ARTIST INFORMATION AND CONTACT DETAILS
Flax Art Studios was founded in 1989 by a group of recent graduates seeking space to make large-scale sculpture and installation artworks. Flax Art Studios is committed to developing and strengthening the visual arts sector in Belfast, and has provided 25 years of best practice work at the cutting edge of contemporary art. Our mission is “To contribute significantly to the regions visual art practice through studio provision and resources; acting as a hub for professional development, international networking opportunities; and fostering greater understanding through outreach and socially engaged activity.”Flax Art/Orchid studios have now merged as one organisation and provides studios for 28 artists, and also Graduate and International resident artist studios. Flax Art provides space to some of the most exciting artists in Northern Ireland including:-
Martin Boyle Boyle (b.1982, Donegal, Ireland) lives and works in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He completed a Masters of Fine Art in 2008 at the University Of Ulster, Belfast, and a BA in Sculpture from the Limerick School of Art and Design.
Recent Solo exhibitions include “Snap!”, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Ireland (2016); Human body’ accident, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2015); Everyting’s Connected, Art Centre Ongoing, Tokyo, Japan (2014); Genuine Replica, Ulster Museum, Belfast (2013). Recent group exhibitions include ART WORKS, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland (2017); Future Artist-Makers, Nerve Visual Gallery, Derry (2017); These Days are Persistent and Changeable, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2016); Diagrams, Pallas Projects, Dublin (2015); Out in the Open, Household Collective, Belfast (2015), Existence of flamethrowers in your street, G126, Galway, Ireland (2015); Scope Art Fair, New York (2013); Instances of Agreement, Kao Yuan Arts Centre, Taiwan (2012). www.martinboyle.net
Leo Devlin Leo Devlin (b.1983, Omagh) is a visual artist based at Flaxart studios, Belfast. He received a First class (hons) degree in Fine and Applied Arts from the University of Ulster in 2006. Leo has shown his work locally and internationally. Selected Exhibitions include, Golden Thread Gallery’s project space, Belfast; Today I wrote nothing (2016), Salzamt Gallery, Linz, Austria; Eight (2014), BB15 gallery, Linz Austria; Three (2014), Performance Space, London UK; In conversation, durational performance in collaboration with Bean and Benjamin Sebastian (2013), PS2 gallery, Belfast; Rain (2012), Queens University Belfast, Black Market International, curated by Bbeyod; the Art of the Encounter (2012), OUI performance, York UK; Action Art Now (2012), Platt Chapel, Manchester UK; In Remembrance 11/11/11 curated by Made in Art (2011), Site based performance Art tour, Lucerne, Zurich and Basel; Landvermassion (2010), Arts Electronic, Linz, Austria; Soft Bodies (2010), Plymouth Arts center UK; The Pigs of today are the Hams of Tomorrow - the preservation of performance art, curated by the Red Ape (2010), Chapter Arts center, Cardiff, Wales; Experimentica (2009), Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland; Arsenal Performance festival (2009), Gallery Animal, Santiago, Chile; Performance Irelanda (2008), Pannuhalli Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, Finland; La Bas Dynamical (2008), MAS Gallery, Odzaci, IZBA Gallery, Novi Sad and VIP Art gallery, Student Cultural Center, Belgrade Serbia; International Multimedia Art Festival (2007). His work is in the Collection of the University of Ulster and several private collections. E: [email protected]
Barbara Freeman The artist was born in London and studied at St. Martins and Camberwell Colleges of Art, with postgraduate study at the University of Leeds; She has lived and worked in Belfast for the last twenty years. She has had over forty solo exhibitions of paintings, prints and installation works in Ireland, Britain, the United States, Hungary, Germany and former Yugoslavia. She has had residencies in Hungary, Slovenia, Macedonia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and U.S.A. and was Abbey Fellow at the British School at Rome. She has taken part in numerous group shows. most recently in ‘New Irish Painting’ at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast. www.barbarafreeman.co.uk E: [email protected] or [email protected]
Helena Hamilton Helena Hamilton (b. 1986, N. Ireland) lives and works in Belfast. She received MA in Sonic Arts from SARC, Queen’s University Belfast (2014) and holds a BA Honours degree in Fine Art from the University of Ulster (2009). Helena is based at Flax Studios Belfast and is represented by The Agency Gallery, London. She has exhibited and performed in both gallery spaces and contemporary music/sound festivals across UK & Ireland as well as Berlin, Rome, Tokyo and New York. Recent solo exhibitions include: Order, Effect, Art Centre Ongoing, Tokyo, Japan (2016); The Weight Of My Soul Keeps Ringing In My Ears ,The Golden Thread Gallery Project Space, Belfast, NI. (2013); Untitled (Hope), Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast, NI (2013). Recent group exhibitions include: The Headless City, TULCA, Galway, Ireland (2016); The Making, The Agency Gallery, London, England (2015/16); Sonorities festival of Contemporary Music, Goldsmiths University of London, England (2015); Reassemble for Purpose, Platform Arts Gallery, Belfast, NI (2015); reKOLLEKT, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2012); Celeste Prize Finalist Show, The Invisible Dog, Brooklyn, New York (2010). Recent artist residencies include: Art Centre Ongoing, Tokyo, Japan, 2 months (2016); Goldsmiths University of London within the Embodied Audiovisual Interaction Group, 3 months (2015). helenahamilton.com
Tony Hill Tony Hill was born in 1949, Matatiele, Natal, South Africa. He was brought up in Yorkshire, near to Huddersfield, and has worked in Belfast, Northern Ireland since 1975 and lived in Downpatrick since 1984. He was married to the artist and painter Lynne Davies-Jones. He studied at the Manchester College of Art and Design (1968/69), the Maidstone College of Art (Painting 1969/72), the State Academy, Dusseldorf, (the class of Joseph Beuys 1972/73). He received his HDFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (UCL) in 1975; working primarily with photography and installation. He was appointed as Lecturer in Fine Art in the School of Art and Design at the Ulster Polytechnic in 1975 and then at the University of Ulster at Belfast until retiring in 2012. He has been responsible for teaching Sculpture, Experimental Media in Fine Art. He was Director of the Master of Fine Art Course (MFA) from 1991 to 2003. He has held several one-person exhibitions of installations, sculpture, drawings, photographs and films and his work has been included in numerous group and thematic shows in Ireland and abroad. He was a member of Acme Arts in London, The Artist’s Collective of Northern Ireland and Art and Research Exchange, Belfast and has been a studio member of Flaxart Studios since 2009. He is represented by the Fenderesky Gallery, where has shown regularly since the gallery formed in 1984. He has artworks in various private and public collections.
Yvonne Kennan
Yvonne Kennan, was born in Dublin and currently resides in Belfast as a member of Flax Art Studios. In 2009 she was awarded a distinction from the University of Ulster upon completion of the MFA. She studied Fine Art at Limerick School of Art and Design and achieved at BA in 2006.
Johanna Leech Johanna Leech was born in 1985 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She received a BA Hons in Fine and Applied Art at the University of Ulster in 2007. Leech received an Individual Artist Award and Travel Grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2011. In 2012 she was awarded a residency in Washington DC with ARCH Development Corporation. She had a residency for The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM) in March 2008 in Reykjavík, and for ‘residence SHAC’ in 2009 in Belfast. Leech actively collaborates with New York based artist Matthew Slaats, creating international events such as ‘Transatlantic Diner’. Selection of Exhibitions and Events include: January 2013 Washington Residency Exhibition, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast 21st September 2012 ‘Transatlantic Diner’ live link up in New York & Belfast April – June 2012 LUMEN8 Anacostia festival, Washington DC, USA. February 2012 solo show ‘THEY ARE NOT ALBINOS’ at Mailbox 141 in Melbourne, Australia. www.johannaleech.wordpress.com E: [email protected]
Alastair MacLennan In 1997 Alastair MacLennan represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, with inter-media work commemorating the names of all those who died as a result of the Political Troubles in Northern Ireland, from 1969 to date. During the 1970s and 80s he made (some) long, non- stop durational performances in Britain, America and Canada, of up to 144 hours each. The subject matter dealt with political, social and cultural malfunction. Since 1975 he has been based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and was a founding member of Belfast’s Art and Research Exchange (1978). Since 1975 he has taught at the University of Ulster, Belfast, where for 11 years he ran the Master of Arts Fine Art programme. Currently he travels extensively in Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, North America and Canada presenting Actuations (performance/installations). Since 1989 he has been a member of the internationally regarded performance art entity, Black Market International, which performs globally. He is presently an Emeritus Professor of Fine Art from the University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland, an Honorary Fellow of Dartington College of Arts, Devon, England, an Honorary Associate of the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, Scotland and a Founding member of the Belfast based Performance Art entity, Bbeyond. E:[email protected]
Lisa Malone b.1977 Ireland. She has been awarded Arts Council of Northern Ireland funding, including the New York Residency in 2009. Solo exhibitions include: Rainbow for Sale, at the Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin 2015 Metronome, at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast 2010 (two person) We're all the Same Now a site specific installation at the Crumlin Rd Gaol, Belfast 2009 tiny open spaces, La Sala Naranja, Valencia, Spain 2006
Selected exhibitions include: Meat Clunk, Kinetics and Humanity, Golden Thread Gallery in collaboration with Young at Art, Belfast Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art; Catalyst X, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast What became of the people we used to be, Galway Arts Centre, Galway Drawing a line, Ministry of Propaganda, Museum of the Heilonjiang, China Art in Evolution, Espacio Carmen, Valencia, Spain www.lisamalone.net E: [email protected]
Shiro Masuyama Masuyama born in Tokyo, has been based at Flax Art Studios since 2013. He completed his Masters in Architecture in 1997 at Meiji University, Kawasaki Japan. Masuyama has exhibited widely locally and internationally including solo exhibitions at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Gallery aM, Tokyo and Tinbox Contemporary Art Gallery, Bordeaux and group exhibitions including Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, Catalyst Arts, Scope New York, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan . He has received several awards including the Artist’s Award from Culture Company, Derry/Londonderry in 2013, Arts and Disability Awards, Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation, Tokyo, Japan and the Fred Conlon Contemporary Sculpture Award in 2012. Masuyama completed a residency as part of Flax Art Studios International Residency Programme in 2009 and has been selected to participate in residencies in Tokyo, throughout Ireland, Korea, Hong Kong, Berlin, Vienna, New York, Barcelona and most recently Peru. www.shiromasuyama.net E: [email protected]
Deirdre McKenna Deirdre McKenna (b. Dublin, 1973) studied Fine Art in the RTC Sligo, and then at the University Of Ulster, Belfast. She acted as a co-director of Catalyst Arts between 2002 and 2004 exhibiting, organising and collaborating. She returned to study a masters in fine art at the University of Ulster, graduating with distinction in 2007. She received the RUA Prize Outstanding Student Award and Dean’s Prize. McKenna is a studio holder in Flax Art Studios, Belfast, and is represented by the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast. McKenna has exhibited nationally and internationally with her work being exhibited at the 2011 London Art Fair & SCOPE New York 2012. McKenna’s work is part of the Arts Council of Northern Irelands collection and numerous private collections, and has been featured in many international art journals. www.deirdremckenna.com E: [email protected]
Philip Napier Philip Napier was born in Belfast in 1965 and studied at Manchester Polytechnic, Falmouth School of Art, Cornwall and the University of Ulster where he was awarded an MA in Fine Art in 1989. Philip Napier has exhibited work internationally at venues including: the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; the Santa Monica Museum, California; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. He represented Ireland at the XXII Sao Paulo Biennale (1994) and the UK at the inaugural Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (1995). A frequent artistic collaborator with Michael Hogg, under the working name of Carbon Design, Napier’s work explores issues of power and cultural identity, often incorporating movement and sound. Napier is Head of Sculpture at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and a founder of Flax Art Studios, Belfast and his work is included in the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. www.philipnapier.com/ E: philipnapier65.wanadoo.co.uk
Una Walker Una Walker is an artist who has exhibited extensively in Ireland, the UK, Europe and internationally for over twenty years. The main focus of her work until 1999 was site-specific installations which were commissioned for a wide variety of locations, including Dublin Airport, a cathedral in Wales and military fortifications in Ireland, Scotland and Finland. She has participated in numerous residency programmes including those at NIFCA (Finland) and the Vermont Studio Centre. In 1999 she was commissioned by the International Institute of Visual Art, InIVA, to work on a website, which marked a change of direction in her work. From 1995-98 Una Walker was the Chair of the Artists Association of Ireland, and from 1995-97 she was also President of the International Association of Artists. She has published widely on issues connected with artists’ working environment. In 2008 she was awarded a PhD by the University of Ulster. www.unawalker.com E: [email protected]
Sinead O’Donnell
Sinéad O’Donnell has worked in performance, installation, site and time-based art for the past 15 years. Originally from Dublin and based in Belfast, Sinéad studied sculpture at the University of Ulster, textiles in Dublin and visual performance and time-based practices at Dartington College of Arts, graduating with distinction in 2003.
Her work explores identity, borders and barriers through encounters with territory and the territorial. She sets up actions or situations that demonstrate complexities, contradictions or commonality between medium and discipline, timing and spontanaeity, intuition and methodology, artist and audience. She uses photography, video, text and collage to record her performances which often reveals an ongoing interest in the co-existence of other women and systems of kinship and identity.
W: www.sineadodonnell.com E: [email protected]
Stuart Calvin
Born in Belfast 1974, Stuart Calvin Graduated from the University Of Ulster in 2011 with a BA hons in fine and applied art and in 2016 with a Masters Degree in Fine Art. He has recently been awarded The Royal of British Sculptors Bursary. Calvin was the first recipient of the Annual Gerard Dillon Award and Solo Show, selected by the Arts committee of Culturlann Belfast. He received the University of Ulster Deans list award and bursary 2009 for excellence and achievement. Calvin has also received several Awards from the Northern Ireland Arts council and ADF Ireland and has recently completed the Career Enhancement Programme, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Calvin’s installation and sculptural work draws on familiar symbolism from magic, mysticism and the occult. His work explores incorporeal worlds, supernatural experiences and the human propensity to venerate and fetishise objects. Throughout Calvin’s work, references to New Age ideologies, superstitions and theories of consciousness are ever present. The work forms connections between the visible and invisible, the physical and metaphysical, the known and the unknown.
Exhibitions include: 'GROUP SHOW' Golden Thread Belfast, 2015. 'Presently' Group show, Millennium Court, Portadown 2014. 'Fata Morgana' Group show, Catalyst Belfast, 2012. ‘The Moment Between' Solo show, Dillon Gallery Belfast, 2012. ‘Greater Than I’, Golden Thread Gallery, 2017.
W: stuartcalvin.co.uk E: [email protected]
Helouise O’Reilly
Helouise O’Reilly born 1984 in Belfast, has a BA in Fine Art from University of Ulster and she recently completed an MFA in 2017. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and her series of videos, Ballymun, was featured in the Belfast Film Festival in 2016. She was this years recipient of the Catalyst Arts Emerging Artist award. She was Artist-In-Residence at DAS. Recent exhibitions include ‘Disorder’, Arts and Disability Fourum, Belfast (2017) and ‘Transmit’, Platform (2017). She works in video, photography and object making.
W: www.helouiseoreilly.com E: [email protected]
Tonya McMullan
Tonya McMullan is an interdisciplinary artist who studied Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art. Through the course of her practise she has been involved with and initiated many artist run projects including Infinity Farm - an urban agriculture and art project and the Bath House, a visual art and residency space in Belfast. Tonya is a recipient of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Artist Career Enhancement Award and in 2015 this culminated in a solo presentation of a performative installation, Sit Down Cross Legs Link Arms, at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry-Londonderry. Tonya’s practise revolves around the exploration of everyday life in the public space through context-specific, process-based, participatory and performative interactions and interventions within a place. The running themes often center around the everyday experience and the work draws on the unique qualities of a space or situation; sometimes relying on public interactions to complete the work. Often working collaboratively in a social context the work manifests in an experience either in or informed by public space. Essentially Tonya’s work explores the context of her environment and its confines in an attempt to both challenge and touch the participant/ viewer. www.tonyamcmullan.co.uk www.infinityfarm.info
Hugh O’Donnell Hugh O’Donnell b.1978 Dublin and studied art, design and mixed media at Ballyfermot Senior College Dublin obtaining N.C.V.A Level 2 qualification to progress to third level education. O’Donnell then completed an degree in sculpture and a master’s degree (M.F.A) in fine art all from the University of Ulster Belfast.
O’Donnell practice is abstract in essence but he draws inspiration/idea’s and tries to be pro- active in protest through his work which is informed by human rights/sexuality/gender/disability. O’Donnell’s practice is mainly performance art/drawings/installation. O’Donnell’s work is auto-personal in nature and has been exhibited and funded by many different art galleries and organisations like: LAB gallery Dublin, Catalyst Art Belfast, IMAF Serbia, Arsenal Gallery Bialystok Poland, Water Loo Centre for the Arts Iowa U.S.A, Animal Gallery Santiago Chile, Performance Space London U.K to name but a few. He has made work site-specifically, in galleries, non-profits and unusual spaces.
O’Donnell has done many residencies and has facilitated many workshops globally. He has completed many commissions and has been funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland & Ireland and also the British Council & The Austrian Council for the Arts Linz Austria and The Chilean Cultural Centre, Santiago Chile.
Lesley Cherry Based in Belfast, Cherry studied at the University of Ulster, gaining her BA Hons in Fine & Applied Art and graduated from the Master of Fine Art course in 2011. She was awarded Artists Enhancement Award (ACES) from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) in 2013/14, the ACNI ARCH Development Artists Residency in Washington DC, in 2012 and individual ACNI SIAP Awards in 2005, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2016. She is currently based at Creative Exchange Studios.
She is also an experienced socially engaged artist working with contentious groups across Northern Ireland, using art as a catalyst for change and discussion. This work influences and informs her own practice.
She has exhibited across Ireland at The Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, VOID, Derry, Artslink, Buncrana and Sligo Arts Centre, Washington DC, New York, Bilbao and is in private collections in Italy, UK, El Salvador, America, South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka.
W: lesleycherry.wordpress.com
John Rainey John Rainey is an artist working in sculpture, ceramics and 3D print, exploring themes of technology, artifice, and the human figure. He completed his Master’s degree at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2012. John is an associated artist of Marsden Woo Gallery, London, where his first solo exhibition was held in 2013. Recent exhibitions include ‘Less + More’ at Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin, ‘(Im)material Artefacts’ at National Museum Wales, and his solo presentation ‘On Visibility’ at Golden Thread Gallery Project Space, Belfast. In 2013 John completed a residency at Konstfack University for the Creative Arts as the Anglo-Swedish Society’s Visual Arts Scholar, and was recently awarded the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s British School at Rome Fellowship for 2018.
Dan Shipsides is an artist based at Orchid Studios, Belfast and also teaches at the Belfast School of Art. As well as his individual practice, since 2004 many projects have also been co- authored with Neal Beggs (Shipsides and Beggs Projects / SBP) based in northern France with whom he shares a love of art, mountains, music and creative madness.
He (inc. SBP), has exhibited nationally and internationally including; Le Bel Ordinaire, Pau, France (No Shooting in this Area); L’Orangerie, Bastogne, Belgium (Still not out of the woods); ACCA, Melbourne (Desire Lines); The MAC, Belfast (Still not out of the woods); Aliceday Gallery, Brussels (Vigil | Star); South London Gallery (Games & Theory); Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (Radical Architecture); Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (Elastic Frontiers); Konsthall C, Stockholm, Sweden (Under plattan, ängen!); Platform Guranti, Istanbul (Hit & Run); Confederation Gallery, PEI, Canada (Beauty Queens); HEDAH, Maastricht (Rochers à Fontainebleau); Riga Sculpture Quadrennial, Latvia (European Space); Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (Beta); Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (Pioneers); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (Sporting Life); Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (Endure); Melbourne International Biennial, Australia (Signs of Life). Amongst several commissions, Dan Shipsides was recently commissioned by Artist Experimental Moving Image to produce new work for the Port / River / City project 2017. His work is in several public and private collections including; The Ulster Museum, The Art Gallery of Victoria and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He was awarded an AHRC award in 2001 (Lateral Practice and Climbing) and 2006 (Touchstone), the ACNI Major Artist Award in 2004, in 2000 the Nissan Art Award / IMMA (Bamboo Support) Dublin and 1998 won the OBG Perspective award, Belfast (The Stone Bridge).
Peter Richards Peter Richards is an artist based in Belfast, in the North of Ireland. He works in a range of media including forms of photography, installation and performance. His works can be seen as artistic enquiries into subjects, such as: how understanding is formed and truth is subscribed to; how we have the capacity to suspend belief in order to continue believing in chosen truths. Richards often engages with interactions between re-presentation, time and referencing. He exhibits internationally and, in 2005, participated in Northern Ireland’s inaugural presentation at the Venice Biennale, ‘The Nature of Things – A Long Weekend’.
Having grappled with comprehending how understanding is formed and truth is subscribed to, Richards has, throughout his practice, questioned: how he chooses what he believes?; how this is informed?; and how he can suspend belief in order to continue to believe in seemingly temporary constructs of a truth?
W: www.richardspeter.co.uk
Alistair Wilson Born in Penarth in 1951, Wilson studied at Preston Polytechnic, Bath Academy and Chelsea School of Art, also spending a year in Berlin on a DAAD Postgraduate Fellowship in 1975. Work produced during this period was exhibited as a solo show at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien and at the 6th Berliner Frier Kunst Austellung under the DAAD umbrella. Between 1979 and 2011 he combined work as a lecturer at the University of Ulster with a concentrated studio practice and, in 2002, was appointed Course Leader for the prestigious Master of Fine Art course, a position he held until 2011. In 2008 he was appointed Reader in Fine Art. During the 80s he was represented in Ireland by the Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin and latterly, until 2011, by Hugh Mulholland at the Third Space Gallery, Belfast. He has exhibited extensively throughout this period both at home and abroad, including: installations for Dogs have no religion, Museum of Modern Art, Prague; Irish Artists, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Pittsburgh, USA; and a residency at the Nuovo Icona Gallery, Venice, culminating in the installation Fonte at the Oratorio San Ludovico, 2003. Wilson has had numerous solo shows at the Oliver Dowling Gallery in Dublin and was one of fourteen artists that represented Northern Ireland in the 2005 Venice Biennale as part of The Nature of Things, curated by Hugh Mullholland. In more recent years he has had solo exhibitions in Belfast, Derry, Manchester and Berlin.
Simon McWilliams Simon McWilliams (1970) studied painting at the Royal Academy Schools in London, he has received almost 30 awards for his paintings, in the last 20 years including the Guinness Award at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, a Major Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Perpetual Gold Medal and Silver Medals from the Royal Ulster Academy. For more than 20 years Simon McWilliams has proven himself to have a unique painterly voice gathering accolades and awards in the USA, London and Ireland. www.simonmcwilliams.com
Dougal McKenzie Dougal McKenzie, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1968. Living and working in Northern Ireland since 1990. 1986-90 B.A. (Hons) Fine Art, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen 1990-91 M.A. Fine Art, University of Ulster at Belfast 1994-96 Co-director at Catalyst Arts, Belfast 1996-2003 Lecturer in Painting, Limerick School of Art and Design 2004-11 Course Leader in Foundation Studies, SRC Newry 2011-present Lecturer in Painting and Course Co-Leader BA Fine Art, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University.
Selected Solo Shows and Projects 2011 Hot and Cool, The Third Space Gallery, Belfast 2017 A Dream and an Argument, The MAC, Belfast
Selected Group Exhibitions 2014 The MAC International, Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast (curated by Francesco Bonami, Hugh Mulholland and Judith Nesbitt) 2017 Get’Cha Head In The Game, Naughton Gallery at Queen’s, Belfast (curated by Ben Crothers and Rachel Brown)
Based at Queen’s Street Studios, Belfast and QSS at Bedford Street from 2004-2016. Currently based at Orchid Studios, Belfast, since 2016.
Colin Darke Colin Darke was born in 1957 and grew up in Surrey in the south of England. He moved to London in 1977 to study Fine Art at Goldsmiths College and relocated to the north of Ireland in 1988, living in Derry for twenty years and in Belfast since 2008. He completed his PhD at the University of Ulster in 2010.
His work has been mostly text based since around 1990, originally derived from “comms” – republican prisoners’ letters, written in small writing onto cigarette papers for smuggling out of gaol. His wall pieces, consisting of text and images, were made in response to Marx’s writings on base and superstructure.
The largest text piece is Capital (2000-2003), consisting of the three volumes of Marx’s magnum opus written by hand onto 480 two-dimensional readymade objects. As a result of considering the nature of the readymade from a Marxist economic perspective, he made a follow-up piece, The Capital Paintings (2004-2007), which equalised the commodities used in Capital through making an oil painting of each of the 480 objects used.
Recent work has responded to historical moments, particularly to the Paris Commune of 1871. Many of these works reference Gustave Courbet’s still life paintings of fruit made during his imprisonment for his part in the Commune, his rotting apples acting as metaphors for the Communards killed in the massacre of Bloody Week.
Following the development of the large installation commissioned by The MAC in Belfast (2014), he is returning to his questioning of the Duchampian readymade, attempting to invest objects with historical significance, no longer reliant on textual contextualisation. Darke was the winner of the inaugural (all-Ireland) VAI Suki Tea Art Prize in 2015. www.colindarke.co.uk
Gary Shaw Born in Harrogate, England in 1962 and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Shaw came to Belfast in 1997 to study for a Master of Fine Art at the University of Ulster. He first came to prominence for his series of paintings based on the colourful silks worn by jockeys and then maritime signal flags. He has exhibited widely all over the world and his work is held in many private and public collections including Queen’s University.
Susan MacWilliam Working with video, photography and installation Susan MacWilliam investigates obscure and overlooked histories, and cases of perceptual and paranormal phenomena. Her subjects include psychic mediums, ectoplasm, X-ray vision, telepathy, table tilting, remote viewing and dermo optical perception. Born in Belfast in 1969 Susan MacWilliam represented Northern Ireland at the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009. She is a lecturer at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. She has exhibited extensively with solo exhibitions in Ireland, the UK, Slovenia, Canada and the USA. Her work is held in the British Library’s Sound Archive. She is represented by CONNERSMITH, Washington, DC.
Between September and December 2017 MacWilliam’s survey exhibition Modern Experiments will tour to West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen and Bulter Gallery, Kilkenny. Modern Experiments began its tour at F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge in 2016, followed by Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda in 2017.
AN ANSWER IS EXPECTED, a book by Susan MacWilliam and designed by Peter Maybury will be published in Autumn 2017 by NN Contemporary Art, QUAD and CONNERSMITH. The publication documents MacWilliam’s 2013–14 body of work developed from her studies of the historic ESP and telepathy work of parapsychologist Dr J.B. Rhine. http://susanmacwilliam.com/ https://vimeo.com/susanmacwilliam
Susan MacWilliam: MODERN EXPERIMENTS MODERN EXPERIMENTS is a mid-career solo survey exhibition of video, installation and photographic work. http://www.susanmacwilliam.com/modern-experiments Image Credit: Modern Experiments, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 2017 Photograph by Ros Kavanagh Courtesy of Susan MacWilliam and CONNERSMITH
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