Recent Works

Friday 17 January – Friday 28 February  

A practicing artist for 25 years, Gavin has exhibited widely in Ireland (EVA award winner 1993) and his work is included in many public and private collections. Printmaking is also an important part of his practice, showing regularly in the graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin and participating in group shows in Berlin and London  in 2012 and an Open Studio in New York in 2012 and 2013. Since 2007, he has been working to create a broader, more encompassing visual language. He completed a course in Jungian Psychology in 2012 which has had a major impact on his recent work. www.gavinhogg.com

Exhibition Reception on Wednesday 12 February, 7pm  

GAVIN HOGG

Artist Statement

January 2014

I get up in the morning and I make, and the answer as to why I make is easy; it is simply good to make, to craft anything from its beginning to end, is a pleasant and satisfying thing to do.

Why do I make what I make? is perhaps harder to answer in a straightforward manner. The question moves from the general to the particular but at the same time, I don’t think what I make is particularly obscure. The work is certainly intended to be readily accessible to the casual viewer. The elements within the work are recognisable even if their relationships to each other are uncertain. But this ambiguity is meant as a positive quality, creating room for conversation or imaginative play with the work.

The work is first of all designed. It is drawn and it is planned, it is printed, collaged and painted and the intention is that the work is attractive and will reward time spent by the viewer in looking and considering a possible meaning. It works like this because, I, as the work’s first audience, look at it just like that.

When I say that I design the work and enjoy the satisfaction of making and completing a piece, that doesn’t mean I know exactly what I am doing, as I visually juxtapose one element with another, or what the work is ultimately about. I have an idea or intuition, but the meaning is another question and the real adventure, the real excitement is making something that I didn’t expect to. The trick as an artist is to try and work just beyond the limitations of what I know, in order to learn more, but also to play and explore and discover possibilities that I might not have considered.

This process of making and play has become a very particular kind of dialogue or conversation between myself and the work. It is a conversation between conscious and unconscious energies, which I am trying to understand and also the importance of dreams and symbols, as a means to better understanding the world and how I and it functions.

Friday 13th and Saturday 14th December

Laois through the Lens

Portlaoise Camera Club

March 22nd to April 27th

Portlaoise Camera Club (PCC) will hold an exhibition in Dunamaise Arts Centre later this month and throughout April. The title of the exhibition is “Laois Through a Lens” and consists of 33 photographs. The style is environmental portraiture and includes images of people throughout the County. A short caption of what the area means to the person will accompany each picture. We in PCC are very excited by this project and we hope people will enjoy the experience.  The exhibition is being launched at 7pm on Friday 22nd March. All are welcome, so come along and bring your friends.

Environmental portraiture featuring people and places across the county, accompanied by short texts by the subjects on their connections to featured locations.   

Portlaoise Camera Club members are very excited by this project and hope people will enjoy the experience! All are welcome to the opening, so come along and bring your friends.

A Longing

Until Friday 15th March

The work in the exhibition “A Longing” stems from two years of work and is the first major body of work since her degree show at NCAD.  The paintings represent all that has happened to her in that time and also reflect her view of the broad and accelerating changes in the world around us.  Colour plays a pivotal role in reflecting desires, fantasies and the hope for an optimistic future.  Images are collected from magazines, papers etc and are often inspired by literature, news stories and personal experiences.

Carol has a B.A honours degree from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. Prior to this she worked for a number of years as an administrator in the Toradh Gallery and as a youth arts worker. She has had three solo exhibitions in Ireland, most recently in 2009 in the Solstice Arts Centre in Co. Meath and in the Watergate gallery in Kilkenny in 2010. She won the ‘Going Solo’ art award from Meath County Arts Office in 2009 and she has work in the collections of Axa Insurance, the Office of Public Works, Meath Co. Council and Bank of Ireland.

At the opening of Carol O'Connor's exhibition...