Cavanacor Gallery

 

Summer Group Exhibition at Cavanacor Gallery

Cavanacor Gallery, Ballindrait, Lifford, Co. Donegal, Tel/Fax 074 91 41143 Website:cavanacorgallery.ie   Email: art@cavanacorgallery.ie

Neil Shawcross, Michael Cullen, John Philip Murray, Geraldine O’Neill, Mark O’Kelly, Gemma Anderson & Jill McKeown         

27th June – 30th August 2009

The Summer Group Exhibition at Cavanacor Gallery brings together seven unique artists with several common threads running through their practice.

 

 

'Chair' Neil Shawcross 45 x 61cms, acrylic on board

'Figure 2' Neil Shawcross 32 x 41 cms

'Figure' Neil Shawcross  32 x 41 cms

Neil Shawcross was born in England and trained at Bolton College of Art  and Lancashire College of Art. He has exhibited nationally and internationally in Hong Kong, London, U.S.A and throughout Ireland including 2 solo exhibitions at Cavanacor Gallery, the Tom Caldwell Gallery and Fenderesky Gallery Belfast and Peppercannister Gallery Dublin. He has been 5 times recipient of the Ulster Academy gold medal.  His works are represented in the Ulster Museum, Aer Rianta, Ulster Television, AIB and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Shawcross’s practice is dominated by portraiture and still life. His influences are primarily French and include Bonnard, Matisse and Cezanne. Shawcross sources his subject matter from his surroundings and collects ‘shop memorabilia’ he also uses found objects and collage in much of his work. Shawcross is renowned for his distinctive imagery and economy of artifice.

 

 

'Shades' John Philip Murray oil on cotton 60x90 cms

'Silent Struggle' John Philip Murray oil on cotton 76x61 cms

'Imagining an Afterlife' John Philip Murray oil on cotton 60x90 cms

John Philip Murray was born in 1952 and studied at the National College of Art & Design and lives in Lissardagh, Co. Cork. He has had 20 solo exhibitions. Most recently ’The lever of Opposition’ at the Stone Gallery, Dublin and ’Vanishing Day’ at the Vanguard Gallery, Cork. Recent group exhibitions include the Royal  Hibernian Academy Summer Group Exhibition, the Oireachts, EV+A and Claremorris Open exhibitions. He was awarded joint first prize at the Oireachtas Art Exhibition in October 2008 and the Cork County Council Arts Bursary in 2009

‘By noting the beauty of these venerable surfaces with what come across as references to contemporary abstraction, Murray could be commenting on the endurance of aesthetic concerns.By contrast, the human presence flits across and is gone’ Aidan Dunne Irish times

 

Infanta Michael Cullen oil on linen 50x60 cms

Studio Visitor Michael Cullen 50x60 cms

Fiesta young bullfighter Michael Cullen

Michael Cullen was born in Wicklow, Ireland in 1946, and studied at the Central School of Art and Design, London in 1969 and  the National College of Art and Design in Dublin . He has spent various periods living and working abroad in Spain, Morocco, the United States, Mexico and Berlin. He is a Member of Aosdána and lives and works in Dublin. 

‘Michael Cullen’s is mulit-directional; while the pigment moves in blocks across the clearly segmented surface, the eye is drawn inward, and there exists, therefore a variety of interconnecting distances between the viewer and the many cells of the image. These procedures are technically and emotionally complex, organised on compositional principles not dissimilar to a large scale musical score, and yet they are executed with a simplified palette of primary colours.’ Brian Lynch

Recent Solo Exhibitions 2001 Taylor Gallery, Dublin, 'Love Stories', Graphic Studio Gallery & Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin and recent group exhibitions Nordens Ljus, Stockholm, Sweden, Estampe', Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, Konstforum, Norrkoping, Sweden.

 

'Half life' Geraldine O'Neill oil on canvas, 41 x 36cms

'Magpie' Geraldine O'Neill oil on canvas, 41 x 36cms

Geraldine O’Neill lives and works in her native Dublin. She studied at the National
College of Art and Design, Dublin, where she completed her BFA in fine art in 1993 and in 2008 completed her MFA there. She has had solo exhibitions at: Draíocht Arts Centre, Dublin, 2008; Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin 2006, 2003, 2000; Dunamaise Arts Centre, Co. Laois, 2006; Jo Rain Gallery, Dublin, 1998. Recent group shows include: Fis 2008, Contemporary Urban Centre, Liverpool; BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London; Contemporary Art from Ireland, European Central Bank, Frankfurt.

 

'Freshwater and Coastal Sciences'

Mark O'Kelly

watercolour on paper, 48x78 cms

Mark O’Kelly (b. 1968) lives and works in Dublin and Limerick. He attended the
National College of Art and Design  and Slade School of Fine Art, London His recent solo exhibitions have been Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, 2005, In Fashion, Limerick City Gallery of Art, 2005, Old Holland, New Amsterdam, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, 2004 He was awarded an Artists' Bursary Award by the Arts Council of Ireland in  2004 & 2005. His work is in the collections of The Arts Council of Ireland, AIB Bank, Bank of Ireland, Limerick City Gallery of Art, AXA Insurance, Office of Public Works & Microsoft.

 

Small World experiment #4 Jill McKeown

Six Degrees of Separation Jill McKeown

Small World experiment Jill McKeown

Jill McKeown studied at the University of Ulster, Belfast receiving an MA Fine & Applied Art in 1997. Since leaving college she has undertaken artists residencies in Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine, Seattle, Venice, Annaghmakerrig and Cushendall. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in Ireland, America, UK, Europe, Egypt, China and Japan.  Jill lives and works as an artist in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Jill currently has a solo exhibition at the Millenium Court Art Centre, Portadown. Recent exhibitions include 7th British International Mimi-Print Exhibition, London, Wrexham Print International 2009, Wales, 111 International Printmaking Exhibition  Istanbul, 1st International Print Biennale, China and Lessendra 8th World Art Print annual, Sophia, Bulgaria

 

'Ezo Owl' Gemma Anderson etching on copper 20x20 cms

'Ernst, Quartz, Vanadinite' Gemma Anderson etching on copper 20x20 cms

'Patanir, Barite, Quartz' Gemma Anderson etching on copper 20x20 cms

Drawing is the basis of all of Gemma Anderson  work. To her, line has an economy that lays comparisons bare and unifies an otherwise classified order. Through research, intuition and observation she explores the anatomical relationships between plants, animals, objects and humans.

Gemma Anderson’s recent solo exhibitions have been “Archipelago” in the Whitecross Gallery,London, “Isolated” in the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, "Drawing Ezo" in the Nepenthes Gallery, Sapporo, Japan, “An Experiment in Collaboration” Jerwood Space, London. She has won numerous awards including Wellcome Trust Arts Award and RHA Thomas Dammann Award in 2009, the S-AIR Award, Arts Council Individual Artist Award, Arts Council Travel Award in 2008, the Corbett Projects and Major of Kensington and Chelsea Award for Drawing and the Man Group Drawing Prize Winner, Royal College of Art 2007, Royal West of England Student Award and the Man Group Drawing Prize Winner 2006, Royal College of Art, Franz Zweig Foundation Student Award and the Originals Print Exhibition Student Award 2005. She is in the Public Collections of the Arts Council, Northern Ireland, Braid Museum and Art Centre, N.Ireland and Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, England