SOLOMON FINE ART

SOLOMON FINE ART are Ireland's leading SCULPTURE agents and dealers in fine Irish & British Modern & Contemporary art. OPENING HOURS: Tues – Fri: 10am – 5.30pm and Sat: 11am – 4pm or by appointment [phone] Balfe Street, Dublin 2, Ireland...

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Landscape Rising (Part 4/4)

Mary Furlong

The work of photographer Mary Furlong will wrap up our short “Landscape Rising” series that provided short introductions to each of the artists taking part in the exhibition. 

Mary Furlong, Bread, from The Red Ribbon project, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl, 37 x 37 cm framed

Mary Furlong was the portrait photographer for the Alternative Miss Ireland from 1996 to its final show in 2012. In 2004 some of these portraits were published in the book “Dancing at the Crossroads: Glamour Rooted in Despair”. Furlong worked as a researcher and assistant to the Director in the Gallery of Photography and was Perry Ogden’s photo assistant and studio manager for ten years and the co-ordinator and tutor of the Ballymun Photography Club, a Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane educational outreach programme. Born in Dublin she began working in fashion design later returning to college to study photography. She is also an experienced tutor having taught photography in Griffith College, Ringsend CDVEC and St. Peters College, Killester. She also works as a community artist. Shooting mainly in medium format colour film, Furlong specialises in portraiture, still life and landscapes. Her commissioned work has appeared in AnOther magazine, The Telegraph and The Financial Times.

Mary Furlong,Teeth, from The Red Ribbon project, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl, 37 x 37 cm framed

Mary Furlong, Salt, from The Red Ribbon project, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl, 37 x 37 cm framed

Mary’s work shown as part of “Landscape Rising”, The Red Ribbon, 2015-16, is a series of six images from a larger project started last year based around Irish Traveller traditional beliefs and superstitions. The images combine portraiture, landscapes and still life and illustrate a prevailing culture of traditional beliefs and superstitions in Ireland. Shot on medium format film, the images are composed in camera and printed full frame.

Examples of the associated superstitions for the image above (Salt) are the following:

Salt is lucky outside the door, it keeps evil away, it's holy.

Throw salt, if you move into a new home it’s supposed to be lucky to throw salt in all four corners to keep fairies or evil spirits away.

If you spill salt make an X, the sign of the cross in it.

Mary Furlong, Hair, from The Red Ribbon project, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl, 37 x 37 cm framed

Describing her own work Mary Furlong stated:

“I am a visual artist specializing in photography. I prefer to photograph things, people and places as I find them but occasionally if I can’t find what I’m looking for, I set things up.

 I work in both film and digital, I use mobile phones, point & shoot and medium format cameras. I compose in camera and my images are printed full frame, what you see is what I saw. I prefer film photography, I like having something tangible, a roll of film, a set of negatives and I like the discipline of film, of having to align all of the elements at once, bringing everything - seen and unseen - together the moment you press the shutter. I have worked with many different mediums but the camera is the most natural tool for me to use, the most instinctive, the most developed, an extension of, a part of, me.

I am interested in stories, personal living histories and local places and their hidden histories, the commonplace and the generally overlooked. I am inspired by what I find around me, everyday objects and situations, chance remarks, snippets and stories. I look for what I think is extraordinary in the everyday. I also like to work collaboratively within communities.”

To see Furlong’s photographs and their accompanying beliefs and superstitions, come in to Solomon Fine Art and see the show before it closes this Saturday, 23rd July 2016.

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Landscape Rising (Part 3/4)

JOBY HICKEY

Continuing with our mini series of short artists’ introductions and their work in our current show, we will today turn to Joby Hickey.

Hickey is a photographer and painter living and working in Dublin. He studied fine art at Dun Laoghaire School of Art & Design. He later trained in film, and eventually developed a personal style of photography, experimenting with past techniques often building his own cameras and equipment. Skilled with the use of form, shape and monochromatic colour, his work is deceptively timeless. He has evolved a trademark style of vignette imagery where silhouetted figures often roam. His art has been exhibited in galleries in Ireland, London, Paris and Berlin.

Joby Hickey, Pearse House, Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper, 105 x 104 cm

The combination of imagery, apparently casual in its observation, the use of surface to obtain a paint-like surface, contre jour treatment of objects in an Impressionistic manner and the technique, the very ancient technique of pinhole images, provide the basis of Joby Hickey’s art as a photographer.

“My approach to image capture on hand made film, with fixed lens and pinhole cameras involves a lot intensive work to control the light, composition and complex timing calculations to achieve successful outcomes. In many cases the process could involve multiple attempts to find the balance I am looking for in the photograph. I am interested in the concept of drawing with light onto a chemical surface that involves the rendering of 3 dimensional forms onto a flat surface. Similar to the process of painting, photography for me is an experiment of capturing the atmosphere of my environment through the alchemy of light, chemicals and form.”

Joby Hickey, Moon, Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper, 69 x 69 cm

For the Solomon Fine Art show Hickey has included six new works: “Moon”, 2016; “Pearse House”, 2016; “Under 23rd St.”, 2015; “East LA”, 2016; “San Fernando Valley”, 2016; “Figure and Four Courts”, 2015.
 All are accessible everyday scenes captured through an analogue chemical process, with the film and in some cases the cameras manufactured by himself. His idiosyncratic approach references early production methods, past photographers and cinematographers giving us images that play with perceptions of time.

Joby Hickey, East L.A., Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper, 69 x 65 cm

Asked what subjects drive or provide the underlying themes of his work Hickey responded: 

“The interest I have in the navigation of time, has informed a number of themes running concurrently in my work. The intersection of these themes are probably most evident in the series I have selected for this show. The Los Angeles series of photographs, taken in the San Fernando Valley area of LA this year, are street portraits of a post industrial landscape reformed into a service industry driven by car culture.  A nostalgia for the American dream and the contrasts of social conditions that exist in Los Angeles become the backdrop of the cityscape portraits.”...“The moon portrait in the fullness of its constantly revolving phases is another expression of time, suggesting the connection to our planet through its gravitational pull. The portrait of Pearse House looks at historical time and its resonance on our contemporary idea of time lived since 1916.”

Joby Hickey’s work will be on display as part of “Landscape Rising” in Solomon Fine Art until 23rd July 2016.

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Landscape Rising (Part 2/4)

To continue with our little artist summaries, today is dedicated to all things Karl Burke and his series of works dealing with the topic of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Karl Burke

Karl Burke lives and works in Dublin. He took up photography after training as a Solicitor who studied Law at Trinity College, Dublin and the Law Society of Ireland. Highly motivated, he undertook a masterclass in 2012 with the renowned UK photographer Simon Norfolk. Skilled in digital technology his work is experimental and abstract, often focusing on the profound effects of everyday scenarios that are recreated by manipulation in camera. His acclaimed work ‘The Harvest of Death v2.0’ examines the imagined reality of war zones by use of computer games, and is a critique on the diminishing line between the two. It won the Fotofestiwal Lodz, Grand Prix, in 2013 and has been reviewed in numerous international publications including The New York Times Lens Blog and Photo District News. He has been exhibiting regularly since 2009 both in Ireland and abroad, and is currently exhibiting in the Or Gallery in Vancouver.

Karl Burke, Ba [Barium] Upper Sackville St, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper on Dibond, tray frame, 54 x 153 cm

Karl’s work for the Solomon show is from his new series titled “1916: Elements of an Insurrection” which was shot in the latter part of 2015. The four included are: “Zn (Zinc)”, 2015; “Ba (Barium)”, 2015; “Fe (Iron)”, 2015; “Mn (Manganese)”, 2015. The work deconstructs the components involved in a conflict situation and uses the symbol of the element to represent the people who were victims. Each then tells the story of the plight of that individual specifically, in this case during the Easter Uprising of 1916. Having the appearance of stills from moving footage, the images could be mistaken for an old Pathe newsreel report of the event.

Karl Burke, Fe [Iron] North King St, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper on Dibond, tray frame, 54 x 153 cm

“Governments like it that way. They want their people to see war as a drama of opposites, good and evil, “them” and “us,” victory or defeat. But war is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.”

- Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

Karl Burke, Zn [Zinc] GPO, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper on Dibond, tray frame, 54 x 153 cm

Burke states the following on his work and its subject matter:

“Given that the full consequences of the Rising are not even now played out, and that genuine and open debate on the desirability or otherwise of the rebellion has only recently been possible, it’s very difficult to make any definitive statement one way or another except for one such as this: that the central truths of war in any form are death, misery and destruction, and that occasions of armed conflict are arguably more appropriately commemorated as monuments to the failure of compassion and imagination built out of the bones of the dead.

As a route into the events of the rebellion as it occurred in and around Dublin city in particular, I thought that breaking down the story into the smallest subdivisions of the physical world as we deal with it on a day-to-day basis, that of the chemical elements themselves would help in approaching the story from literally, a different perspective. Matched with imagined vignettes of documented events involving sixteen of the participants, the absorption spectra of relevant elements could be used not as per usual in the service of analytical chemistry or for determining the composition of stars on the other side of the galaxy but as a means of approaching the events of the past.

After much trial and error I found a way of making a series of multi-slit imaging devices by manually transferring sections of each element’s absorption spectrum to metal planes, with an optical slit corresponding to each Fraunhofer line of the spectrum within the physical limitations of the material. The resulting image was recorded by a digital camera to which the apparatus was attached. Photography took place at the scenes of the historical events in Dublin and Kildare during a period starting from the 24th of April 2015.” 

Landscape Rising is on show at Solomon Fine Art until July 23rd 2016.

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Landscape Rising (Part 1/4)

Photography is this month’s topic in Solomon Fine Art with our latest exhibition “Landscape Rising” currently embellishing our walls. Curated by former Picture Editor of The Observer Magazine Jennie Ricketts, the show coincides with PhotoIreland Festival 2016. Gathering four established Irish photographers, the exhibition not only highlights Irish talent and skill; it also aims to explore themes around the 1916 commemoration, landscape, lifestyle and people.

In this little mini series we hope to provide a short insight into the works of the each of our artists in the exhibition. 

Today’s artist: Kim Haughton

Kim Haughton, Furry Glen, 2013, Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper, 51 x 61 cm 

Haughton studied Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the University of the Arts in London. She held her first solo show at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin in 2015 and her first US show in May 2016 at the Irish Consulate in New York. An image from her 2010 series ‘Shadowlands’ became the iconic representation of Ireland’s economic collapse and was chosen as one of eleven images to feature in the Guardian’s “History of Europe In Pictures 1945-2011”. She received the Visual Arts bursary in 2014 and her work is held in the National Archives of Ireland. In 2015, she was named by TIME magazine as one of the leading Irish photographers.

Kim Haughton, Sailor, 2013, Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper,  61 x 51cm 

The photos selected for this exhibition are part of a series entitled ‘The Otherwhere’. It was created as a final farewell to Ireland for Haughton before she left the country she grew up in for the United States in 2014. It is a poetic and sometimes whimsical journey through a watery landscape in which themes of childhood, religion, migration, a quest for home and the complexities involved in finding one’s place within the world flow through the work in an oceanic rhythm.  

According to the German Philosopher, Vilém Flusser, who examined the notion that communication and identity are rooted in the concept of self-determination and self-realization through recognition of the other, “emigres become free not when they deny their lost homeland but when they come to terms with it”. Coming to terms with her homeland, Haughton chose to explore the unfamiliar, relying on serendipity to seek out subjects. These encounters with strangers, on beaches, in bogs and woodlands, allows the work to explore the concepts of chance and determinism and their relationship to human freedoms and happiness. The resulting portraits provide insights into the social and cultural landscapes of the country.

Kim Haughton, Surfer, 2013, Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper, 61 x 51cm

Photographed over six months in 2013, Haughton’s work is rooted in the photographic road trip tradition. These large format images are not just the straightforward recording of everyday life, they provoke wider and more complex questions around nationality and belonging in a way that draws the artist closer to her homeland.

Landscape Rising (to coincide with PhotoIreland Festival 2016) is on show in Solomon Fine Art until the 23rd July 2016. 

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JULIE CUSACK

DREAMING IN BLUE

For those that are already missing the blue sky that’s been hovering over Dublin for the past week, the Gallery’s current exhibition is the perfect antidote. Aptly entitled ‘Dreaming in Blue’, Julie Cusack’s first solo show with the Gallery gathers works that truly make the most of this colour’s tonal range.

Julie Cusack, Pondgazing I + II, (Diptych), mixed media and oil on board, 120 x 60cm each

Working in abstraction, Cusack’s works are reminiscent of landscapes. Fields, flowers and unusual viewpoints spring to mind when first viewing her work. And indeed the body of work in this exhibition was born out of Cusack’s desire to make paintings that reflect the theatre of landscape and its many elements. 

Julie’s abstracted landscapes are vibrant, layered and rooted in drawing. Working primarily on paper and board she combines oil paint with drawn elements as drawing for her is not only a way to represent object or place but is also a way to engage in the intuitive physicality of making marks on a surface. Starting with an image, sometimes from memory, sometimes from observation, she layers paint and graphite and then begins the process of editing. Some areas become obscured or recede while others push forward and what evolves is a dance between surface and depth, between what is random and what is particular. Ultimately Julie looks to create abstracted compositions which represent a fictional place between the external and the internal.

Julie Cusack, Lighthouse Blue,  oil and mixed media on board, 90cm x 90cm

Cusack has been a practising artist for the last 16 years and her work is represented in the OPW State Collection as well as private collections in England, America, New Zealand, Portugal and the UK. She works from ‘Not an Empty Space’, a Kilkenny based independent artist’s studio space supported by the Kilkenny Arts Office.

She joined the Solomon Gallery stable in 2014.

Julie Cusack, September I, II, III (triptych), oil on board, 60 x 30cm each

The show will run until 25th June 2016 at Solomon Fine Art, Balfe Street, Dublin 2.

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Toys, Food and Flowers

Comhghall Casey- New Paintings

On show at Solomon Fine Art

Comhghall Casey, Toy Boat 1 (Androni Giocattoli), oil on canvas, 23 x 28 cm

The outstandingly talented Casey’s small-scale still-lives in oil are intimate studies of everyday objects such as vegetables, fruit and children’s toys and each is meticulously observed. The compositions are universally simple, where the object is placed centrally against a neutral background focusing the viewer’s gaze and highlighting the artist’s skill and spectacular attention to detail. He says: “the intention is that the resulting images are tangible, distinct and convincing, with an understated presence extending beyond the subject depicted."

Comhghall also produces regular self-portraits; like the still-lives they are simply composed allowing him to work on colour and his typical exquisite detailing. This exhibition will feature his most recent self-portrait. In 2013 his ‘Self Portrait as a Cyclist’ was shortlisted for the esteemed BP Portrait Award in the UK and in 2015 his ‘Self-Portrait 2014’ was also selected for the BP Award. Both paintings were subsequently hung in the National Portrait Gallery, London, the National Scottish Portrait Gallery and the Ulster Museum.  

Comhghall Casey, Self Portrait, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Comhghall has also received numerous important awards at the RHA and RUA (including the prestigious Hennessey Craig Scholarship) and his paintings have been selected by the Royal Academy in London from 2011 to 2013. His work features in many notable collections including the National Self Portrait Collection and the Ulster Museum. In 2015 An Post issued an edition of stamps featuring Casey’s toy paintings.  

Running concurrently with the Solomon exhibition, his fourth solo show with the gallery, is Comhghall Casey’s mid-career retrospective at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. This major exhibition features drawings and paintings charting the artist’s development from his school days in Omagh to the present.

Born in 1976 Casey grew up in Omagh, Co Tyrone before moving to Belfast to study fine art at the University of Ulster. He has been living and working in Dublin since graduating.

Comhghall Casey, Paper Boat, oil on canvas, oil on canvas, 20 x 33 cm

Comhghall Casey- New Paintings will be on show at Solomon Fine Art until 28th May 2016.

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The 1916 Easter Rising and Rowan Gillespie

Imagine (Study for Proclamation)

Rowan Gillespie, Imagine (Study for Proclamation), bronze, AP, 61 x 25 x 17cm

 Imagine (Study for Proclamation), like so many of Gillespie’s works, deals with a poignant moment of Irish history, one that is especially relevant this Easter weekend.

The work shows eleven faceless abstracted figures, whose elongation of shape lends them a ghost-like quality. Most markedly three figures in the back row are blindfolded and their chest riddled with bullet holes. The title, perhaps due to Gillespie’s own Quaker background, originally alluded to John Lennon’s famous peace song, as well as to Gillespie’s grandfather James Creed Meredith (1874 – 1942) whose book “Rainbow in the Valley” encapsulated his vision for a utopian Irish society.  Meredith was a member of the Irish Volunteer Movement, helped form the Young Ireland Branch of the United Irish League and became Judge of the Supreme Court in 1936. The sculpture is, as its full title suggests, a study for the large-scale work Proclamation based outside of Kilmainham Jail and the courthouse. It commemorates the executions of seven leaders of the Easter Rising and and the seven signatories of the Proclamation of Independence that took place there in the aftermath of the Rising.

The work is on show in Solomon Fine Art until 2nd April 2016 as part of our Easter Group Show.

Rowan Gillespie is one of Ireland’s foremost sculptors and internationally acclaimed for his work. Although born in Dublin in 1953, the artist spent his childhood in Cyprus and subsequently moved to England and Norway, where he lived and worked for a number of years. He received his training in York Art School, Kingston College of Art (receiving tutelage under Sally Arnup and John Robson) and the Kunst og Handverke Skole in Oslo. During his training Gillespie found inspiration in the likes of Henry Moore and Edvard Munch. He returned to Ireland in 1977 and his studio is today based in Blackrock, Co.Dublin.  

Although initially also producing smaller sculpture, Gillespie’s focus shifted to larger-scale work and public commisions from 1997 onwards. Some examples of these are The Blackrock Dolmen, The Kiss, The Age of Freedom (all in Dublin), The Cashel Dancers (Cashel), WB Yeats (Sligo Town), The Singer (Limerick City) and The Cycle of Life and The Minstrels (Colorado, USA). Perhaps the most well known work however is the Famine sculpture on the Custom House Quay in Dublin, which is emblematic of his sensitive treatment of historical subject matter and has a sister group in Toronto.

Gillespie’s work is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Self-Portrait Collection, Limerick, Columbia Warner, U.S.A., Allied Irish Investment Bank, Life Assurance, Ireland, Bang & Olufsen, Holland, Hibernian Insurance, AIB Bank, I.B.M., Office of An Taoiseach, Primark, Dublin City University, R.T.E. Authority Commission, Aer Lingus, Chicago Bank, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ulster Bank, National Maternity Hospital, Politie Brabant-Noord, Irish Intercontinental Bank and Highland Developments, Colorado, U.S.A.

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John Coll

EASTER GROUP SHOW at Solomon Fine Art

John Coll has made numerous public sculptures over the years. His sculpture of poet Patrick Kavanagh on a park bench beside the canal has become a little Dublin landmark in its own right. In this new work, Coll too has looked to an Irish literary icon and transferred a map of the Dublin streets onto James Joyce’s death mask. He used one of Joyce’s most well-known quotes as a reference point for the title. Attached onto a cobblestone, the sculpture celebrates one of Dublin’s greatest and the city itself.

John Coll, When I Die , Dublin Will Be Engraved Upon My Heart, bronze and cobblestone, edition 1 of 9 (AP), 47 x 16 x 14 cm

Coll has exhibited widely in Europe and held a one-man show in New York in 1998. His work is found in many collections including the Bank of Ireland collection, The National Museum at Collins Barracks, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Library of Ireland Collection and Stanford University, California, USA.

John Coll’s first one-man exhibition was in Kennys Art Gallery, Galway in 1985.  Since then he has had shows in Galway in 1987, 1989 and 1991 and in Sligo in 1988. He has featured in many group shows, most notably as a prize-winner in the Oireachtas. He has had a number of private commissions, including portraits of Benedict Kiely, Brendan O’hEithir and Francis Stuart and of the late Siobhán McKenna. He has two important commissions in Galway, in the City Hall and in Celtic International. His most recent was the artwork for the Dublin Literary Parade in St. Patrick’s Park. He has worked on important projects with John Behan, Eamonn O’Doherty and with Macnas.

The work is now on show at Solomon Fine Art’s Easter Group Show

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John Kiley

at Solomon Fine Art Easter Group Show 

The American glass artist John Kiley is currently on show as part of our Easter Group Show. Perching precariously in the Gallery’s window, his piece with its beautiful red and violet colours is catching the first rays of sunshine of the year.

Appearing to consist of multiple layers of glass and colours, Violet Halo boasts a thin wall on its inside to separate the rounded shape. Yet upon examination it raises the question of whether the shapes formed really are separate or much more part of a new whole? Every angle through the curvilinear openings in the shape seems to suggest a new intriguing answer. It is seemingly this interplay of questioning light, space, the exterior and the interior and the material qualities of glass that fuel Kiley’s work.

John Kiley, Violet Halo, blown, cut and polished glass, 14.5 x 15 x 14.5 inches

The artist is a native of Seattle. His education includes the Pilchuck Glass School and the Pratt Fine Arts Centre amongst others. His professional career started early at the age of only 19 at The Glass Eye Studio. He soon crossed paths with one of Solomon’s stable artists: Only two years later he became gaffer on Dale Chihuly’s chandelier team, participating in the ‘Chihuly Over Venice’ project. This saw Chandeliers installed on 15 different locations throughout Venice and saw Kiley working in a variety of countries including Finland, Ireland and Mexico in addition to Italy in its wake. In addition to Chihuly, Kiley has also worked with Lino Taglipietra, Dante Marioni and Benjamin Moore amongst others.

Kiley has continued his career in an international vein, working and demonstrating in a multitude of countries, as well as exhibiting in galleries over the world. In Ireland, he has been a visiting lecturer in NCAD. 

Today Kiley is Glass Director at the Schack Art Centre in the State of Washington.

The EASTER GROUP SHOW at Solomon Fine Art will run until Saturday, 2nd April 2016.

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Helen O’Sullivan-Tyrrell

 A Note on the Hennessy Portrait Prize

 ‘TRIBE’ at SOLOMON FINE ART

Helen O’Sullivan-Tyrrell, 1963

Solomon Fine Art is delighted to show the exhibition TRIBE by Irish artist Helen O’Sullivan-Tyrrell. As is typical for her work, the gallery space is currently occupied by numerous genres. Still-life, portraiture, genre and history painting blend into a quiet and nostalgic examination of the influence of Catholicism on the concept of ‘Irishness’.

O’Sullivan-Tyrrell’s work is politically informed. As a former President of the Irish Student’s Union and lobbyist for the youth sector in Brussels, social topics continue to influence her work. Astounding is therefore that she manages to reconcile these topics with very private moments: a painting of Panti blends naturally with portraits of O’Sullivan-Tyrrell’s own mother (’1963′) and children.

In fact, portraits of her children seem to have become not only part of her overarching exploration of identity but also a topic that is to be investigated in its own right. The prime examples of the success of this process can be found in her participation of the Hennessy Portrait Prize. In both the 2014 and 2015 competitions, her entries were shortlisted as finalists and exhibited at the National Gallery of ireland. 

In 2014, O’Sullivan-Tyrrell entered ‘The Convalescent’, a portrait of her daughter. The latest entry was a portrait of her son Ferdia in the 2015 competition.

Helen O’Sullivan-Tyrrell, Ferdia

Shown against a stark black background, Ferdia is made up of fragile whites, greys, pinks and blues, his face and shoulders framed by a tumble of long blonde hair. He appears asleep. This adds both an innocence, as well as a certain unease to the painting as he seems to float over the black void of the background. 

The Sunday Times remarked upon the painting that: “It’s an intimate painting about the rich inner life of a child, imagination - even in dreaming - and the impossibilities of ever knowing the workings of anyone’s mind. In this way it becomes a portrait of us all, of a person being entirely themselves”.

The Hennessy Portrait Prize 2015 was judged by art critic Aidan Dunne, curators Catherine Marshall, Anne Hodge and painter Colin Davidson. The 12 finalists were exhibited in the Millenium Wing Studio of the National Gallery of Ireland.

In case you missed seeing him at the National Gallery: The portrait ‘Ferdia’ will join the exhibition TRIBE shortly at Solomon Fine Art.

Helen O’Sullivan-Tyrrell, Dublin

TRIBE will run until March 5th 2016 at SOLOMON FINE ART

To view more information on the exhibition please click here

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Orla de Bri: Flow

We are delighted to be able to present new images and a short film of artist Orla de Bri’s latest large-scale sculpture “Flow”, recently installed in Turkey as part of the prestigious Sabanci collection, Istanbul. 

“Flow”, made of bronze and steel and boasting a measurement of 7.5 meters, was recently installed over a river that is part of the existing landscape of an equestrian centre. The sculpture is dominated by the human form, sitting, pensively it seems, over the running water of the stream below. It is marked, not only by its scale but also by the heart shaped cut- out on its chest. Where a bronze heart should have been, the space now consists of a view of the sky instead.

To watch a short film on the working process of “Flow” please click here.

Orla de Bri, Flow

“Human evolution and development are of great interest to me. How we analyse ourselves, relate to other people, and how we connect with our surroundings is always explored in my work. I bring subjects and materials together that on first glance seem incompatible. Combining Steel with diamonds, or fibreglass with polished bronze, I am always intrigued with juxtaposed ideas and textures. I try to seek a different perspective on life, love and the self, sometimes sculpting my own emotional landscape.”

Orla de Bri, Flow

Orla de Bri, Flow

Orla de Bri trained in NCAD, DCVEC and the Grafton Academy of Design and has been working from her studio in Co Meath for the last 20 years. She is comfortable with her materials which include bronze, steel and stone and there is a fluency in her handling of metal that suggests a particular affinity.   Human evolution and development are of great interest to her; particularly how we analyse ourselves, relate to other people and connect with our surroundings.  De Bri’s sculptures are social animals and often manifest themselves in groups where they observe, vie or compete with each other.   Her solitary stylised figures often commune with abstract shapes or elements from nature.

De Bri has had six major solo shows and has  completed over 20 large scale site-specific public sculptures in Ireland and the UK.  Her work is in many public collections, including Dublin Castle, Bank of Ireland; Aer Rianta; American Airlines; Dublin City University and the Office of Public Works.  She is also in many significant private collections both nationally and internationally including Hilary Swank, Christina Applegate, HRH Princess Anne, Jerry Hall, Bishop Tutu and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

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This weekend: Solomon Fine Art at VUE National Contemporary Art Fair

Royal Hibernian Academy, 15 Ely Place, Dublin 7

Opening hours: 

Thursday Nov 5th (Preview) 6-8pm

Friday Nov 6th 11am-8pm

Saturday Nov 7th 11am-7pm

Sunday Nov 8th 12-6pm

As Ireland's most prestigious showcase for indigenous contemporary art, VUE 2015 brings together the top galleries in the country, making it an essential date for art lovers.

VUE 2015 offers an unparalleled opportunity for collectors and investors to experience some of the best contemporary art currently being created, by both Irish and international artists, and to obtain expert guidance from the leading Irish galleries.

Please visit www.vueartfair.ie for more information or see the RHA's website by clicking here.

Solomon on view at VUE:

Tom Climent, Haida, 61 x 61 cm, oil on canvas

Comhghall Casey, Yellow Bear, oil on canvas, 40 x 60cm

Vadim Tuzov, Hare, bronze, edition 1/3, 46 x 19cm

Helen O'Sullivan Tyrrell, Ikea Vase, oil on canvas, 60 x 60cm

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|Documentary to open exclusively at the Irish Film Institute where secrets of foundry work will be revealed

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

Images of Milan’s foundrymen and women are courtesy of the IFI

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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.

REMINDER: FRANCES RYAN’S SOLO EXHIBITION OF NEW PAINTINGS IS IN ITS FINAL WEEK OF VIEWING

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Rowan Gillespie B.1953 WHEN HOPE AND HISTORY RHYME signed and dated 2015 bronze height: 347.5cm., 137in. Executed in 2015, the present work is unique.

We are absolutely delighted for our artist ROWAN GILLESPIE whose sculpture 'WHEN HOPE AND HISTORY RHYME' just fetched GBP161,000 (€200k) at today's Sotheby's Irish Sale in London! This is the highest price ever paid at auction for an Irish sculpture, and being a contemporary sculptor, is all the more impressive! 

For more images of Rowan’s work please see HERE

SOTHEBY’S CATALOGUE NOTE READS:

This sculpture is the artist's personal tribute to Seamus Heaney and was inspired by the poet's words which are engraved on the plinth:

History says, Don't hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme.

From 'The Cure at Troy' by Seamus Heaney

The artist would like to thank Marie Heaney and the Heaney family for kindly allowing the use of the quotation and to use "When Hope and History Rhyme" as the title of the present piece.

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|Gallery Span - Jewellery

In this series we move through the displays of the PORTFOLIO gallery -highlighting the jewellery makers within

This is: PORTFOLIO @ Solomon: Jewellery

2 - 24 October 2015

REMINDER: EXHIBITION WILL CLOSE SATURDAY 24 

YVONNE BEALE

                                                         Above + Below Images: Crafted By You

“I love the style of the 1920's, 30's and 50's. The elegance - and the amazing pieces - that people created during those particular periods in fashion history have always inspired me. I have a big stack of vintage magazines from those periods and I always look to them as a source of inspiration”

Elegance Collection by Yvonne Beale 

DEBBIE PAUL

Offset Teal Nodule Ring by Debbie Paul

Garland Nodule Ring by Debbie Paul

Winter White Brooch by Debbie Paul

"I aim to introduce people to the love of an object that is individual and handmade. I have four main jewellery collections: Disc, Hoop, Vine and Seaweed, which are supplied to galleries in Ireland, England, Spain, America and Australia”

ANGELA O’KELLY

O’Kelly for PORTFOLIO @ Solomon

Above + below: Sculptural Neckpieces by Angela O’Kelly

O’Kelly is a designer maker who crosses boundaries of jewellery, textiles and sculpture. She combines paper with mixed media using a variety of traditional and non-traditional textile and jewellery techniques. Inspiration derives from a fascination with simple shapes, textures, repetition and colour in urban and rural landscapes

RUDOLF HELTZEL

Originally from Berlin, Germany, Rudolf Heltzel was invited to Ireland in 1966 by An Córas Tráchtála, which was the Irish Export Board. He set up and led the trail-blazing gold and silver studio- workshops at the government sponsored Kilkenny Design Workshops. In 1968 he established his own workshop in Kilkenny where he, his son Christopher and their employees and apprentices still work today. Here platinum, 18 carat gold and precious stones are worked into magnificent pieces of wearable art

VI: Tourmaline Butterfly VI

18ct gold handmade pendant on 18 ct gold chain, 1 pair tourmaline butterfly 'wings' (75.51ct total), 1 navette-shaped tourmaline (2.04ct), 1 oval sapphire (6x4), 1 sapphire trilliant, 4 rubies (2mm), 12 natural brilliant-cut diamonds (all G VS, 2 x 0.022ct + 10 x 0.01ct)

NUALA JAMISON

Above + below: Multicolour Rings + Neckpiece; Ice Clear Neckpiece

“I love colour and over time I have developed ways of dyeing and colouring the clear material to enhance the reflective qualities - sometimes creating a subtle blend of shades and other times mixing together contrasting colours”

READ THE LATEST REVIEW OF THIS EXHIBITION BY NATASHA SHERLING HERE

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|Gallery Span - JEWELLERY

In this series we move through the displays of the PORTFOLIO gallery -highlighting the jewellery makers within

This is: PORTFOLIO @ Solomon: Jewellery

2 - 24 October 2015

JULIE CONNELLAN

Séan and Yvette Photography

“The work displayed here seeks to open a dialogue between the object, the wearer and the observer. The pieces harbour hidden narratives in their material and form which invite the observer to make a connection between what is being said and the viewer’s own personal experiences and associations”

Edition Series by Julie Connellan

SÉAMUS GILL

Séamus Gill’s work is all about the joy of working directly with the material. All his work is hammered out of a flat sheet of metal using traditional age-old silversmithing skills. He exploits the malleability and the working qualities of the material, stretching and compressing the metal to move it into elegant three dimensional forms. He works in harmony with the natural movement of the material leading to his work being compared to natural forms. He combines the skilful hand of a master craftsman, the eye of a designer and the imagination of an artist

Séamus Gill has created a series of five bangles for this exhibition. They explore his ongoing fascination with the potential for forming a flat sheet of silver into an elegant three dimensional form with the skilful use of a hammer and anvil

Séamus Gill for PORTFOLIO @ Solomon

EIMEAR CONYARD

“My most recent body of work incorporates materials and techniques used to produce my timepieces without the constraints of the functionality and mechanics of the object. The use of perspex influences the design and balance of precious materials like gold, silver and pearls”

INGA REED

“Today my workshop is still filled with shells and "interesting" stones picked up from beaches around Ireland, but also with dried seed heads, leaves and seed pods gathered from garden and hedgerow. These are the source of inspiration for my work.  I am not only drawn to them for their intrinsic beauty in colour and form, but for the intricate organic engineering that underpins their structure and for the intricate patterns and textures they create en masse”

EOIN M LYONS

Self-organised Capacitors, 2015, Earrings, Iron wire, sterling silver, white sapphire, by Eoin M Lyons

His High-Voltage collection aims to explore fascination with mechanical objects and technology. The basis for his work comes both from these forms and the graphic qualities inherent within them. He creates linear structures from iron, steel, silver and gold wire. Sometimes embossed into fine silver, rendering them essentially 2 dimensional, and sometimes remaining as 3 dimensional linear constructions; the presentation of both increases the visual dialogue in the work

Transformer with gold 0003, 2013, Neckpiece, Iron wire, 18ct Gold wire, sterling silver, black engine tubing, by Eoin M Lyons and below on display

RACHEL MCKNIGHT

Rachel studied at The University of Ulster in Belfast. Having graduated in 2003 she started her first workshop in her parent's garage and this is where she developed Rachel McK. The excitement of sourcing new materials and the experimentation with them inspires her to produce original and innovative jewellery. The idea of transparency and opaque colour influences her designs, and plastics allow her to explore this. Simple and uncomplicated shapes and the idea of duplicating these shapes also form the basis for Rachel’s jewellery

Work available by McKnight - PORTFOLIO @ Solomon

RACHEL SWAN

Rachel Swan is an Irish goldsmith, creating timeless, contemporary jewellery using traditional techniques. Founded in 2008, Rachel has established an uncomplicated approach to design. Influenced by sleek aesthetics, architecture and sculpture, Rachel’s work is handcrafted in Dublin with a considered approach to every aspect of her brand. Her minimalist work mirrors her own uncluttered lifestyle philosophy and her love of Scandinavian interiors

GARVAN TRAYNOR

"My creative process is about engaging and collaborating with the client. Every person is different and every piece I produce reflects that; this builds a constantly creative cycle."

Two plates above: Ring for Attention Series by Garvan Traynor

VIEW A COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS ON SHOW HERE

REMINDER: THIS EXHIBITION IS IN ITS FINAL WEEK