Cavanacor Gallery

 

Reference 2004 – Group Exhibition featuring; Felim Egan, Deborah Brown, James Allen, Sean Fingleton, Alice Hanratty and Resident Artists.
Painting, Printmaking and Sculpture.
13 Nov 04 – 30 Jan 05

Reference 2004
Cavanacor Gallery offers a unique contribution to Donegal through its collective of resident fine art professionals who exhibit alongside leading Irish and International artists. Throughout the history of art, artists have been influenced and inspired by their contemporaries and predecessors. Reference 2004 is an exhibition based on this strength and it sees the resident artists referencing the work of leading Irish artists, (all of whom have exhibited at Cavanacor Gallery) who have had an impact on their practise, or with whom they feel they share a kindred affinity.
The group of artists from North and South of Ireland who have provided influence are James Allen, Deborah Brown, Alice Hanratty, Sean Fingleton and Felim Egan. They are diverse in their approach to art, practising landscape, figuration and abstraction through painting, sculpture and printmaking.
Each Resident artist has researched the work of their chosen inspiration, and identified parallels in approach and production. In this exhibition, they exhibit current work alongside that of the referenced artists. They have responded to a particular piece on display or to a previous series. Reference 2004 is an exciting and thought provoking exhibition that demonstrates art’s potential to stir fellow creative spirit and enable a flowering of complimentary styles that can rarely be witnessed in a fine art venue. The exhibition runs from 13 November 2004 to the 30 January 2005.

Joanna O’Kane and Deborah Brown
Joann O’Kane’s sculpture relates to Deborah Brown’s early pioneering abstraction of fibre-glass and bronze. Through her experimental use of the medium, Joanna effects a gradual subtraction of the material to illustrate its essence. There is a concentrated process of abstract figuration.

Eamon O’Kane and Felim Egan
Eamon O’Kane refers to Felim Egan’s abstract portrayal of landscape. His work highlights the contextual relevance of Egans paintings to Cavanacor. The geometric reduction of form and the grid-like structure of Egan’s work is referenced in Eamon’s inclusion of the window, that also acts as a view of another landscape, that of Egan’s home place.

Matthew O’Kane and James Allen
Matthew O’Kane identifies with James Allen because of shared thematic interests. He developed his original identification by creating a new series referencing Allen’s most practised medium of printmaking. Matthew’s canvases echo the screen-print process and he achieves this effect through the dragging of paint on a photographic ground.

Eddie O’Kane and Sean Fingleton
Eddie O’Kane references Sean Fingleton’s passionate portrayal of landscape. Eddie has chosen to focus on his own individual response to elements in the landscape. The work shares affinity not only in its intensity of colour and application, but also in its definitive feature the expressive use of paint.David O’Kane and Alice Hanratty

David O’Kane’s recent practise has focused on theatricality and literary precedent. Alice Hanratty’s etchings have been inspired by Greek myths and legends but also by the mechanics of drama, as best illustrated in ‘Female Puppet’. Like David’s portraits, they have a staged quality where ironically the characters achieve prominence as protagonists yet they remain relatively dehumanised. Marianne O’Kane, Curator