Art & Exhibitions

Since the establishment of the Kilkenny Arts Festival in the 1970's, Kilkenny has built and international reputation for showcasing the best of contemporary art. The Butler Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, the National Gallery and many other private galleries have exciting and progressive exhibitions programmes throughout the year. As well as the official exhibitions, the vibrant arts scene in Kilkenny means that many hotels, restaurants and public buildings exhibit work by local artists, adding a wonderfully stimulating cultural dimension to a pleasant meal or relaxing drink.

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BUTLER GALLERY The Castle, Kilkenny. Tel: 056 7761106 Email: info@butlergallery.com Web: www.butlergallery.com Butler Gallery Opening Times Open 7 days a week all year round, closed Good Friday & over the Christmas period Oct - March 10.30am - 12.45pm, 2pm - 5pm April - May 10.30am - 5pm June - August 9.30am - 6pm (open till 7pm during the Arts Festival) September 10am - 6pm

Tony O'Malley: CONSTRUCTIONS Opening Saturday 7th August, 3:00pm - 5:00pm Exhibition continues until Sunday, October 31st, 2010 The Butler Gallery is honoured to present Tony O'Malley: Constructions, the first exhibition dedicated entirely to the sculptural constructions of the renowned Irish artist, Tony O'Malley (1913-2003). The exhibition is curated by Butler Gallery's Director Anna O'Sullivan. Tony O'Malley holds an important and distinguished position in the history of twentieth century Irish art. A highly respected and beloved artist, his works are represented in all major Irish museums and included in the most significant public and private collections of Irish art. Self-taught, his artistic career only began in 1960 when he was in his forties, but his everyday, workmanlike approach to his practice resulted in a prolific career. His practice was a quiet one, modest and non-careerist. While he found recognition among his peers during his thirty years - 1960 to 1990 - among the artistic community of St Ives, Cornwall, the serious attention he deserved only came to him later in life in Ireland, the country of his birth. He settled back in Physcianstown in Callan Co. Kilkenny in 1990, with his wife Jane, where he lived and worked until his death at the age of eighty-nine. O'Malley's constructions became a natural part of his working practice right from the beginning and were a constant presence, nestled and perched very comfortably in the studio, and reflecting an eclectic parallel to his life work. While they were mostly made indoors, occasionally elements for a work might be found and made elsewhere. Highbourne Cay, 1986, was made in the Bahamas and includes a 'billy' - an oar shaped club used by Bahamian fishermen to kill their prey. The circled red 'T' bestows new ownership to the piece, similar to a graffiti artist's signature or 'tag'. With the years, came found materials from many sources - off-cuts from the carpenter's workshop opposite the studio in St Ives to findings on various beaches. The simplicity and formal mastery of O'Malley's constructions reflect the modernist tradition of assemblage that stretches back to Pablo Picasso and to Kurt Schwitters, an artist he admired. Some of his contemporaries in St Ives, like Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Peter Lanyon were also drawn to the medium of collage and assemblage. While it may be more accurate to describe these works as 'assemblages', O'Malley always referred to them as constructions, hence the title of this exhibition. These three-dimensional works of various shapes and sizes incorporate many components, primarily oil, nails, string and wood collage. There was no time to lose for an artist coming late to making work. O'Malley was consumed, either busy from eye to subject with pen or brush in hand, or absorbed in making these sculptural constructions from the materials gathered around him. He never destroyed anything, each piece catching a moment of life's journey and forming its own link in the chain. Drawing was the necessary root of all of O'Malley's work and concisely knotted the mediums together. The incised drawing line is found throughout the paintings and is very much at work in these constructions, which can be seen as three-dimensional drawings. O'Malley liked to work in many mediums and while his painting was undeniably at the forefront, he gave as much personally to everything he realized, with each fragment adding to a rich and full working life. These extraordinary sculptural works can be seen as extensions of what O'Malley achieved on canvas and on paper. They reveal another dimension to his range of abilities as an artist of extraordinary ingenuity. The beauty and diversity of these constructions is a real surprise, and encourages the viewer to look anew at one of Ireland's most acclaimed artists. Tony O'Malley has said, "...my home place and its landscape is still in my psyche. I call it inscape - inner revelations of the outer psyche". O'Malley was a proud son of Kilkenny who later went on to receive the 'Freeman of the City' in 2000. His association is a positive one for Kilkenny, whose people appreciate the huge contribution he made to the arts in Ireland. A full colour catalogue will be available to accompany this exhibition. Constructive Criticism - Butler Gallery Young Critics' Group. For this year's Kilkenny Arts Festival, the Butler Gallery are working with a team of young critics aged 16 - 19 to constructively critique the different strands of the festival. Young people will talk about, illustrate and record their perceptions of the festival after interviewing and discussing content with artists, curators and other visitors to the city. See our website for more details. Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny, Ireland t: + 353 56 7761106 f: +353 56 7770031 e: info@butlergallery.com www.butlergallery.com

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CRAFTS COUNCIL OF IRELAND National Craft Gallery, Castle Yard, Kilkenny. Tel: 056 7761804 Email: ncg@ccoi.ie Web: www.ccoi.ie

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Kilkenny County Council Arts Office

Artist in Residence Vanessa Daws, April - June 2010

Galway based artist Vanessa Daws will be our next artist in residence here in Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, no. 76 John Street. She will commence her time here on Tuesday April 6th and will continue to work on site until the week of June 14th. The culmination of her work here will be a solo Exhibition which will open in no. 76 in June.

Vanessa's work combines different mediums of painting, sculpture, drawing and animation. She is inspired by art where the viewer can discover aspects of the work that they can manipulate, manoeuvre or peer into, the anticipation of the unexpected.
As children we look at the world differently, creating our own stories and mythology parallel to the ordinary world; as we grow older this world gets put to one side. Her art work explores the possibilities of access to this magical world and allows the viewer to engage and temporarily escape the mundane. Vanessa has also worked in community arts for over ten years from a volunteer to designer for 'Macnas' in Galway and St Patrick's Festival, Dublin. Since 2007 she has been consentrating on her own visual art practice. She has had a number of solo shows over the past few years including 'Layers' at The Norman Villa Gallery, Galway, 'Escapade' at the Courthouse Gallery, Co Clare, 'Swirlpool' at the South Tipperary Arts Centre, 'Volute' in the Ballina Arts Centre, Co Mayo, 'Faoi Scáth', Westport Arts Festival and 'Chrysalis' in the Linenhall Art Centre Cafe, Castlebar.

The artist's studio space is the large ground floor area at No. 76, John Street, Kilkenny, Ireland. The studio is situated underneath the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office which is a public space; therefore the artist agrees to also engage with the public. The aim and focus of the Artists Residencies at No. 76 is to enable the successful applicants to research and develop their own practice, but also to give insights into how and why artists create their work and to build relationships. This has been a very successful aspect of the residencies as they as they tend to create an ongoing dialogue between the artists and the members of the public who visit them. They further promote the Arts providing an awareness and further appreciation of the Arts and cultivating and developing new audiences.

During her time here in Kilkenny the Arts Office has also organised for Vanessa to work intensely with a small group teaching them basic animation skills. This group which, has been drawn form the 5to 6 Women's Project and KACT, will then be given the opportunity to follow this week of workshops with an further seven weeks of sessions working in the Arts Office space as an independent group. Throughout this time they will have the support of Vanessa as they continue to explore animation and develop work which will feature in exhibition in June / July 2010. There are also plans afoot for Vanessa to work with a group of teenagers over a seven week period also teaching them basic animation skills

For further details on this or any other Arts Office activities please contact the Arts Office 056 7794135.
E: Mary Butler, Arts Officer mary.butler@kilkennycoco.ie
Niamh Finn, Arts Administrator niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie
W: www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/Services/Arts/

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office Partner Local Authority of the ArtLinks Programme www.artlinks.ie

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Kilkenny County Council Arts Office Exhibition
March - April '10

Watergate Theatre, Gallery Upstairs, Kilkenny

Exhibition: 'Landscape Alternatives'

Artist: Richard Warner

After almost 40 years of working only in watercolours, Kilkenny based artist Richard Warner finds it both great delight and frustration in handling this medium! He says 'Having taught general drawing and painting for many years it is the one medium that I would not recommend to amateurs'. Having said that, Richard feel strongly that watercolour painting is still considered 'second-best' to other mediums in the professional art world which he thought was a battle that had been won 200 years ago.

Although his work has come from his imagination he does consider himself a landscape painter, albeit one that approaches its subject from a somewhat 'odd' angle. Richard's response to the often asked question, 'What is it?' is that it is a real landscape - just one that hasn't been seen yet.

Richard's forms are sometimes explicit: clouds, horizons, tree, fields etc, but many rather vague and personal, though hopefully still suggesting some natural form. 'Usually I enjoy mixing the two styles but the old constants remain - the lower part of the painting is the foreground and the upper - the sky! The landscape setting for many of my 'events' is recognizably the view across the fields where I grew up.'

Born in 1947 in Berkshire, Richard Warner moved to Ireland in 1996. He graduated from Berkshire College of Art in 1965 and Chelsea School of Art in 1969 and thereafter taught part-time in Adult and Further Education while continuing with his practice. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in the UK, including the London, Royal Academy Summer Show, Warwick Arts Trust, Curwen Gallery and various public and private galleries throughout the UK, Europe, USA and Canada. In Ireland he has exhibited in the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Leinster Gallery, Dublin and during the Kilkenny Arts Festival. The Arts Council of Great Britain and the British Petroleum Collection of British Modern Art are collectors of his work.

Exhibition 'Landscape Alternatives' in the Watergate Theatre, Upstairs Gallery from 19th March to 22nd April 2010.

Opening hours: Monday-Friday 10am-7pm, Saturday 2pm-7pm

For sales or further information on this or subsequent shows, contact the Arts Office on (056) 7794138 mary.butler@kilkennycoco.ie / niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office Partner Local Authority of the ArtLinks Programme www.artlinks.ie

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Kilkenny County Council Arts Office Exhibition
23rd April - 28th May 2010

Watergate Theatre, Gallery Upstairs, Kilkenny

Exhibition: 'The Sixth Element'

Artists: Students of the Advanced Certificate in Fine Art at the
Ormonde College of Further Education

'The Sixth Element' at the Watergate Gallery
Ormonde College of Further Education students pursuing its Advanced Certificate in Fine Art will be holding an exhibition of their work in the Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny City from 23rd April to 28th May 2010. This will be a great chance to see the hard work done by the students throughout the year, and is a wonderful opportunity for the students themselves to get their work displayed in such a prestigious exhibition space in the city.
The Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Fine Art was introduced as a follow-on to the already existing, and ever popular, Level 5 Certificate in Fine Art (Portfolio Preparation) course in September of 2009. The course is uniquely designed to prepare artists for life in the creative sector, with modules including Marketing, Sales Presentation and Exhibition Organisation studied alongside Drawing, Painting and Combined Materials.
The exhibition gets its title from the fact that the Advanced Certificate in Fine Art is a F.E.T.A.C. Level 6 course. Each of the students submitted four works for the exhibition, and from each of these one piece per student was selected for the exhibition. The work on display shows a wide variety of techniques and styles, from traditional landscape to abstraction.
The event is of enormous importance to the students involved, who are currently busy creating the magical work that will make this exhibition such a success. The following is an idea of the variety of work on show at the exhibition:
Andrea Saint Blaise: Andrea's works are "visual analogies based on my interpretations of human behaviours and capabilities".
Joann Downey:Joanne "Has always tried to capture the look and reflections of water to the best of her ability".
Karen Tobin: Karen's work is mainly concerned with "Authenticity and Freedom vs. Peoples' expectations of you".
Lynda Mc Donald: Lynda "tries to explore identity through its absence and define it by what is left behind".
Eamonn J. Downes: Eamonn says he "specialises in oils on canvas which he finds very stimulating and hopes this will be reflected in his work".
Joe O'Toole: Joe's work "starts out with an idea, but as the painting develops it often takes different turns along the way". Movement colour and texture play a major part in his work
Jim Byrne: Jim's main interest is "landscape and urbanscape" and his inspiration comes "from the beauty he beholds almost everyday from the many masterpieces on display in galleries worldwide".
Tanya Bolger: Tanya states "I like to create non-human life as, to me, it is the freedom to explore form without narrative".
Rachel Gamble: Rachel's work is "based on a dream image of an 'octo-woman' in black and white dress that has a quality of attractiveness and a sense of danger."
Eoin Coffey: Eoin likes to create work that will have a "lasting effect". His work deals with the subjects of "politics, global issues, spirituality and human relations".
Jane O'Keefe: Jane's work "concentrates on elements of landscape, particularly rock and stone." She aims to "produce textured oil paintings that evoke a feeling of timelessness, stillness and the passing of time".
Teresa Tomlinson: Teresa "puts a touch of irony (often depicted in red) to figurative realism. She works mainly in oils with other mediums coming into play".
Kay McMillian: Kay "Works in the medium of oils and combined materials." Her current work consists of "figurative abstract pieces which deal with human domesticity through the hidden narrative."

Exhibition The Sixth Element in the Watergate Theatre, Upstairs Gallery from Friday 23rd April to Friday 28th May 2010.
Opening hours: Monday-Saturday 10am-7pm, Sunday 2pm-6pm
For sales or further information on this or subsequent shows, contact the Arts Office on (056) 7794138 mary.butler@kilkennycoco.ie / niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie
Kilkenny County Council Arts Office Partner Local Authority of the ArtLinks Programme www.artlinks.ie

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