from the productive spirit and is opposed’
Paul Valéry
lucent
a touring exhibition
by international artists
Although I have curated quite a few exhibitions, I am first and foremost an artist, and not a curator. This exhibition is a very personal project. The work I have included, is by artists whose work and progress, I am always keen to see. I think there is a lot of truth, in Robert Motherwell's quote, 'every intelligent painter, carries the whole culture of modern painting in his head. It is his real subject, of which everything he paints, is both a homage and critique.' To a greater or lesser extent, the artists in this exhibition, have been inspirational for me, or sometimes, it is just as Emerson said, 'in every work of genius, we recognise our own rejected thoughts'.
One of the common threads, through the work of these artists, for me, is a sensitivity for materials, and for the quality of line. Most of the artists here, also blur the distinction between painting and sculpture. Their sculptures can be quite painterly, and there is a subtle tactile element even to their works on paper. The other thing that interests me, is that, it is often hard to pin down exactly, what the works are about (if that is what one is inclined to do). There is an inherent ambiguity, in lots of the work, a vague open-endedness. Also, the scale, that these artists often work on, is intimate and personal. The works are memorable rather than monumental, suggestive rather than didactic, playful rather than strict. Where there is order, it is often subverted and generally an air of gentle irreverence prevails. Ultimately though, the thing that draws these works together, for me, is that, they are made with the attentiveness, and care, that comes from a labour of love.
David Quinn, 2023
curator
lucent is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon as part of the 2023 – Strategic Funding – Touring – Arts Centres Grant, and initiated and developed by Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. The tour of lucent began in Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre and ran from 9 July to 9 September 2023. It then travelled to Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda from February to April of this year and will run in Wexford Arts Centre from Saturday 15 June to Wednesday 31 July, 2024.
9 July to August, 2023
in Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen
10 February to 27 April, 2024
in Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda
15 June to 30 July, 2024
in Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford
17 January to 15 March 2025
in The Levinsky Gallery, The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth, Plymouth
charlie brady -
niamh clarke -
hiroyuki hamada -
vincent hawkins -
tjibbe hooghiemstra -
jamie mills -
janet mullarney -
helen o’leary -
david quinn -
seamus quinn -
sean sullivan -
john van oers -
With thanks to Ann Davoren, Director and her team at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre; the team at Highlanes Gallery; Catherine Bowe, Curator - Visual Art and the team at Wexford Arts Centre; Mary Ryder, Jessica Taylor, John Taylor and Pat Taylor of Taylor Galleries, Stephanie Jaax, Sarah Cunningham, and Francesco Rossi and Claire Oberst of ROSSICONTEMPORARY.
niamh clarke
Niamh Clarke. Born in 1983 in Newry. Based in Newry/Belfast.
Niamh graduated from Ulster University in 2019. Her first solo exhibition was ‘the transient and the perishing’, Platform Gallery, Belfast (2021). Recent group exhibitions include: ‘Ode to Light’, Arcade Gallery, Belfast (2023) and ‘Quiet Wanders Laughing’ Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo (2023).
Niamh is member of Queen Street Studios, Belfast.
niamhclarke.info
charles brady
Charles Brady. Born in New York in 1926. Died in Ireland in 1997.
Charles served in the US Navy during World War II. He had a series of mundane jobs after returning from war and took night classes in drawing, studying at the Art Students League in New York. He first visited Ireland in 1956 and settled here permanently in 1959. Brady was best known as a painter of everyday objects in an understated manner, usually on a modest scale. He exhibited extensively in Ireland and the United States.
hiroyuki hamada
Hiroyuki Hamada. Born in Tokyo in 1968. Lives in East Hampton, New York.
Hiroyuki has exhibited widely throughout the United States, in Europe and in Asia. He has been awarded various residencies including those at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Edward F. Albee Foundation/William Flanagan Memorial Creative Person’s Center, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the MacDowell Colony.
Hamada’s work has been featured in various publications, including Stokstad and Cothren’s widely used art history text book Art: A Brief History (Pearseon). He was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award in 1998 and was been awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in 2009 and in 2017). In 2018 he was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Recent solo exhibitions include Parrish Art Museum Road Show, South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center, New York (2023); Hiroyuki Hamada, Gana Art Bogwang, Seoul (2022); and Hiroyuki Hamada New Work, Bookstein Fine Art, New York (2022).
Hiroyuki is represented by Bookstein Projects, New York.
hiroyukihamada.com
vincent hawkins
Vincent Hawkins. Born in England in 1959.Lives and works in London.
Vincent has been exhibiting internationally for many years, having had solo exhibitions in Chicago, Paris and London. Recent exhibitions include, ‘Beyond The Walls of One’s Own Making’, Sid Motion Gallery, London, (2023); 'Planet and Satellites', l'ahah, Paris, (2023) and 'Art in The Chapels', Chapel of St Tugdual-Pontivy, Brittany (2022).
Vincent has been included in group shows in the USA, Italy, the UK, France (most recently in the 2023 edition of the Sillon Festival, Rhône-Alpes).
In 2006 Vincent was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and was a Prize Winner in John Moore’s 24, in the same year. He was selected to exhibit at PaintLounge / Sluice in late 2018.
Vincent is represented by Sid Motion Gallery, London.
sidmotiongallery.co.uk
