#currentexhibitions

Current Exhibition at the Petley Jones Gallery September 2017 'Olympic', 40 x 60 inches, Oil on canvas, 2017 by Amelia Alcock-White. Ink work by Takao Tanabe, Bronze by Blake Ward, and ceramic piece by Michael Hermesh.

PHILADELPHIA / 1400 N. American St #107 ***CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC*** Preserving a Find, curated by Megan Biddle and Adam Lovitz February 22- March 28

NEW YORK / 1329 Willoughby Ave #2A ***CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC*** Picture Time: Buhm Hong & Kakyoung Lee February 14 – March 22

LOS ANGELES / 1206 Maple Avenue, 5th floor, #523 ***CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC*** Hoofprint March 14 - April 5

CHICAGO / 2233 S Throop Street, #419 ***CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC*** Zehra Khan: Fakeries February 1 - March 14

GREENVILLE @ Redux Gallery Maintenance of Way, curated by Susan Klein April 3 - May 16 ***POSTPONED***

SPECIAL PROJECT / Artist-Run 2020

#TigerStrikesAsteroid

Current

24th August 2016 onwards

“Mixed Summer Exhibition” at the Wren Gallery, Burford

July 2016 onwards

The Irish Film Institute (Temple Bar) 

on 

Tuesday 24th November 

will hold a screening of Hand Gestures, made by award-winning Italian filmmaker, Francesco Clerici, whose previous 2011 short film Storie nel Cemento (Cement  Stories) won the FAI (Italian Artistic Foundation) prize at the Milano Film Festival

In his new observational documentary, Clerici describes the noise and the passing time of a working day in the foundry. The artisans who work there are depicted only through their work, their faces and their movements.

The director, Francesco Clerici will take part in a Q&A hosted by Rachel Joynt following the exclusive opening night screening of his latest documentary Hand Gestures, on November 24th at 18.30

Hand Gestures:

In a foundry in Milan, a bronze sculpture is created. Francesco Clerici’s transfixing film shadows the craftsmen as they shape, knead, model, mix, repair, sand and polish, the final form of the piece tantalisingly coming into focus in what feels like real time. The technique they use is known as lost-wax casting, and it dates to prehistory – Clerici acknowledges the longevity of the tradition by interspersing archival footage of a similar casting, filmed at the same Milanese foundry decades ago. We have grown accustomed to documentaries that tell us what to think and feel, but Clerici wisely eschews voiceover or other such descriptive devices, favouring an observational approach that draws the viewer into the world of the sculptors; watching Hand Gestures, one feels as though we are participating in the creation of a work of art. (Notes by David O’Mahony.)

IFI deal available:

€8 tickets available by quoting Artist at the IFI Box Office in person or by phoning  01 679 3477

READ THE FULL SYNOPSIS AND A HISTORY OF BRONZE SCULPTURE HERE

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR CAST EXHIBITION BEFORE OR AFTER VIEWING THE FILM - IN PERSON OR PERUSE ONLINE

Friday 30 October to Saturday 22 November 2015

This latest exhibition includes a series of sensitive photographic portraits of all of the CAST foundrymen (and women!) at work taken by photographer Eugene Langan, alongside 40 new bronze sculptures

‘Forty x Forty’ aims to celebrate the 30-year close relationship between the Liberties-based metal workshop and the city-centre gallery – CAST is now regarded as the finest and most well-respected bronze foundry in the country and well over two thirds of the artists casting their work there are represented by Ireland’s leading sculpture agents, Solomon Fine Art.

‘Forty x Forty’ brings 40 diverse sculptors together to show 40 new bronze sculptures which have all been poured, welded and patinated over the past 12 months by Leo Higgins & his team at CAST. The impressive line-up of makers includes eminently established artists, talented up-and-coming young sculptors and two well-known Irish personalities not normally associated with sculpture – namely, the Michelin-starred chef Kevin Thornton and the interior & fashion designer/dealer Michael Mortell. The diversity and range of the works in the exhibition reflect the significant developments made in Irish modern sculpture starting with the progressive Living Art and Independents Artists’ generation, through to the contemporary scene of today.

Participating sculptors include regulars from the Solomon stable, such as Anthony Scott, Orla de Bri, Leo Higgins, John Behan, Colm Brennan, Imogen Stuart, Ian Pollock, Rachel Joynt, Peter Killeen, Bob Quinn, Ana Duncan, Cheryl Brown – as well as celebrated Irish contemporary artists Eilis O’Connell, Abigail O’Brien, Clea van der Grijn, Guggi, Sonja Landweer & Vivienne Roche.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EUGENE LANGAN

RACHEL JOYNT for Solomon Fine Art’s Forty x Forty

Selection of new bronzes currently showing in the gallery celebrates CAST foundry in Dublin’s Liberties

OUR CONGRATULATIONS TO FRANCES RYAN ARUA who yesterday received the NOA15 Northern Ireland Award sponsored by Towry for her 'Exotica 2'

Frances is a winner of last year’s NOA (National Open Competition) Award for Best Work from Northern Ireland

ABOUT NATIONAL OPEN ART

The National Open Art Competition is administrated by the Chichester Art Trust a registered charity whose aim is to provide a truly open and fair platform for all UK and the Republic of Ireland artists to exhibit, sell and promote their work through the medium of an annual National Open Art Competition with well respected judges producing exhibitions which are shown in London, Chichester and other venues around the UK.

The Chichester Art Trust receives no Arts Council funding and is paid for through registration fees, donations, art sales, advertising and sponsorship.

PORTFOLIO @ Solomon: Basketry & Woodturning 4 - 26 September 2015

Joe Hogan, Bog Vessel

Joe Hogan, Birds Head Pouch

Joe Hogan has been making baskets at Loch na Fooey since 1978 and in that time has earned a reputation for making strong, durable baskets of the highest quality.

 The colours in these award winning baskets are those of the natural willows which are grown at Loch na Fooey.

 Joe also makes indigenous Irish baskets such as the creel. These are available to order and are described in his book, Basketmaking in Ireland, published by Wordwell in 2001.

Joe Hogan, Bog Boat no 3 

Give Irish Craft states:

Joe was drawn to basket-making because he was able to grow his own willow (the raw material for baskets) and sensed that this involvement from growing through to making would prove deeply satisfying.

Over the last 27 years of basket-making he has grown and sourced several varieties of rods with different qualities that has profoundly influenced the way that he works. Living in a spectacular location for 25 years has taught him that there is always more to learn about a place and the same is true of a basket tradition and even of a particular basket.

Joe Hogan, 2014, Reclining Figure

Above and below: Hogan’s work in the PORTFOLIO @ Solomon gallery venue

Joe Hogan

COLLECTIONS

Ulster Museum, Belfast

Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland

Office of Public Works, Ireland

Ulster Museum, Belfast

Limerick City Art Gallery

Quinnipiac Famine Museum, USA

Boston College, USA

Vissinggaard Museum, Denmark

Pinolere Baskets of the World Collection Canary Islands

Collection of the Government of India

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014 Woven Wild, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

2012 Tradition and Innovation, Dungarvan Arts Centre, Co. Waterford

2011 Bare Branches, Blue Black Sky; Garter Lane Arts Centre

        Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

        Aras Eanna Arts Centre, Co. Galway

        Dunamaise Arts Centre, Co. Laois

2008 Wood meets Willow, Linen Hall Arts Centre, Co. Mayo

2005 Weaving the Harvest, Grennan Mill, Co. Kilkenny

Joe Hogan, Nest LLI

SELECTED AWARDS

2012 Selected for Living Legend programme, World Crafts Council  

        Summit, Chennai, India

2008 Award of Excellence, Reserve, RDS National Crafts Competition

        1st Prize Basketmaking, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin

2007 Don Juan Gonzalez Farina Award, Spainy

2006 1st Prize, Pinolere International Basketry Competition Crafts    

        Council of Ireland Bursary Award (joint award)

Mark Hanvey, Pith Vessel in bleached ash

Mark Hanvey is a woodturner and cabinetmaker from Co. Down. He has been working with wood for over 20 years. Mark uses a mixture of native Irish and exotic timbers to create his pieces.

The turned work that is most satisfying to Mark is that which lets the wood itself have the final say in the form. This is done using ‘green’ unseasoned wood, which when turned relatively thin, distorts as it dries to produce beautiful organic forms.

Mark Hanvey, Pith Vessel in native Irish ash for

PORTFOLIO @ Solomon: Basketry & Woodturning 4 - 26 September 2015

Mark feels that since it takes so long for this beautiful material to mature, that he should respect it. Mark is also a furniture maker, applying the same high standard of workmanship and attention to detail in his furniture as he does in his turning.

Mark’s current range of woodturning work includes; bowls, platters, boxes, mirrors and also pieces which are purely decorative. He also works to commission.

COLLECTIONS

National Museum of Ireland

Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin

Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1995 Out of the Woods, Ards Arts Centre, Co. Down

GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND FAIRS

2012 Janette Kerr PRWA Exhibition, The Stour Gallery

        Warwickshire, UK, SOFA New York, USA

2011 SOFA Santa Fe, USA

2010 COLLECT, London, U.K.

       MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, N.Y.

      Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny

      Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin

      Beauty of Wood, Signature Shop and Gallery, Atlanta, USA

2008 SOFA Chicago, USA

2008 County Down Annual Crafts Exhibition, Co. Down

2005 Ards Art Collective, Peoria, Arizona

2005 Creative Peninsula, Ards Arts Centre, Co. Down

-2007

AWARDS

2011 Alliance Business to Arts Award

2011 RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin. Awarded 1st

        Prize in Woodturning

2006 RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin. Awarded 2nd

        Prize in Furniture

Hanvey’s work through the PORTFOLIO @ Solomon gallery window

Bennett’s bowls in the PORTFOLIO @ Solomon gallery venue on opening night

PORTFOLIO: BASKETRY & WOODTURNING 4 - 26 Sep

"I love wood, the uniqueness of each piece, the history of the tree’s life preserved in the ring patterns and figuring. I delight in the daily interaction between maker and material, the magic of shaping, turning argument into conversation.”

I dream of making a bowl as strong as an eggshell, as heavy as a whisper. Of capturing and fixing my favourite colours – drake mallard green, oil on water, midnight in midsummer, frosty night skies.

Roger Bennett, Indigo Bowl #2, coloured sycamore bowl (indigo), inlaid with silver dots in a spiral pattern

And with silver I can indulge my love of order, imposing my markings on the wood’s surface, complementing the natural flows and eddies of the grain with my precise patterns of dots.

Roger Bennett, Grey Bowl, coloured sycamore bowl (grey), inlaid with silver dots in a plume like pattern

“A completed bowl should satisfy all our senses. Line and form above all else, traced by eye and hand, from rim to base and all around. The smell of wood and oil. And whenever a bowl is right, it sings."

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

National Museum of Ireland

Ulster Museum

Crafts Council of Ireland

Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland

Office of Public Works, Ireland

Dublin Airport Authority

Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii, USA

Columbus State University, Georgia, USA

Mobile Museum of Art, Alabama, USA

Roger Bennett, Blue Bowl, coloured sycamore bowl (blue), inlaid with 6 undulating lines of silver dots

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS SINCE 2007

2014                            Is it wood?, Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales

                                    Bravura, Blue Egg Gallery, Wexford

2013-14                       Irish Craft Portfolio at RHA, Dublin

2012                            Crafts Council Purchase Award, RDS National Crafts      

                                    Competition

                                    My Place, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool

                                    Vessels, Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Co. Kerry

2011                            Solo Exhibition, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh

                                    Conversations with Wood, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

2005-13                       Irish Craft Portfolio selection

2009                            Contemporary Craft Fair, Bovey Tracey, Devon

2008, 2010-12            CraftBoston, International Invited Artist

2007                            SOFA New York

2007-11                      Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles

Roger Bennett, Indigo Bowl #1, coloured sycamore bowl (indigo), central well inlaid with silver dots in a controlled random pattern

Roger Bennett, Green Bowl, coloured cherry bowl (green), inlaid with 6 undulating lines of silver dots