Category Archives: review

Marilyn Arsem at Transactions, Belfast, 3 May, 2018.

Posted on July 13, 2018 by

Sitting on a bench in front of the Castle Court shopping centre in Belfast, Arsem did some hand sewing.  At her feet two bags – one with bodies and heads of  soft toys she bought whole but dismembered, the other … Continue reading →

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Brian Wallace, Pieces, June 2018, Engine Room Gallery, Belfast

Posted on July 12, 2018 by

This kind of playful courage to reminisce on gestural abstract expressionism belongs to this painter’s youth and memory of it.  The broken world of strong hues without attachment to a story  or an object is naturally suitable to express a … Continue reading →

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Mark Francis Fenning, Polaroid Boys, Ards Art Centre, until 30 June 2018

Posted on July 6, 2018 by

During a passive contemplation it all looked like polaroids: white framed,  round frame, no frame, and assemblage.  As if multitude of sameness were exercised to include differences. As images of male persons, faces or torsos, they tell of identities.  Until … Continue reading →

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After an Act. Golden Thread Gallery Belfast, 26th May – 14th July 2018

Posted on June 14, 2018 by

I just read that Boo Saville  sands back painted layers until the canvas gleams. (https://frieze.com/article/damien-hirst-spotlights-emerging-talent-his-newport-street-gallery-show)   Vanishing of  brushstrokes and tones  until the canvas shines   vanishes also a  painting canon like  the albertian window, gesture paintings etc.  Reminds me of Hans Magnus … Continue reading →

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Pat Harris, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, 24 May – 23 June 2018

Posted on May 31, 2018 by

Compared to Pat Harris’s  recent paintings of flowers the marks above are not only heavily saturated  but in the process of metamorphosis – a man’s body with arms stretched apart  took orders from Ovidius  Naso, marking the vase and the … Continue reading →

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David Moore, Lisa and John, Belfast Exposed, May 4 – June 16 2018

Posted on May 22, 2018 by

The eighteen  photographs Pictures from the Real World  are displayed  in a rumbling visual essay of small formats that accentuates the feeling of gentle trespassing into  private lives, this time with the  enthusiastic agreement of the participating family.   If the … Continue reading →

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Clare Gallagher, Verges, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, May 3 – June 30 2018

Posted on May 20, 2018 by

Clare Gallagher does not name each image in the set of Verges, instead, she gives the viewer the choice to attend closely  and directly to the subject her photography,  weeds:   ” They defy preoccupations with property and boundaries, growing wherever  suits … Continue reading →

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Charlie Scott, What Fell From the Mountain, The Georgian Gallery, Newtownards, 19 April – 24 May 2018

Posted on May 17, 2018 by

“Growing  surrounded by the silent bogs, lakes and halted railway line in Co Donegal, I am interested in nature…” would have been enough of an introduction to Scott’s  peaty paintings.  Nevertheless the young painter  feels the pressure to propose  an … Continue reading →

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Elizabeth Magill, Headland, Ulster Museum, Belfast, 11 May – 23 September, 2018

Posted on May 15, 2018 by

  In a sight rooted practice the similarities and differences between these two  images have defining power.  They define even those images that are on their own.  These landscapes are a modern equivalent of Plato’s answer to Timaeus asking  how  … Continue reading →

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The Fragmented Mind, MAC, Belfast, 4 May -29 July 2018

Posted on May 11, 2018 by

It is an exhibition  and  several events that include: Friday Lunchtime Recitals (horn, cello, orchestra, harp), poetry reading on a Saturday, screenings a films on Tuesdays, lectures on Thursday and nine workshops offered by artists Sharon Kelly, Ursula Burke and Tonya McMullan.  … Continue reading →

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HELEN G BLAKE, New Paintings, Fenderesky Gallery Belfast, 26 April – 18 May 2018

Posted on May 7, 2018 by

Fourteen images each  in one of three sizes favoured by Blake for years now –  are beautifully displayed in a gentle embrace of pristine white walls.   They are reminiscent of abstract paintings rewarded in 2006 by the Turner Price … Continue reading →

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Helena Hamilton, Semblance and Event, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown, 7April -23 May 2018

Posted on May 7, 2018 by

Light.  Invitation to unthink the familiarity of the tube lights, the inevitability of a particular use.  Standing near it, watching, looking, walking around, near and away,   reminded me of  Keyezua’s  recent comment on her photographies: “After finishing at the Royal … Continue reading →

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Anka Lesniak, Invisible inVisible, 2017

Posted on January 7, 2018 by

With a subtitle  “Women disconnected from the history” the paperback  was published by Stowarzyszenie Sztuka i Dokumentacja (ISBN 978-83-931176-6-6). I have added ISBN so that you may identify the book,  missing little signs and accents in writing Polish names on this … Continue reading →

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Shonky:The Aesthetics of Awkwardness, MAC, Belfast, 20 October 2017 – 14 January 2018

Posted on November 15, 2017 by

 The exhibition aims to explore the nature of visual awkwardness through the work of artists and architects Arakawa and Gins; Cosima von Bonin; Niki de Saint Phalle; Benedict Drew; Justin Favela; Duggie Fields; Louise Fishman; Friedensreich Hundertwasser; Kate Lepper; Andrew … Continue reading →

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Willie Heron: Sculptures and works on paper, Fenderesky Gallery Belfast, 12 October- 10 November 2017

Posted on November 6, 2017 by

They  exceed a size of hand, of handheld art like Books of Hours, whose investment in private thought is difficult to surpass. Yet, the need to protect freedom of thought is as great and urgent as in the 20th C … Continue reading →

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Hughie O’Donoghue: The Tempest, Carlisle Memorial Church, Belfast, 10 – 28 October, 2017

Posted on November 1, 2017 by

The slowly self-destructing 19th C neo- gothic building has offered genuinely enhancing milieu to view the tarpaulin sized paintings. The Steady Drummer and Night Visitor are both 12x18ft and Cargo measures 12x24ft. With the smaller paintings  the installation has evoked … Continue reading →

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Graham Gingles: Boxes and Drawings, Fenderesky Gallery Belfast, 7th Sept – 7th October 2017

Posted on October 1, 2017 by

Boxes in the upstairs gallery – and few impressive drawings.  I like reading drawings – they tell what a final work of art hides. Note – I do not think of it as finished, just as of final version stopped … Continue reading →

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Helen Blake, David Crone, Tony Hill: Works on paper, Fenderesky Gallery I, Belfast, Sept 7 – Oct 7, 2017

Posted on September 29, 2017 by

Works on paper – what does it mean to you? It is a specific art speak  born out of undisciplined open ended dionysian intoxication with multitude of materials an artist can use to make visual art on the ubiquitous paper. … Continue reading →

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ALISTAIR WILSON: Signs and ciphers, GTG Belfast, 3 August – 19th September 2017

Posted on September 22, 2017 by

I open up with a paraphrase of  recent research: Like so many artworks, the brain is largely an object of mystery. One secret yet to be discovered is how the fragile folds of matter locked inside our skulls can not … Continue reading →

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Unafraid Yellow (August 4 -31) and Unafraid Blue (September 8-28) at QSS, Belfast, 2017

Posted on September 20, 2017 by

A variant of these  toy  was soldiers exhibited, not so lushly yellow,  spiralled around a column supporting the gallery ceiling could have been  easily overlooked. In a spirit of Barnett Newman’s aesthetic discourse my first image here represents both the … Continue reading →

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CAPTURED: Rich, Rugged and Fresh, Goose Lane Gallery, Belfast, 7th – 23rd September 2017

Posted on September 11, 2017 by

My first visit to this small gallery behind the Tivoli Barber’s  shop in North Street happened courtesy  the painter Gary Shaw.   Until this encounter,  I failed  to register an art group  Belfast Bankers, a name inspired by  the group … Continue reading →

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Dougal McKenzie: A Dream and an Argument, 30 June – 8 October, 2017, the MAC, Belfast

Posted on August 6, 2017 by

  Whatever subject, motif, intention,  McKenzie  leans towards being a history painter born in  Scotland, a root  which he intensely identifies with as if it were palpably one living organism akin to a family.  With few exceptions, McKenzie frames and … Continue reading →

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Bill Saunders: Side Steps These Ferried Measures Rise, 30 June – 24 September 2017, MAC, Belfast

Posted on July 18, 2017 by

  Bill Saunders named the sculptural assemblage on the floor  “…pool (floor and counting). From this angle it looks like a headless protective clothing of an explorer placed here by a tide that got muddled in arranging the other end. … Continue reading →

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Diarmuid Delargy, Monotypes, 15 June- 28 July, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast

Posted on June 23, 2017 by

  The cubist painter  Andre Lhote (1885 -1962) jealously  chastised  Emil Filla (1882 – 1953) for being  “plus Picassian que Picasso  lui même” – a   memory of which surfaced when I saw one particularly superb  monotype  at the  current … Continue reading →

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Sharon Kelly at ArtisAnn Gallery Belfast, May 4-27 2017

Posted on May 18, 2017 by

Sharon Kelly watercolours with graphite  form a half of two persons exhibition titled Dissolving into ambiguity  with Lenka Davidikova( b 1980, Dolny Kubin,  Slovak Republic).  Both  graduated from the University of Ulster – 26 years apart. I have written about Kelly’s … Continue reading →

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Stuart Calvin, Greater than I, May 4 – 18 2017, GTG Belfast

Posted on May 12, 2017 by

          Stuart Calvin wrote to me: “The process for creating the plaster forms involves pouring the plaster directly onto a flat smooth surface. Before the plaster fully sets, I shape them until they are slightly domed. … Continue reading →

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Unafraid Red, April 6 – May 4, 2017, QSS Belfast

Posted on May 9, 2017 by

Unafraid Red  (and the following U-Yellow, U-Blue and U-White)  curated by Dr Colin Darke has been inspired by Barnett Newman’s  Who is afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue ( four paintings made between 1966 -1970 as a pun on Albee’s play)) … Continue reading →

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ADRIAN O’CONNELL: INTERSTICE, March 2017, Engine Room Gallery, Belfast

Posted on April 2, 2017 by

The ribbon window of the gallery on second floor of this modernist building offered picturesque view over Belfast and light and calm to envelope O’Connell’s   paintings. A gentle host to the unleashed passion for the modernist idiom. Yet, it made … Continue reading →

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Michael Hanna: Predictable Contact, Naughton Gallery Belfast, 16.02.17 – 26.03.17

Posted on March 17, 2017 by

The installation is made up of four TV monitors  and a continuous projection on the wall. The  colours and sounds of Predictable Contact,  while allowing me the freedom to play

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David Turner: A Series of Small Explosions,QSS Gallery Belfast, 23-25

Posted on March 1, 2017 by

Mosaics? Tapestries? Embroidery?  The look of Turner’s objects constructed from Lego Bricks or Hama Beads meanders from  an association to toys, to rules of construction controlled by gravity or frames. The sizes vary from huge Megaton #1 and #2  to … Continue reading →

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BOSTON,02/02/17 – 11/0317 Belfast. Golden Thread Gallery

Posted on February 20, 2017 by

From the University of Massachussetts  via a dialogue at Scope NY, 2015, to the Project Space at the GTG in Belfast is a journey less startling than the  choice of making Belfast a  Sister City for Boston. Yet, in 2014 … Continue reading →

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LISA GINGLES, 2 February – 3 March 2017, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast

Posted on February 15, 2017 by

  ARTIST’S STATEMENT   My work is influenced by many things; mythology, folk tales and invented stories, leaving their dark side laid bare.   It is about my life, the lives of others, and sometimes the life of no one at … Continue reading →

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Catherine Davison, A Kaleidoscope of Colour, QSS, Belfast, 19 -21 January 2017

Posted on January 26, 2017 by

Queen Street Studios started a new tradition: Flash Show offering their ground floor rooms  at 31-33 Bedford Street for  a brief exhibitions  – like a visit to a studio.   Davison’s  Kaleidoscope of Colour   is the first of a planned series, … Continue reading →

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Lorraine Burrell at GTG, Belfast, May 2016

Posted on May 20, 2016 by

THESE DAYS ARE PERSISTENT AND CHANGEABLE is a title of an exhibition of art by Lorraine Burrell and Martin Boyle,  at the Golden Thread Gallery from 28.04 – 11.06 2016. What days are not that? Yours? Mine?  Whatever answer is … Continue reading →

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SHE DEVIL

Posted on January 28, 2016 by

SHE DEVIL in BELFAST, Golden Thread Gallery, 17/12/2015 – 6/2/2016 I have not heard of the Italian architect who created the SHE DEVIL project. On her website (www.studiostefaniamiscetti.com) she offers impressive list of artists who responded to her invitation. It … Continue reading →

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HELEN G BLAKE at Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, 16 April – 16 May 2015

Posted on May 10, 2015 by

At the time of writing, this exhibition  of fourteen small paintings has not  been  documented on her website (www.helengblake.com). Their sizes around  A 4 or a one fifth bigger forge a call for privacy, not unlike  covers  or title pages … Continue reading →

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Gary Shaw: Ocular, at Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, September 4 – 25, 2014

Posted on October 8, 2014 by

    Pristine, precise, poignant, poetic – they tell of human consciousness meticulously coding imaginative power of colour.Which one, where, how much, at what angle  – those are

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LISA STANSBIE, PLATFORM ARTS, BELFAST, 5 -26 SEPTEMBER 2014

Posted on October 4, 2014 by

  A photograph  of the artist who as a qualified  swimmer  obeys the rules overseen by official bodies, The Channel Swims and Piloting Federation or Channel Swimming Association. That hierarchy  is somewhat undermined by her  determined stare  signalling her being … Continue reading →

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Colin Darke: Grotesque Mediocrity, Mac Belfast, 8 August – 19 October 2014

Posted on September 15, 2014 by

The spiral from the veritable belly of Monsieur  UBU flew over  118 years and over the distance from Paris to Belfast courtesy of an artists’ artist Dr  Colin Darke.

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Peter Liversidge: Doppelganger at MAC Belfast, 8 August -19 October, 2014

Posted on September 14, 2014 by

  First exhibited by Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh  from  1st August till  21st September 2013  the  facsimiles  of  ten Max Klinger’s  etchings from 1881,  and Liversidge’ s large scale prints of them  were complemented by an imagined room, constructed in … Continue reading →

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Graham Gingles at MAC, Belfast, 2014

Posted on September 12, 2014 by

Graham Gingles  at MAC,  August, Belfast, 2014 As Fukuyama put it: in the post-historical period there will be neither art nor philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history. A phase of contemporary art has also been … Continue reading →

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Molly O’Dwyer, Becoming Imperceptible, Platform Arts, Belfast, 3-23 July 2014

Posted on July 15, 2014 by

  This still from the video Repositioned, 2013, is becoming iconic, appearing on a poster, and  on the gallery Facebook page.   It summarises in its tacit visual mode the stable structure of unstable meaning,  when objects insist both on having an identity … Continue reading →

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John Robinson, Installation, June 2014, University of Ulster, Belfast

Posted on July 1, 2014 by

  The following short statement  is John Robinson introduction to the two installations for the MFA final exhibition. Transfigure originates from the subtle changes of light that occur at Dawn and Dusk, in which visual awareness is heightened and a there … Continue reading →

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Jennifer Trouton, Ties that Bind, 2013

Posted on June 4, 2014 by

  This oil on linen  differs  by its size 158 x 188 cm, from the rest of Trouton’s oeuvre I have seen. Most are  small scale still lives, 14.5 x 14.5 cm, arranged in large grids. Its width is significant … Continue reading →

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Susan Connolly, Something about Some Things to do With Paint

Posted on May 24, 2014 by

Curated by Hugh Mulholland at MAC, Belfast, 9May – 22 June 2014 Great art and mediocrity can get confused, even by experts. But that’s why we need to see, and read, as much as we can. The more we’re exposed … Continue reading →

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WILDSCAPES

Posted on May 19, 2014 by

The sound of Campbells work  behind the back wall saturated the whole gallery,  interfering with the viewing of works by  Moffett (on the wall) and Hughes(between the columns) Curated by Phillip McCrilly and supported by  Ben Crothers’s  substantial informative essay … Continue reading →

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Alice Clark, Dispersal, Market Place Theatre and Art Centre, Armagh, 28/03 – 26/04 2014

Posted on April 22, 2014 by

White Cube!  Calm and confidently pretty,  it tolerates exhibits on the severe condition of no nails or screws on the walls, or anywhere. In the centre of the room the greenhouse housed a chair, writing desk and a box. Outside, … Continue reading →

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this is authenticity, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, 3-24 April 2014

Posted on April 11, 2014 by

  Curated by Eoin Dara the exhibition takes its name from a marketing slogan for a gated residential development Santa Elena City  in the Philippines: What is real, what is honest, what is true …this is authenticity. After that it … Continue reading →

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Keith Connolly, Verbally Confirmed, Waterfront Hall, Belfast, January 10 -31, 2014

Posted on March 26, 2014 by

Connolly is a classical modernist – and not just for the parallel  an eye may discern between his images and those of Herbert Bayer and Laszlo Moholy Nagy,  Bauhaus greats who inspired some of his decision.

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TACTILE at Catalyst Arts, Belfast, 2014. Helen MacMahon, Polychromatic Shadow Configuration Device, 2013.

Posted on March 22, 2014 by

Mac Mahon lists her engagement with space and light as a dominant concept of her art practice (see http://www.helenmacmahon.com “Subject matter is simply space and light”) Before I write about her installation in some detail, I would like to introduce … Continue reading →

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