Coílín Rush, Laura Buckley, Robbie O'Halloran, Bart O'Reilly, Alice Peillon, Tadhg McSweeney : Groupsix
Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
29 May - 23 June 2001
The perennial call signalling the death of painting is constantly undermined by the raft of graduates from international Art colleges who persist in the exploration of that medium. Those young artists who choose ‘painting’, with all its limitations, associations and assumptions specifically interest the Rubicon Gallery. The six artists in this exhibition are in their early twenties and graduated or will graduate later this year from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin. They approached the gallery as a group, mindful of the rich tradition they have inherited, but determined not to be bound by it. These six artists are concerned with the hierarchical aspects of painting; subject matter, materials, presentation and meaning. All six artists agree that media images, the theory and practice of abstract formalism and an interest in the materiality of paint itself are their core concerns, yet their final images vary drastically.
Laura Buckley, from Galway, graduated with a first class honours degree in painting from NCAD last year. She is twenty four. Her work mediates between painting , sculpture and photography and combines accepted artist quality materials with non-art objects. Laura creates a series of relationships between these individual elements in her work and re-writes general perceptions of space, surface and ultimately of painting itself.
Tadhg McSweeney, born in Dublin is twenty two and will present for his degree in painting in mid-May this year. Tadhg explores surface, sometimes working from found objects (drawn to their shape, texture and surface quality) he scrapes back and adds to the under painting in search of images. Maps, machines and landscapes are implied and narratives often suggested, but the meaning of the image remains somewhat cryptic.
Originally from Waterford, Robbie O’Halloran, twenty six, achieved a first class honours Degree in painting from NCAD and is currently preparing for his Masters later this year. His interest is resolutely in issues of contemporary abstract painting. He is relentless and ruthless in editing his mark making, composition and palette to make an impression that addresses existing norms but is both innovative and challenging.
Bart O’Reilly is a twenty five year old artist from Dublin and a first class honours graduate from NCAD. He bases his work firmly on mass media images, (primarily moving and still projected segments from film and television). The content is significant but subverted and his subdued palette and treatment of surface creates further discord in our reading of the image. Finally he uses text, in the form of titles, to re-emphasise the subject or content and creates a conflict in our expectation from the final image.
Alice Peillon is from Dublin, she graduated with first class honours from NCAD and is twenty four years of age. Her images are carefully constructed combinations of shapes, patterns and colour. She extracts independent elements from a variety of sources; botanical drawings, fabric patterns and architecture which she then edits and re-deploys freely in her iridescent thickly painted surfaces.
Coílín Rush is a twenty four year old artist from Dublin and a graduate in painting from NCAD. His work deals with television as a metaphor for experience. He refers not only to the content of received material but also, to some degree to the surface quality of the transmitted image and thus explores the nature and context of our relationship with information.
On the whole this is an extremely satisfying survey of the painting practice of young artists and a validation for this gallery of the interest in the medium.
RUBICON GALLERY
10 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
www.rubicongallery.ie
