those specific locations, to create hues and gradations of colors as photograms on gelatin silver paper. Each piece is about the variations of the elements in a specific space and time. While the simple forms embody a spatial geography, they are also a manifestation of a utopian architecture, in which light is the only material used to compose these constructions. Through this, forms, movements, chemistry are revealed through it. 

The vision of the future is held in the materialization of the spectrum that surrounds us every day, and in our desire to encompass it – or surpass it." - Rachelle Bussières

Shadows and Lines

Moon Raker

Untitled

Space City

The Rise

Rachelle Bussières (b.1986) received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is the recipient of the 2015 Graduate Fellowship Award from the Headlands Center for the Arts, California; and the Award for Excellence from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation in 2008 and 2009. In 2015, she received an Honorable Mention for the Snider Prize from the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. In 2016, she had a solo exhibition at Robert Koch Gallery that was reviewed by Art Forum as a critics’ pick. Her work has been included in many group shows in San Francisco, Paris, New York, London, Bodo and Vienna. In 2017, she was an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre and at the Vermont Studio Center where she was awarded grants for both residencies. She is currently a Charter Resident at Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.

Contact & Follow

www.rachellebussieres.com

Instagram: @rachellebussieres

CV: www.rachellebussieres.com/cv

Untitled

Brendan Ripken Shea

"I examine painting as a stage for mediating a tender transparent intimacy. The illusionary
components of my work are designed to be visually dissectible; I want the viewer to
understand how I construct space on a two-dimensional surface. These tactics extend to
the physical space my paintings exist in. I build wooden structures that form to my
paintings; these structures deploy configurations of raw quotidian architectural mechanisms, such as walls, table tops, and an internal/external interplay. The rearticulation of this architectural vernacular impedes on the perceived neutrality of the space. I intend to form an awareness on how physical material and patterns of phenomena construct, support, and perpetuate the affective response my paintings evoke."  Brendan Ripken Shea

Brendan Ripken Shea is an artist based in the United States who is currently a candidate for a BFA in Painting at Maine College of Art. His work balances a material exploration with an awareness of the medium’s ability to construct intimacy through sustained looking.

Contact & Follow

Brendanripken.com
@brendanripken

Jan McCullough

"Traditionally, instruction manuals have been the perfect source for practical solutions. Experts in specific subjects provide written authority on how to repair faults and carry out tasks from scratch.

I typed 'how to make a home' into Google, and was directed to an online chat forum in which self-described experts were exchanging detailed instructions. I rented an ordinary suburban house and carried out the strangers' advice exactly over the period of two months. In complying with the instructions for making the perfect home. I contemplated the construction of an identity from scratch. The following photographs document the end result of my time living and working in the house, trying on different lives for size." Jan McCullough

Jan McCullough (b. 1991) lives and works in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her photographic works have been exhibited internationally, including Unseen Photo Festival in Amsterdam, Seen Fifteen Gallery in London and Escape Lhomond in Paris. Her book 'Home Instruction Manual', published by Vera Kettler, won the Kassel Fotobook Festival Dummy Award and the BJP Breakthrough Award. Jan is currently working on a series of short films about construction and identity.

Contact & Follow

https://www.janmccullough.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/jan.mccullough/

Lorraine Cleary

Cut, sawn and screwed together; utilizing a bricolage approach in the construction of assemblages which become domestic tropes that act as metaphors for trauma. Cleary creates mini environments that suggest innocence in theme. The work at first glance appears to hold a pleasant aura but on closer inspection it alludes to disturbing undertones. The artist does not want to dictate an absolute narrative within her work; it is open to interpretation.

Themes addressed surround the area of domestic exploitation, explored from a psychological perspective. The aim is to lend a tangible voice to past intangible events; the resultant pieces endeavour to act as vehicles for the hidden discourse that evolves behind closed doors.

Diegesis is commonly defined in film and literature as the recounting of a story, it is the environment where those narrated themes are played out. Cleary’s practice employs this theory in the creation of work that challenges the viewer’s perception by alluding to the untold stories hidden within the domestic space.

Her pieces become hybrid objects through their mish mash of domestic memoirs that transcend into the surrounding space. Their painted surfaces are unfinished; exposed; interrupted and allude to a hypocrisy hidden beneath a falsehood of perfection.

Homeless, mixed media (wood, upturned trolley, cellophane, skirting, broken chair, canvas), 2017

Rural Shame,mixed media (animal skull, analogue tape, phone, broken CD player, computer shell, wiring, clothes rail), 2017

Father paused to turn and look at me, mixed media (empty drawer, salvaged
tiles, text, paint, frames, bike chain, cogs, tie hanger, measuring tape, doorstop), 2017

Father paused to turn and look at me (Detail)

Forgotten child, mixed media (Fabric, pink paint), 2017

Mother Stood with Her Back to Me, (Details) painted lamp with cellophane and painted Mary with holy
water, 2017

You have been Given a Second Chance, mixed media (Mop, paint, cement base), 2017

Mother and Baby, mixed media, 2017; detail

Dichotomy, mixed media, 2017.

Lorraine Cleary is a part time tutor in academic English with the Learning Support Unit in Limerick School of Art & Design. A multidisciplinary artist working in the medium of sculpture, photography, experimental film, video, sound and performance. She received a First Class Honours Masters Degree in Interactive Media from the University of Limerick in 2015 and she graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art from Limerick School of Art & Design in 2014. She was highly commended for the 2014 programme of the Undergraduate Awards in the Visual Arts category for her work entitled ‘Mise en Scene’ and was also highly
commended for the 2014 programme of the Undergraduate Awards in the Media & the Arts category for her paper entitled ‘A Study of Diegesis and Mimesis in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) – with reference to Time and the Frame’. She was one of thirteen artists chosen to participate at the inaugural international online
exhibition of ‘Aligned’ as part of the Undergraduate Awards. Recent group exhibitions include 'The Model presents Cairde Visual 2017' The Mall, Sligo and the ‘Winter Open Exhibition 2017’ at Rua Red Gallery, Tallaght, Dublin.

Contact & Follow

http://lorraineclearystudio.com/

https://www.instagram.com/lorraineclearystudio/

https://twitter.com/lorrcleary

https://ie.linkedin.com/pub/lorraine-cleary/99/474/a0

https://lol-its-rayray.tumblr.com

Mevlana Lipp

"In my work i'm always driven by two different forces.

I am very material-focused and I like to use materials in ways they are not supposed to be used, like adding water on wood until it swells up or singeing the top with a heat gun. Often my processes start as experiments like that and open whole new fields of possibilities for me and my work. Changing the surface of the wood to transform it into something new gets me excited. This alchemical process often leads to a trial and error based workflow which is an essential part of understanding the material I am working with.

My works are also quite emotional and a bit romantic. I grew up in a very small town of 20 houses in a rural area of Germany. As a child I was outside most of the time, building shelters or treehouses in the forest. I loved stories like Robinson Crusoe and still do. The ideas for my works are all based on a feeling of longing for a place to escape the commitments of today's society. For me that place was always found in nature. At the same time I know that the romantic idea of a curative refuge in nature is obsolete and escape is no real solution. That is why I try to reflect this tragic circumstance in the selection of materials I use for my work. There is an inherent tension in the creation of tropical landscapes and garden views from OSB and plywood, materials which consist of sawdust, glue, and wood chips. These materials are associated with human construction purposes and even though treated delicately, I use them to contrast the natural elements." Mevlana Lipp

Biography:

1989 born in Cologne

2013 Master student of Thomas Grünfeld

2015 Akademiebrief of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
 

Exhibitions (selection)

2018 (Upcoming)

Miranda Kuo Gallery, New York (S)

Kvadrat16, Copenhagen (G)

Cabinet Printemps, Düsseldorf (S)

2017

''Paradise lost'' Annarumma Gallery, Naples (S)

"Micro Salon #7" Galerie l'inlassable, Paris (G)

''Material Space'' Practise, Chicago (G)

''Silver Linings'' Combino, Düsseldorf (G)

2016

"Es gibt Hummer" Gallery Anna Klinkhammer, Düsseldorf (G)

"POWER/UP“ Gallery Ampersand, Cologne (G)

2015

"PingPong" Sittarder Straße, Düsseldorf (G)

"Der besondere Blick - Künstler als Sammler" Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe, Ettlingen (G)

>>Play/2<< Video and Performance Festival, Cologne (G)

2014

''>>ALL IN/2<<'' Gallery Ampersand, Köln (G)

2013

"Tarnung" Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf (G)

67. Bergischer Kunstpreis, Solingen (G)

"Neuland" Kunstverein Leverkusen (S)

"Hole" Schloss Neeresen, Willich (S)

>>Play<< Video an Performance Festival, Cologne (G)

2012

"In Anwesenheit" K4, Düsseldorf (G)

"PwC Förderpreis", Düsseldorf (G)

AWARDS

2014 Travel-grant of the Kunstverein der Rheinlande und Westfahlen und der Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf

2012 Grant of the Prof. Helmut E. Kreutzer Stiftung

Contact & Follow

www.mevlana-lipp.com

https://www.instagram.com/mevlana_lipp/

Neil Dunne

"...The slabs of lead, molded and shaped, reference the fluid forms inherent in the crushed concrete; they provide a setting for the works to reside around. The thematic interplay between absence and presence, politics and culture, approach the subject with a unique view on how art can engage with a rapidly changing landscape and question our understanding of reality." Neil Dunne

Neil Dunne is an Irish printmaker and visual artist specialising in screenprinting, installation and visual arts. Graduating from NCAD with an Honours BA in Fine Art/Printmaking and Art History in 2014, he received the NCAD postgraduate scholarship from 2015 – 2017.

Contact & Follow

www.neildavidjames.com

https://www.instagram.com/neildavidjames/

https://twitter.com/neildavidjames

Leah Corbett

Informed by theories of retrofuturism, this series of works address the tension between
the past and the future. This conflict is evident in the current era of post-truth politics in
which idealised versions of the past are offered up as aspirations for the future. Within
this narrative, debate is framed by appeals to personal beliefs rather than relying on fact.
At once enticing and grotesque, the gaudy sculptural forms project nostalgic visions of
the future. Adorned with sugary depictions of virtual realities and fictional landscapes, it
is as if we are imagining the future through the lens of the past.
The work examines the current discourse around authenticity. In times of uncertainty, we
find comfort in tradition. To sugar-coat the past, however, is to prevent the change
needed for a progressive future. - Leah Corbett

Leah Corbett is a visual artist from Tipperary currently living and working in
Utrecht, the Netherlands. In 2016 she graduated with a degree in Fine Art from
Crawford College of Art and Design where she was awarded the CIT Arts Fest
Prize and the Backwater Artist Group Ciaran Langford Memorial Bursary. On
completion of her residency with Backwater Artist Group, she was chosen to be
part of Public!: a multidisciplinary collaborative project lead by Rhona Byrne as
part of Quarter Block Party 2017. Most recently her work has been exhibited in
the James Barry Exhibition Centre as part of group show Doublethink. She is
currently working towards her first solo show which is scheduled for February
2018.

Contact & Follow:

www.leahcorbett.net

https://www.instagram.com/lechkale/

https://twitter.com/lechkale

Shane McClatchey

"As land creatures, the alien world of open water reveals to me what I really am (and what I am not) with brutal honesty. My paintings are investigations of my view of the ocean in light and form as seen through the unknown. When I am in the ocean, the abyss beneath me makes me feel both curious and vulnerable. The figures in these paintings are reduced to a sliver of a portrait overwhelmed by the sea. The hills and valleys in the layers of waves wrapping around a human being destabilizes the viewer. Neither the water nor the figure are the subject; the paintings are about the relationship between them and how it describes what it feels like to exist. " - Shane McClatchey

Shane McClatchey is from Point Pleasant, New Jersey. He received a BFA in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Graphic Design at the Laguna College of Art and Design, where he is currently pursuing an MFA. When he is not making artwork he can be found surfing and spearfishing along the Southern California coast or lifeguarding at the Jersey Shore. Represented by Main Street Gallery in Manasquan, New Jersey.

Contact & Follow

http://www.shanemcclatchey.com/

https://www.instagram.com/shanemcclatchey/

https://www.facebook.com/Shane-McClatchey-Art-120915847933120/

Kari Cahill

"Time in rural surrounds, isolated to the edge of the Atlantic, allows you experience the season’s elements more deeply. These works are a visual interpretation of these experiences; the winter light’s stark shadows which linger, fading low on the mountainside; the pure vast darkness of an overcast night on the peninsula; wild winds howling through the wet winter grasses.

By pulling and dragging colour and texture across the canvas with the same energy felt from the crashing rain or by manipulating the visceral medium of paint to create a balance of motion, each piece gestures to presence in a fleeting moment. This series pushes the viewpoint away from specifics and expresses the whole, the essence of the landscape." - Kari Cahill

These paintings are part of an ongoing series of work. Three paintings from the series have been exhibited in the Doswell Gallery in Rosscarbery, West Cork in April 2016 in a group show “Locales” curated by Roisin Foley. Kari will return to the Doswell in September as part of Taste of West Cork.

Kari has worked in a range of creative fields both as an artist and designer - a combination that has resulted in a diverse practice. She grew up surrounded by the landscapes of Athens, Greece and West Cork. She lived in Dublin for 9 years, and after spending time in India has found herself back in West Cork.

An important part of her process is spending time on a specific site considering the impact of the elements and how her work will form around these conditions. Although her sculptural work sees juxtapositions of form + function, her two dimensional work sees a greater emphasis on texture and movement. Her paintings focus on the energy of the landscapes around her. Bright streaks of light, heavy areas of dark and delicate changes in texture can be seen throughout her work.

Works made for TOMBOLO 2016.

While she was studying Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, she set up Basic Space - a not-for-profit artist-led contemporary art space, and was Director of the space from 2011-2014. Basic Space existed in a 10,000 sq Foot Warehouse in the heart of Dublin 8, before moving to Marrowbone Lane. She set up residency programs and curated exhibitions and projects within this context; facilitating the work work of both Irish and International artists practicing a range of disciplines.

Following this, and after spending time living in The West of Ireland she created Scarfskin, a project that aimed to reconnect to traditional Irish trades. Focussing on the Sheepskin trade Scarfskin used design processes, collaboration and commerce in an attempt to revive this forgotten industry.

She is one half of the curatorial body Lay of the Land, which aims to drive artists and the experience of art outwards, into the wilderness, forging deeper connection with Ireland’s natural landscape. She believes that by drawing the viewer out of the gallery space, and into alternative spaces, she can create and facilitate the production of art works that engage with the audiences inhabiting those spaces. Lay of the Land produces a large scale outdoor exhibition called TOMBOLO which takes place on the headland of Brow Head. This ambitious project is funded through the Arts Council, Cork County council and through the crowdfunding platform Fund It.  www.layoftheland.ie (Read more below!)

Works made for TOMBOLO 2016.

LAY OF THE LAND

Artistically our aim is to drive artists and the experience of art outwards into the wild landscape of this island

We believe that the interconnection of art, nature and people can be transformative. Our projects create greater accessibility to the arts in rural communities while allowing the visual arts to stand alone as a valuable and necessary cultural activity and experience.

We produce powerful, imaginative and considered projects that encourage artists and their practice to engage with the landscape surrounding them, while forging deeper connections with local community and the history and heritage of that landscape. 

The project’s success depends on individuals and organisations dedicated to unique and progressive artistic endeavours. The project is enabled by crowd sourced funding, local businesses, Cork County Council, The Arts Council of Ireland, and supporters of the arts throughout Ireland.

Portrait taken by Katie Sanderson

Follow, Contact & Support

www.karicahill.com

www.layoftheland.ie

www.instagram.com/karikaca

www.instagram.com/layofthelandproject

https://fundit.ie/project/tombolo-a-site-responsive-art-project

Listen to a podcast about Kari's practice: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/ep-4-art-travel-inspiration-creativity-sustainability/id1235147537?i=1000389355900&mt=2

Cara Farnan

“Touch is an intimate connection and way of knowing the world we inhabit. As human beings we always strive to reach out and touch further, building structures that bring us closer to what is beyond. Like bridges and towers, tombs and temples, telescopes and stratospheric balloons, we create forms that draw on what we know and rely on what we feel, and as a result extend both. Stratospheric balloons are ethereal, otherworldly, and yet they bring the reality of this world closer to us. In this way we are always structuring our understanding of space and time, attempting to find some balance between our experiences and the realities of our world. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of the horizon, and its meanings for us. It is experienced but never realised. Observed as a limit but intangible and unreachable. Experience is filled with the soft contradictions of the horizon.

In producing and experimenting I use my practice as a means of negotiating a place for my own experience within realms of intertwining and contradictory information. Teasing out and testing hypotheses through constant play with materials, forms and working methods. The work emerges out of this constant and prolific inquiry. Elements are combined, pieces are fitted together, individual experiments are threaded into a cohesive whole that the viewer is invited to explore. The spaces created attempt to provide intimate meditative environments that let go of the restlessness that comes from residing within the boarder of knowledge and sensation, and in justifying these two elements, allow the viewer time for stillness, contemplation and tranquility.” - Cara Farnan

Window, 2017

Untitled, 2017

What is the horizon? (tapestry of an unknown), 2017

Wall and Whisper (installation detail), 2016

Temporal Orbit Series

“Temporal Orbit was a series of experimental works created during a residency in the RHA school. They arose out of investigations into our spiritual relationship with the rhythms of landscape and time, suggestions of the idea of time as landscape and a consideration of the cyclic patterns of time and space in relation to the direct cyclic materiality of the landscape.

Thinking through the significance of natural cycles in marking time for ancient peoples led to the creation of an alternative and invented ‘cycle’ by which the day could be measured. Rocks resting in the seas along the coastline rise up each morning from their watery beds to float through skies and clouds, then, completing an orbit, come to rest in the seas once more.” Cara Farnan

Temporal Orbit (pendulum), 2017

Temporal Orbit (vases), 2017

Cara Farnan (b. 1994) is Visual Artist based in Dublin, Ireland. She graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Print from The National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2016 and was subsequently invited to take part in the Peer Residency Programme in The RHA School.

Her work attempts to find stillness and balance within the contradictions of knowledge and sensation, taking a variety of forms including sculptural and site specific installation, sound, text, video, drawing and printmaking.

Recent Exhibitions include the solo work Intimate|Immense, The Yellow Box, NCAD, 2016 and group shows; Today's Firefighter in association with Dublin Fire Brigade 2016; The NCAD Graduate Showcase, 2016 ; Impressions Biennial in association with Galway Arts Festival 2015; and Optic Preen, 2015. Later this year her work will be featured in both  Haihatus International 6, Joutsa, Finland and  Mason Hayes & Curran’s annual showcase of emerging and established practitioners; Contemporary Art at Christmas.  

Follow & Contact

www.carafarnan.com

https://www.instagram.com/carafarnan/

carafarnan@gmail.com

Roisin White

'Lay Her Down Upon Her Back is an ongoing project exploring the idea of female vulnerability in the submissive acts expected of women in traumatic or emotionally draining times. The work stems from the belief that women should take to the bed in times of mental or physical ill health, when we are “hysterical” or experiencing “women’s troubles”. That we are at our most vulnerable when we are flat on our backs in encouraged stillness. Lay Her Down Upon Her Back explores the inherent vulnerability during physical intimacy and medical care. “Lay Down to Sleep, to Rest, to Be Devoured, to Die.”'  - Roisin White

'Pieces Left Behind is a series of sculptural works exploring the discarded memories that are embedded within forgotten photographs, how they can be fragmented and new meanings and importance can be applied to them, elevating them to a new life.' - Roisin White

Roisin is a Dublin based visual artist. Her work is multidisciplinary, working primarily with photography, drawing and sculpture. Her work often draws from archival materials, be it ephemeral “junk” or 20 th century found photography. Roisin feels she has a responsibility to the irreplaceable imagery found at flea markets and on the streets, to repurpose it and give it new importance. Her most recent bodies of work have stemmed from both found objects and imagery.

Roisin was a finalist in the Inspirational Arts Photographic Award in 2015. In 2017 she was selected to take part in the How to Flatten a Mountain residency in Cow House Studios as part of PhotoIreland. She has worked curatorially for CEAD at NCAD, and as part of the Young Curators Project in Rua Red. She has exhibited her work in Ireland, the UK and Germany.

Contact & Follow

www.roisinwhite.com

www.instagram.com/how_fascinating/

Yaw Owusu

"The pesewa coin installations appropriate Ghana's nearly worthless loose change as structural material for raising questions about state policies, economic practices, and the meaning of independence. As part of another measure to cure the economy’s inflation, these coins were introduced in 2007. Today they have almost no value, and are not accepted by most sellers and informal shops. Ironically, some of the few establishments that use them today are elite supermarkets and stores at the mall. The pesewa creates a paradoxical connection between classes and positions: the currency almost anyone within the system can possess, but which almost no one carries or uses. In my works, thousands of the copper coins are submitted to chemical and natural processes to evoke age and use, then fixed onto metal sheets or wood panels face-down, with the national coat of arms visible. Formed into geometric bodies, geographic and fluid forms, the factions are distinguished by coloration. Just as the coins react to various chemical elements (water, air, heat, vinegar, salt, etc.), reactions emerge between patterns in the construction of the work. Acquired through a series of negotiations with Ghana's banks, the coins navigate the bureaucracies that continue to demarcate social movement. Exhibited as a structural work standing in two and three dimensions, the gleaming cash bank fires urgent embers amidst an allure of gleaming money. The devalued coin transforms into a mechanism for mapping new possible relations, for inventing a more resourceful future." Yaw Owusu

Then and Now I (2017)

Untitled II (2015)

Untitled II (2015)

The Genesis (2014)

Back to the Future (The Flag) (2016)

Back to the Future (The Flag) (2016)

B. 1992. Yaw Owusu creates sculptural installations that repurpose found objects, shifting their value of otherwise-worthless materials into things of value. Built from countless pieces of 1 pesewa Ghanaian coins, his work activates urgent questions around Ghana’s economy, political systems and independence. The currency introduced in an attempt to cure the country’s inflation in 2007, the coins has now almost no value in the financial climate, enabling the artist to use them as a primary material. Typical of Owusu’s approach to working with local agencies to develop his work, the artist acquired the coins through series of negotiations with the central Bank of Ghana – a bureaucratic process that is as important to the artist’s practice as the final works.

Yaw Owusu is a graduate BFA Painting from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and was part of the selected artists for the 89plus workshop at the Nubuke foundation. His works have been included in exhibitions including Silence between the Lines, 2015 in Kumasi; The Gown must go to Town, 2015 at the Science and technology museum, Accra; If you Love me in 2016, at the Kumasi Locomotive shed; Chalewote art festival, 2016; Cornfields in Accra, 2016 at the science and technology museum; Part IV internat Artist project, Galerie 102 – Berlin and his first solo show, All that glitters in 2017 at Gallery1957 who also currently represent the artist.

Contact & Follow:

www.yawowusu.net

www.instagram.com/o_wayy/

Shane Berkery

"In contemporary art I feel that there is a heavy emphasis to 'read' paintings as texts, there seems to be a need to decipher a story out of the image and find its 'meaning'. While I do believe that this approach can add value to work, I feel that it often overlooks something important. The visual arts uniquely possess the ability to evoke feelings and sensations that cannot be articulated in words, and it is this visual language/affect that I am interested in and focus on in my paintings.

 In particular I am interested in the human figure as I believe that is one of the most versatile and relatable forms, and it is therefore the subject matter in the vast majority of my paintings. The main objective of my work is to create figures that exude an intense sense of presence, not only within the borders of the painting, but beyond into the space in which the painting is displayed. I approach each piece as a study into the mechanisms by which this 'presence' operates, while always aiming to improve my draughtsmanship and become more fluent in the language of colour and composition.

 Currently I work from old family photographs from my Japanese side, my personal photographs and nudes. I pursue different visual sensations in each stream of work (for example the feeling of nostalgia/memory with the old family photos) but what is interesting is that each stream starts to influence the other. My hope and aim is that the resulting affect of the paintings become more and more inexplicable and complex as I continue and expand my practice. My ultimate goal is to be able to create work that has intense presence, and offer visions and sensations that have not been seen or felt before." - Shane Berkery

Shane is half Irish, half Japanese artist currently represented by the Chimera Gallery. Shane has been painting full time since graduating from NCAD in 2015 and has exhibited work in 14 exhibitions to date. He has received the NUI Arts and Design Award at the degree show and at the 186th RHA Annual Exhibition, the Hennessy Craig Award and the Whyte’s Award. Most recently, Shane's solo exhibition at the Chimera Gallery concluded on 23 June where all 14 paintings were sold.

Contact & Follow:

www.shaneberkery.com

www.instagram.com/shaneberkery/

https://www.facebook.com/shaneberkeryart/

https://twitter.com/berkeryshane

Click here for Shane's CV

Laura Soto

"I explore the vulnerability and poetics of material through a variety of processes. I am interested in an alchemy of discordant substances - in a clumsy and volatile accumulation of surface. My processes are involved and tactile - addressing not only the materiality of my mediums but also the materiality of myself." - Laura Soto

Laura Soto (b. 1991) is a mixed media sculptor living and working in Southern California. She received her BS in Studio Art from Biola University in 2013. Since graduating she has shown at Leiminspace in Chinatown, Los Angeles (This Never Happened, 2015 & Few and Far Between, 2016). In 2016 she contributed to MaRS Gallery's Obscured and Objectified gallery shop, Corrupted Ceramics group show with Galleria Salvatore Lanteri, and MAS Attack at the Torrance Art Museum. Her most recent exhibition was Extra Terrestrial with Galleria Salvatore Lanteri May 20 – June 24th 2017.

Contact & Follow:

lauracatherinesoto.com

www.instagram.com/lauracatherinesoto

Catarina Leone

"This project speaks of the potential loss of self in terms of female identity within the domestic space and the demand for recognition.  Not only has domestic work been rooted into the daily activities of women, but it has in fact been embedded into women’s natural attributes – their physique, personality, sexuality, intelligence, emotional wellbeing –  their purpose of existence.  Focusing light on women’s efforts to ignore their domestic labour through their photographic representations demonstrates women’s efforts not to be associated as a housewife, which according to Silvia Federici is the most powerless position in a capitalist society (1975). Through collecting and creating an archive of family album photographs from a vast number of women, patterns and trends begin reveal themselves; the desire for perfection, decoration and the pose and performance for the camera. The interventions through this body of work point to the potential loss of self in terms of female identity within domestic space and the demand for recognition." - Catarina Leone

© Wanderley Massafelli

Catarina Leone creates mixed media artworks, film, performances, analogue-collage and installation. With a conceptual approach, she touches on the relationship that society has with popular culture and mass media, working with repetition, provocation and the investigation of the process of expectations. By taking the performance of daily life as subject matter while commenting on the everyday aesthetic of mainstream values, she finds an inherent awkwardness, that echoes our own vulnerabilities. The artist also considers movement as a metaphor for the ever-adjusting woman who experiences a continuous stride for perfection. The construction of materials through Catarina Leone’s work are metaphorical of the diverse psychological states which, like identities, are never fixed and are constantly in flux.

Catarina Leone currently has work on display at the Gallery of Photography for the Dublin Institute of Technology BA Photography Graduate Exhibition 2017 'Liminal Acts'.

Contact & Follow:

catarina.leone@gmail.com

www.catarinaleone.com

www.instagram.com/catarinaleone/

TWO FOUR NINE

"My work focuses on surreal and brightly coloured pieces. I always use either pink, blue or yellow in my work. I like to add teeth and eyes in areas that eyes and teeth shouldn't be. I love textures and patterns, cut up / cut out portraits, and sometimes dip my toes in the world of political art. I've been told that my work can make people feel uneasy or uncomfortable. I see that as an accomplishment as art that doesn't give the viewer a reaction ( be it good or bad ) has failed as a piece, in my opinion. Indifference is the enemy. I've been recently branching out into the world of gifs and animation."

TWO FOUR NINE / Dom Mouroz is 25 years old, half French/Irish. Barista by day, digital artist by night, living and working in Cork City.

Contact & Follow:

Instagram: @249th_ (https://www.instagram.com/249th_/)

Facebook: @twofournine (https://www.facebook.com/twofournine)

Oonagh Hurley

Cork artist Oonah Hurley explores how life’s memories are reassembled in a fluid and non-linear way. Using old photographs, media images, and stills from old Super 8mm film for inspiration, she exploits the chance elements resulting from pouring and layering paint. A graduate of CIT Crawford College of Art & Design, Hurley has shown work in several Cork galleries since 2009. (1)

Christmas Card from America.

Links.

The images from the  'Memory'  series were originally part of an installation made for an exhibition in Cork Mid Summer Festival 2011 by the artist. The paintings were completed on photographic paper mounted on to playing cards and displayed on a card table in the format of the game of Memory. Viewers were invited to wear gloves and to match 'pairs' by turning over two cards at a time.

Contact & Follow:

http://hammondgallery.com/oonagh-hurley/

https://www.instagram.com/oonaghhurley_art/

1. http://hammondgallery.com/oonagh-hurley/

Emmet Brickley

"These paintings explore the notions of solitude within a society. Finding resolution in oil painting, reference materials are sourced by using the application Google Street View. This mode of collecting imagery to create a personal documentation assists in my interests in the impact of the digital age in our society; particularly it's concerns with cultural homogenization.

A variety of painting processes are used to avoid pure representation. Blurring imagery with static layering of paint, I intend to encourage debate over the depiction of critical space. White is recursive throughout the series, aiming to offer possibilities or potential loss of information in the fleeting relevance of place and time in the digital age." - Emmet Brickley

Emmet Brickley is a visual artist working in Cork City. His work is in private, corporate and public collections; including two purchases by the Lewis Glucksman Gallery for The 'UCC Permanent Art Collection' in 2016.

Since graduating from Crawford College of Art & Designin 2016, he has shown in multiple group exhibitions as well as having a forthcoming solo-show in Alliance Francaise de Cork. The show will run June 1 - 30. He will also have new work on display at Kfest - Killorglin Music & Arts Festival, Kerry, June 2 - 5.

Contact & Follow:

emmetbrickleypainting@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/emmmetbrickleypainting/

Nollaig Lynch - "Story Kid"

"The work entitled “ Story Kid” deals with the forgotten area of Mayfield. It stems from an obsession with the idea of exclusion from an area and the constant battle to find a sense of place. Mayfield, historically Ballinamought (from Irish Baile na mBocht, meaning “town of the poor”) is a working class area in the North-side of Cork City. For me the work runs off a connection to the surrounding area, it functions as a conversation piece to acknowledge different issues that the area inhabits. A strong push and pull between trepidation and social engagement is what I like to highlight in my work. I deal with this through the mediums of video and photography." - Nollaig Lynch

Photo by Wilhelmina van der Bent

Nollaig Lynch is a Final Year student of Fine Art Photography BA at Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork City. The Degree Show 2017 'Beyond Dialogue' will be on show from June 9th.

Find more information at www.facebook.com/BeyondDialogue

Contact & Follow:

Lynchnollaig.nl@gmail.com

https://nollaiglynchart.wordpress.com 

@nollaiglynch_photo  - Instagram

Artist Focus

Artist Focus will showcase the work of an artist we love, admire and want to share with our audience.