Tag Archives: painting

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

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Slavka Sverakova

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

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Slavka Sverakova

“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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Dan Shipsides / Shipsides and Beggs Projects, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, 22 March -20 April, 2018

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Slavka Sverakova

Armscliff; Great Western Oil on Canvas, Dan Shipsides,1994 To meet the word on its own terms,  to meet the world on its own terms is  an art immensely rewarding yet immensely difficult.  The title of this painting  has a letter R … Continue reading →

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Mark Shields, at F E McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, March 1 – May 19, 2018

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Slavka Sverakova

I sense that Shields’s  process dominates the image by piercing intention with invention and chance.  Reminiscent of John Cage.  By “herding “creation, principle and belief together. Shields  named this exhibition The Inaccessible Land … quoting Georg Buechner’s ” beyond the endless searching”  … Continue reading →

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DAVID GODBOLD:Nightfall – amplissium terrarum tractum , Golden thread Gallery, Belfast, 3 Feb – 10 March 2018

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Slavka Sverakova

An unexpected move to use Latin  as a title of an exhibition these days… the words are written in neon tubes above the painting titled  Three little words, (2010, neon, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 115 cm, sorry my mobile … 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 Slavka Sverakova

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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Fine Art at 2017 Annual Degree shows, University of Ulster Belfast, 2 – 10 June

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Slavka Sverakova

Fiftysix pages of a newsprint 36 x 29 cm ( a size of not the smallest of canvas) carries the basic administrative information about courses and a campus map. BUT not the layout of the placement.  Each cohort of students … Continue reading →

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Paddy McCann: Eyes to the Wind, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, 11 May – 10 June 2017

Posted on May 19, 2017 by Slavka Sverakova

A face, neck and shoulder  of a three quarter “portrait” , positioned between two calm and cold walls,  addresses us over a mad riot of exploding red, yellow,  and other hues. The blue above the head suggests an open space … Continue reading →

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

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Slavka Sverakova

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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Part 1:CUMULATOR 7 -0n 7th July 2016 at The Point, Groomsport, NI, UK (Twisselmann and Clarke)

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Slavka Sverakova

On the of July 2016  seven performance artists  worked for 7 hours at The Point, Bangor, Co Down: James King, Brian Patterson, Christoff Gillen, Rainer Pagel, Colm Clarke, Siobhan Mullen Wolf and Keike Twisselmann. I watched for slightly over an … Continue reading →

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Open work ? Belfast (March/April 2016)

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Slavka Sverakova

Three concurrent exhibitions invite that question. Marie Hanlon at Fendersky, Desire Line at Golden Thread Gallery and In-Stream at the two galleries, Ulster University and QSS. Fenderesky Gallery and cafe is a new place with a four decades of  history … Continue reading →

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24 at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, December 2014

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Slavka Sverakova

The Project Space is a small space on the left of the entrance inside the Golden Thread Gallery. It is irreverently free of “having-to-do” anything , and equally it is free to do anything.  I think the paradox  is a … Continue reading →

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NEIL CARROLL, The Year of Disillusionment, University Art Gallery, University of Ulster, Belfast, 19th September – 11th October, 2014

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Slavka Sverakova

    “The slicing of a large- scale painting into several stand-alone pieces, the dismembering and pulling apart, suggest an act of undoing. An attempt to invalidate or challenge its current form, to free it from formal constraints and any implied historical … Continue reading →

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

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Slavka Sverakova

    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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Ian Wieczorek at Marginalia, QSS Gallery Belfast, 4th September – 3rd october 2014

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Slavka Sverakova

Like a hunter gatherer, Wieczorek searches for images on the internet. The screen with someone else’s image is his inspiration and a source for a choice.  More than that – the final painting above is an exact replica of the … Continue reading →

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

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Slavka Sverakova

  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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Cathy Henderson, Ebb and Flow. at the ADF Gallery, Belfast, 17 January – 7 March 2014

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Slavka Sverakova

Cathy Henderson exhibited  twenty images  aiming “…to capture the transience of the coastal view: a sense of shifting skies, and the persistently fluctuating mood of weather.” (News Release January 2014).

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On the other side of Les Fleurs du Mal, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, 21 November – 21 December 2013

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Slavka Sverakova

 Twenty One  artists, responded to the invitation  issued by the art dealer extraordinaire Jamshid Mirfenderesky  to submit work related to the title of the most famous collection of poems, written in the 19th C. Charles Baudelaire published Les Fleur du … Continue reading →

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John Robinson, Rehearsal Room, Part 1, PS Squared, Belfast, 30 October – 2 November 2013

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

The artist kindly emailed me some  images and his comments (here in a purple text colour) to compensate me for not seeing his installation. In recent work I’ve used dark spaces to create immersive atmospheres; at first I thought about … Continue reading →

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Colin Davidson, Between The Words

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

The Naughton Gallery at Queens hosted Davidson’s ‘large heads’ from 4th September until 6th October  2013.  All exhibits were reproduced in a  catalogue with a lively forward by Simon Callow and Conversation with Shan  McAnena. Davidson proposed to explore large … Continue reading →

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Keike Twisselmann

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

A painter and performance artist, she has agreed to an email conversation and provided 10 discs with drawings and paintings and photographs. Those impressed me with sameness of visual means: clashing hues do not clash, over saturated brushstrokes define the precise … Continue reading →

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Mary Morgan and Gerard Carson

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Mary Morgan and Gerard Carson: A Passing Breeze, Golden Thread Gallery, 4 – 27 July 2013 In the gallery’s project space, an installation of objects by Gerard Carson and of lens-based images of objects by Mary Morgan has been curated … Continue reading →

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Paddy McCann at Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, March – April 2013. Part 2 / 3: Paddy Donnelly interview

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Paddy McCann interviewed by Paddy Donnelly, December 2012 Q: People who know your early work tend to refer, in particular, to a large painting of a waste container or skip. Sadly, that painting is now lost. But when first shown, … Continue reading →

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Ronnie Hughes

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Ronnie Hughes in conversation with Slavka Sverakova after his show, Synthesis, at Sligo Art Gallery, August – October 2006 Hazily, I recall that there was a painting called Synthesis early on. The title now embraces a body of work from … Continue reading →

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Susan Connolly

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Slavka Sverakova in conversation by e-mail with Susan Connolly SS: Your focus on the visual force of hue and tonality is a principle known to me from early abstraction. I have in mind Kandinsky’s belief that colours possess the power … Continue reading →

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Chris Wilson

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Slavka Sverakova interviews Chris Wilson by e-mail, February 2008 SS: The paintings I saw at the Mullan Gallery in 2007 were different from your previous dark images drawn over multicoloured maps. You have mentioned a residency that inspired that departure. … Continue reading →

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Mark McGreevy

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Slavka Sverakova interviews Mark McGreevy by e-mail (2008 / 2009) SS:Your paintings are a web of memories, associations and signs. It is worth repeating what you said once about the rainbow motif. Mark McGreevy: 20000 Suckas in the bottom of the nugget, … Continue reading →

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Dougal McKenzie

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Slavka Sverakova and Dougal McKenzie: an e-mail conversation, October/ November 2009 S: For a more than a decade you have been dividing your energy between your art practice, teaching art and family life with Patricia, two daughters and the recently … Continue reading →

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Gary Shaw

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Gary Shaw: Art on the Seafront, Bangor, June – August 2004 Gary Shaw: The Color in my Painting by Josef Albers (detail); courtesy the artist North Down Borough Council has exhibited art on gables of the buildings near the sea harbour twice … Continue reading →

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Paddy McCann

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Paddy McCann at the Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, 29 July – 27 August 2004 Paddy McCann: I was somewhere else , oil on canvas, 2004, 61 x 50 cm; courtesy the artist During late July and August 2004, Gallery Two of Belfast’s Fenderesky … Continue reading →

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A Seed of Zero

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

A Seed of zero, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, December 2006 – January 2007 The Golden Thread Gallery has moved to the Switch Room, near the Flax Arts and on the other side of the dual carriageway that passes near the … Continue reading →

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Mary McIntyre

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Slavka Sverakova

Mary McIntyre: A Contemporary Sublime MAC, Belfast, 16 Nov 2012 – 20 Jan 2013

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