Spring Exhibition, 2013

Spring Exhibition2013

2 Peppercanister Gallery

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Spring ExhibitionPeppercanister Gallery Dublin1 – 30 March 2013

Peppercanister Editions

This book was published by the Peppercanister Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition

Spring Exhibition1-30 March 2013 Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

Copyright © the artists, the authors and the Peppercanister Gallery.

Peppercanister Gallery3 Herbert Street, Dublin 2, Ireland T: +353 (0) 1 6611279 E: [email protected]

www.peppercanister.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, elecrical, mechanical or otherwise, without first seeking the written permission of the copyright owners and of the publisher.

Editor Hannah Brogan

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Introduction

Plates

About The Gallery

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Contents


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Introduction

Peppercanister Gallery presents its annual Spring Exhibition featuring an exciting selection of modern Irish & British painting and sculpture by artists of great distinction and achievement. This year’s exhibition will feature a major work by Albert Irvin RA from 1994 titled Beacon II. Irvin turned 90 yearls old last year and is one of Britain’s greatest living abstract painters of the last 50 years.

Also on view will be new work by Liam Belton RHA, as well as a work by renowned Scottish-born artist John Bellany RA (whose 70th birthday was recently honoured with a retrospective at The National Gallery, Edinburgh). A modern allegorical scene Et in Arcadia Nos after Poussin from artist Conor Walton, along with very fine examples by Barrie Cooke HRHA, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Deirdre McLoughlin, Hughie O’Donoghue and Neil Shawcross RHA combine to make a cogently diverse and engaging exhibition.

Bryan Murphy

Gallery Director


Liam Belton

Girl Reading and

Bottles oil on canvas

Liam Belton is a Dublin based artist and member of the RHA since 1991. Renowned as a master of still life his name is synonymous with extraordinarily realistic compositions that are meticulously rendered in his characteristic, cool tones. A prime example of Belton’s work, Girl Reading and Bottles depicts humble household objects that have been arranged in a precise yet somewhat casual manner. The egg remains an ever-present element of his work and is fundamental to the composition.

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Barrie Cooke

Lake Pukaki & Patterson’s

oil on canvas

Barrie Cooke is a widely travelled artist whose richly expressionist, semi-abstract paintings have been strongly influenced by time spent in places such as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaya. Cooke’s artworks depict the variety and flux of nature. This painting of Lake Pukaki was inspired during a period of time Cooke spent in New Zealand. The lake itself was formed by receding glaciers which resulted in the water turning a very distinctive powder blue colour.

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Du Pasquier was born in Bordeaux, France and has lived and worked in Milan since 1979. Until 1986 she worked as a designer and was a founding member of Memphis, an influentialItalian design and architecture group that produced Post Modern interior pieces. An artist with a great breadth to her skill she designed numerous decorated surfaces including textiles, carpets, plastic laminates and some furniture and objects. In 1987 painting became her main artistic activity yet a strong element of design remains evident on her canvases. Du Pasquier paints both recognisable household objects and more abstract works that bring to mind domesticity with playful, colourful juxtapositions.

Nathalie Du Pasquier

Half a Shoe

oil on canvas

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Nathalie Du Pasquier

Seltzer Bottle

oil on canvas

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Albert Irvin is regarded as one of Britain’s foremost living abstract painters. Best known for his exuberant paintings, watercolours, screenprints and gouaches, Irvin’s art tends to focus on capturing and exploring his worldly experiences. Since the 1950’s he has been exploring the possibilities of paint, colour and the non-figurative form. Best known for his large, brilliantly hued canvases, Beacon II is a impeccable example of Irvin’s style and skill.

Albert Irvin

Beacon II

oil on canvas

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Deirdre McLoughlin is a ceramic sculptor who was born in Dublin but now lives and works in Amsterdam. A fascinating dialogue between classical ceramic forms and functions surrounds her work. The perfection of her creations and their surfaces lends a far greater physical presence to the works than their size suggests. In fact, this constant quest for perfection finds close kin to Japanese tradition where the connection between beauty and skill is understood in a more subtle way than it is further West in the world.

Deirdre McLoughlin

Empty Form X

ceramic

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Simon McWilliams is a Belfast based painter whose artistic subject matter is primarily urban architecture, especially large construction sites which he interprets with a wild exuberance of colour. He also paints botanical greenhouses from both the exterior and within. McWilliams has a great ability to capture large, emotionless structures and pass them through his painterly imagination, transforming them into things of beauty, surrounded by a dizzying chaos of colour.

Simon McWilliams

Belfast Apartments

oil on canvas

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Colette Murphy was born in Co. Wexford and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. As an artist she is committed to recording the world as she perceives it and is most interested in the reading of specific events, rather than the event itself. Her primary objective is to capture and draw attention to the moments that prelude the image displayed on the canvas. The Color of Money is a snapshot of the New Orleans landscape post Hurricane Katrina. Here we see a once functioning machine lying lifeless amongst the backdrop of a region that has been assaulted by nature.

Colette Murphy

The Color of Money

acrylic on raw linen

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Having been exhibiting internationally since 1982 Hughie O’Donoghue has gained a reputation as one of the leading painters of his generation. His methods come out of a deep understanding of the tradition of painting. O’Donoghue’s works utilize the practice of both abstraction and figurative painting, an approach that is said to demonstrate the respect he has for the history of art. Living and working in Kilkenny, O’Donoghue has been inspired by his family history and the Irish landscape. Using specific narratives such as The Famine and his father’s experiences in World War II, he explores ideas of place and identity in his artwork.

Hughie O’Donoghue

The Last Summer

oil and photographic image on board

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Neil Shawcross

Balanced for Life

oil on canvas

Neil Shawcross’ practice is dominated by portraiture and still life. His influences are primarily French and he is considered to be one the most innovative and exciting figurative artists working in Ireland today. Shawcross takes the time-honoured tradition of capturing the still life and translates it into artworks that are infinitely varied and magically modern. He sources his subjects from his surroundings, his home, local coffee shops and advertising, translating the ordinary domesticity of the object into a painterly statement invested with character.

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Conor Walton is a Dublin born artist who lives and works in Co. Wicklow. His piece Et in Arcadia Nos is a family portrait, among other things. Painted over a number of years, the work ever evolving, he started on the right hand side with his partner and as his sons were born they too found their place. The title translates to We too are in Arcady and is a reworking of Et in Arcadia Ego (I too am in Arcady), the name of Poussin’s famous painting. Arcadia refers to a mythical golden age of humanity, a paradise in which nature was so abundant and life so simple that there existed a childlike optimism and the concept of mortality was unknown.

Conor Walton

Et In Arcadia Nos

oil on linen

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Charlie Whisker

Flowers for Mother

oil on canvas

Charlie Whisker grew up in Bangor, Co. Down and now lives and works in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Sweet and sour images tend to litter his work, the tragic and the joyful. Whisker likes to involve the viewers, giving them a forensic type scene to piece together in their heads. His paintings combine stark graphics and a cool light with occasional bursts of colour. This is a work that is full of movement. The vase of flowers appear caught in a whirlwind of movement which will undoubtedly result in them tipping over. Scattered throughout the canvas are items of what appear to be debris, a trademark of Whisker’s artwork. The burnt out match, for example, is a constant feature. The ladybird and fireflies represent the persistence of life in the chaos that surrounds it.

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About The Gallery

The Peppercanister Gallery came into being as a result of the Murphy family’s lifelong involvement in the arts. Antoinette Murphy is a trained artist and art historian and has taught and lectured on Irish art extensively for many years. She established the Peppercanister Gallery at 3 Herbert Street, Dublin 2 in the autumn of 1999 with her son Bryan. Bryan began his career in Sotheby’s London office, before working at The Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. He took over as Director of Peppercanister Gallery in 2010.

The gallery is located in an elegant Georgian building near to Dublin’s bustling city center, and just a short stroll from The National Art Gallery. Known as Baggotonia, the area comprises Dublin’s historic ‘left bank’ and is associated with many of Ireland’s greatest artists and writers, including Francis Bacon, Mainie Jellett, Mary Swanzy, Oscar Wilde, Oliver St John Gogarty, W B Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and Flann O’Brien not to mention no less than four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature — W B Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.

The annual programme includes a series of solo exhibitions and Group Shows. Gallery artists include the following: Liam Belton RHA, Neil Shawcross RUA, RHA, Breon O’Casey, Abigail O’Brien RHA, Charlie Whisker, John Bellany, Deirdre McLoughlin, Sonja Landweer, Anne Donnelly, Graham Gingles, RUA. Joseph O’Connor, Sarah Longley, Ann Griffin-Bernstorff, Robert Janz, Brian Ballard, RUA. Liam Roberts, and Albert Irvin RA. Works by the following artists are also featured regularly in the Gallery: Mary Swanzy, HRHA. Evie Hone, HRHA. Mainie Jellett, Tony O’Malley, HRHA. Gerard Dillon, Louis le Brocquy, HRHA. Patrick Scott, HRHA. Camille Souter, HRHA. Basil Blackshaw, HRHA.


Peppercanister Gallery

3 Herbert Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

T: +353 (0) 1 6611279. E: [email protected]

W: www.peppercanister.com

Documents

Spring Exhibition, 2013