Caroline McCarthy at Dismaland

Promise

by Caroline McCarthy

Featured as part of Banksy's show Dismaland in Weston-Super-Mare

‘Promise’ created by Caroline McCarthy is like a candlelight vigil to nature; staged on the manufactured madness we now call food and, as with most art, the interpretation is up to you. 

Installation view of Promise, featured in Green On Red Gallery, Dublin (2006)

Straight from closing USELESS at Green On Red Gallery this summer, Caroline McCarthy’s work is now part of Dismaland, Banksy's Bemusement Park: 'a festival of art, amusement and entry-level anarchism', which runs from 22nd August - 27th September 2015 near Bristol, UK. The project has been installed on a 2.5 acre site of the disused 'Tropicana' lido on the Weston-Super-Mare seafront.

Dismaland, features the work of 58 international artists and includes 10 new Banksy sculptures. Caroline is the only Irish artist included in this display which features artists such as Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Jimmy Cauty, Nettie Wakefield, and David Shrigley. Her featured work, entitled Promise (2003), is made from over 200 different ready meal boxes, where the garnish on each is cut from its packaging and folded to stand up in the centre of individual plant pots. The plant pots are arranged according to garnish species, the display at first resembling a garden, but at close range the seedlings are seen to be cut from a bed of wholly manufactured produce.

"There's been a great response to Promise, and the whole show. It's one that embraces a huge audience, not just the artworld. It's just been amazing to be part of!" - Caroline McCarthy talking about being part of Banksy's Dismaland.

Caroline McCarthy was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1971. She studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, 1989 – 1994 and is based in London since completing an MA Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 1998.

Past awards include the Allied Irish Bank Artist Award in 2001; Open Award at EV+A 1996 and 2001; and a Multi-Annual Bursary award from the Arts Council of Ireland, 2007/2008, with works included in the collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Allied Irish Bank, Arts Council of Ireland, Zabludowicz Collection and many private collections.

She recently co-curated Group Coordination, in collaboration with the Irish Museum of Modern Art and her work is currently touring internationally in Nature Morte, in association with Thames and Hudson. Solo exhibitions include USELESS (2015), Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; From One End To The Other, various venues, Norwich, UK (2013); Made to Measure, Parker's Box Gallery, New York, USA (2011); Arrangements, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2011); Hoet Bekaert Gallery, Ghent (2008); Gimpel Fils Gallery, London (2008); Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf (2007); Void, Derry (2006).

Below are some further links to Caroline's Work at Dismaland:

Banksy's Dismaland: mean - and a little bit green

Theme parks continue to draw in thrill-seekers despite the risks - so why are we so addicted?

Banksy's Dismaland - 'A themepark unsuitable for children' - in pictures

Welcome to Dismaland. Banksy's dystopian theme park

Dismaland: The artists doing cooler things than Banksy at his 'bemusement park'
 

Entry to Dismaland is by ticket only, and they are snapped up fast. They can be purchased online via the Dismaland Website

Caroline McCarthy in conversation with Catherine Marshall

USELESS
Caroline McCarthy in conversation with Catherine Marshall

Thursday, July 9th. 13:15-14:00
Green On Red Gallery

Disaster Waiting to Happen (2015), Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 x 5cms

Please Join Us for Our Second Summer Lunchtime Talk 

Catherine Marshall will be in conversation with Caroline McCarthy to discuss some of the ideas behind the new works in the current exhibition, USELESS, in the Green On Red Gallery and to situate her work in a broader context.

Caroline McCarthy is based in London and has exhibited internationally since graduating from NCAD Dublin, followed by her MFA in Goldsmiths College, London, in 1997. Most recently she has exhibited it the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; i8 Gallery, Reykjavik; Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London; and her work is currently touring Norway, Sweden, Belgium and the UK in Nature Morte, an exhibition in association with Thames and Hudsonwith accompanying Nature Morte publication.

Catherine Marshall is co-editor of the recent publication  20th Century: Art and Architecture of Ireland (Vol.V), and the former Head of Collections at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. 

The Trouble with Light, a Lecture by Mark Joyce

The Trouble with Light 

Lecture by Mark Joyce

Thursday June 4th, 13.15-14hrs

All welcome.  Refreshments served. 

The Trouble with Light is the title of a lecture to be delivered by Mark Joyce, Director of Art for Yale National University - Singapore, next Thursday lunchtime, June 4th, in the new Spencer Dock gallery.  Previously Mark was Lecturer in Fine Art at IADT, Dun Laoghaire and was responsible for the establishment of the experimental Drawing Gallery, Dun Laoghaire .

Since the artist's solo exhibition  The Newtonians (2008), if not before, Joyce has been taken with the evidence and representation of light in a material means, fully aware of an inherent contradiction in the challenge.  After a working trip to Iceland in 2012, small fields of solid colour turned to stripes or zig-zags of finely tuned and elegant colour arrangements which in turn became crystalline compositions, sometimes aperture-like with varying interiors or depths beyond with titles such as Copernicus, Hindu Kush, Skelter, etc.

Joyce was an obvious choice for the Light Falls exhibition where his work is shown alongside recent works by varying generations of artists from Bridget Riley and Marcia Hafif to recent-graduate Sofie Loscher.  His lecture on contemporary art issues and ' the trouble with light ' is eagerly awaited.  It is the artist's third lecture in the gallery, once described as " the weatherman of painting ".

'OPEN' Event

GREEN ON RED GALLERY Presents OPEN
Wednesday 29th April - 1st May, 2015

This is an opportunity for clients, collectors and professional bodies to view a selection of exquisite works from the gallery's storage with information and advice provided by the gallery director. 

The Green On Red Gallery is delighted to invite you to our three day OPEN event.  We would like to welcome you to our new premises in Park Lane, Spencer Dock for the unique opportunity to view a selection of works by our internationally esteemed gallery artists. 
 
Artists include Alice Mahar, Bridget Riley, Caroline McCarthy, Tom Hunter, John Cronin, Fergus Martin, Mark Joyce, Damien Flood, Mary FitzGerald, John Graham, Arno Karmer, Niamh McCann, Rona Mc Crea, and Nigel Rolfe.
 
OPEN aims to introduce clients, collectors and professional bodies to some choice treasures from the galleries collection in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.
 
Gallery director Jerome O Drisceoil will be on hand to provide insight into the individual works and give details about the gallery’s upcoming calendar of events
 
Please let us know in advance what visiting time slot you would like. Tea, coffee and refreshments will be supplied.

The Art of Collecting gallery lecture by Dónall Curtin

The Art of Collecting gallery lecture by Dónall Curtin on occasion of solo exhibition Axis Mundi & Bathing Places, Dublin Bay by Tom Hunter,  

Thursday, March 12th, 2015, 6-7pm
Booking advisable.

Tom Hunter: Bull Wall 2006 C-type print Edition of 4 84 x 106 x 4cms

Dónall Curtin, Senior Partner in BCK Certified Public Accountants and Former President of Chambers Ireland will deliver the first lecture, The Art of Collecting, in a series of lectures on contemporary art topics at the Green On Red Gallery, Spencer Dock, next Thursday, March 12, 6-7pm.  Attendance is free but booking advisable.
 

Dónall Curtin has broad experience of contemporary art through his ongoing attendance at and support of galleries, artists' events and art fairs over a period of 10-20 years.  He has become a passionate champion and afficionado of contemporary art in its diverse media in Ireland and abroad.  He will speak from first-hand experience of looking at and collecting contemporary over that period, about his changing views and vision.  He will share the benefit of his experience and his adventure with all interested private or corporate parties in the gallery this Thursday.  

Dónall will tackle some of the misconceptions around access to contemporary art and prompt some fresh thinking on this engaging past-time which, he maintains, is available to all and sundry. 

Dónall is also a board member of The Abbey Theatre and Visual Arts Ireland.

We look forward to seeing you in Spencer Dock.  To book a place at the lecture please email Jerome at jerome@greenonredgallery.com.

Paid parking is available at the basement level of The National Convention Centre, North Wall Quay, D. 1.  Follow the P parking signs from the quays to the rear.  The Gallery is 3 minutes walk from here.

Three new Bathing Places, Dublin Bay photographs will be shown for the remainder of the exhibition, including Bull Wall ( 2006 ) ( see image ).

Publications on Tom Hunter's current exhibition available at the gallery as follows :

Le Crowbar Tom Hunter, 2013, Here Press, London
Tom Hunter The Way Home, 2012, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostifildern, Germany 
Tom Hunter Living in Hell and Other Stories, 2006, Yale University Press, New Haven
Tom Hunter DA2 Domus Artium 2002, 2004, Salamanca
Tom Hunter, 2003, Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany

Gallery Director talk at Green On Red Gallery, Spencer Dock.

Gallery Director talk at Green On Red Gallery, Spencer Dock, Dublin 1 at lunchtime, this Thursday

Thurs 12 February, 1.15 - 2pm

On the occasion of the end of the first group exhibition in the new Green On Red Gallery in Spencer Dock the director of the gallery, Jerome O Drisceoil, will give an introductory talk on the subject of the recent Renew exhibition and on the new gallery.  

We are particularly delighted to be able to welcome our neighbouring residents and businesses to view the gallery, to view the closing Renew exhibition and to learn more about the gallery past, present and future.  The Green On Red Gallery is the latest addition to the expanding and increasingly vibrant Irish Financial Services Centre area in Dublin's Docklands.  The Gallery opened 23 years ago and is excited about its new home in the Docklands.

All welcome.  This event is free.

Artists in the Renew exhibition include John Cronin, Mary FitzGerald, Damien Flood, Mark Joyce, Niamh McCann, Caroline McCarthy, Ronan McCrea, Alice Maher and Bridget Riley. 

Press Release

Renew will feature a new suite of 9 prints by Alice Maher shown here for the first time. These are the first new works by the artist seen since her highly successful solo exhibition, Becoming, in the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2012 and her recently published monograph, Resevoir, published in 2014 by ROAD Publications, Dublin.  The new works are marked by a riot of colour and play with motifs of corporeal and symbolic metamorphosis.  In God's little helper the female protagonist is overcome with a coat of human hair, as Magdalene was before ( or after ? ) her.

Mark Joyce presents two new paintings on panel that recall some of his earlier '90's oil on canvas paintings.  Their playful shapes echo letters and numbers but never spell out their message, as a Mel Bochner might.

Damien Flood's new paintings are stripped back with a fresh and exciting economy.  They hang on a knife-edge between bringing us to familiar and mysterious, unknown worlds.

Mary FitzGerald uses hard-edge and fragile materials that make the most of their reflective qualities and expand the moment of perception.  The viewer is involved and engaged in unexpected twists and turns.

In anticipation of her forthcoming solo show at the gallery, Caroline McCarthy presents Woods in November ( 2014 ) acrylic on canvas.  This is a dazzling trompe l'oeil rendition of the most inconsequential subject brought centre stage.  We are made to question our own belief systems and moral code in an upside-down world so convincingly portrayed.

Ronan McCrea will exhibit new photographs from his " reprographic " project that meditates on current questions about the fin de siécle, as he sees it, of the photographic era in late or post Post-Modernism.  These works have an authority borrowed from the conventions of the medium but can point to new conclusions.

Large Fragment by Bridget Riley has an undeniable elegance and mastery that, while harking back to the cut-outs of Henri Matisse, is both fresh and compelling.

The Gallery is open to the public from Wednesday-Friday, 10-6pm and on Saturdays11-3pm.

We look forward to welcoming you to the new gallery, to Renew and to the Director's talk.  Bí linn.

Axis Mundi & Bathing Places, Dublin Bay solo exhibition by Tom Hunter

Axis Mundi & Bathing Places, Dublin Bay solo exhibition by Tom Hunter

February 19 - March 2015
Opens Thursday, February 19, 6-8pm

Inner Circle 2013 C-type print Edition of 4 76.2 x 96.5cms

TheGreen On Red Gallery is delighted to announce the opening ofTom Hunter’s fourth solo exhibition,Axis Mundi & Bathing Places, Dublin Bay,at the Spencer Dock gallery on Thursday, February 19, 6-8pm.  The show consists of two separate bodies of work, one made in the last 2 years in the artist’s native England, the other made while on theArtist’s Residency Programme in the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin in 2006. 

Tom Hunter is perhaps best known for his alluring and beautifully composed images of the marginal in society, specifically in the neighbourhood of Hackney, East London, home to the artist for the last 20-30 years.  Hunter’s honest depiction of life in the bars, the streets and halls of Hackney, far from being voyeuristic, reveals the drama and the dignity of ordinary lives.  What is special about these varied scenes of seedy or borderland London is how they wear the garment and authority of art history.  Each photograph references a painting in the collection of the National Gallery, London and, more generally, the artist’s deep admiration for the quiet, mysterious interiors of Johannes Vermeer’s 17thC. Delft, for example.

Axis Mundi & Bathing Places, Dublin Bay are produced in a medium size and photographed using a large-format, pin-hole camera.  They are as close as the artist has come to shooting pure, romantic landscape subjects.  Nature is seen at its most exposed and elemental, possibly at dawn.   The pin-hole camera, like a “ heavenly portal “ lends a drama and distortion that magnifies the subject and lifts it out of the ordinary.  The bending horizon, the even grey Dublin light, the pull of the ample sea, the bursting pink light on the English horizon gives both series a timeless and ageless dimension.  Heaven and earth are joined in these images in a cosmological declaration.

The mark of man, however, is evident even central to the story of these works.  The menhirs are testament to a prehistoric civilisation about which little is known for fact except, on the evidence of its surviving monolithic architecture, that it clung predominately to north Western Europe and parts of North Africa.  It is easily imagined as a time of giants, great legends and heroic battles.  As a child the artist walked the ancient roads leading to these focal points in the land.  But the artist’s more immediate predecessors here are the communities of travellers, revellers and revivalists with their own rites and heroics.    

Later, as I started walking this landscape, the hill forts of Hambledon Hill, Hod Hill, Badbury Rings and Spetisbury Rings took me back to an imagined world of Asterix and Obelix fighting great battles of independence and liberation.

As a teenager in the late Seventies the tribalism and eccentricity in England seemed to explode, with hundreds of bikers roaring through our village on a Bank holiday, like a huge invading army of Goths, to the Mods, Skinheads and my new adopted brethren the Punks. Some of these tribes were drawn to the Stonehenge Free Festival.

( Tom Hunter )

The hand bars, on the other hand, at Sandycove and Seapoint remind us of the invisible community of open water swimmers and another monumental, epic journey which begins with the following description :

Lend us a loan of your noserag to wipe my razor.
A new art colour for our Irish poets : snotgreen.  You can almost taste it, can’t you ?
He mounted the parapet again and gazed out over Dublin bay, his fair oakpale hair stirring slightly.
- God, he said quietly.  Isn’t the sea what Algy calls it : a grey sweet mother ?  The Snotgreen sea.  The scrotumtightening sea. Epi oinopa ponton.  Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks.  I must teach you.  You must read them in the original.  Thalatta !  Thalatta !.  She is our great sweet mother.  Come and look.

                                                                                                            (Ulysses, James Joyce )

Journey is the leitmotif for Tom's work as an artist.  His journey, of course, is more an internal one.

Tom continues to exhibit internationally and has recently exhibited at the Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, New York, Scandinavia, elsewhere in Europe and in China.  In 2015 he will take up a commission to complete a project during a residency in Jordan on the life of Laurence of Arabia, a fellow-Dorset man.

The artistwill give a talk on his work on March 6th, 1-2pm in theGreen On Red Galleryin Spencer Dock.  Free.  Booking advisable.  On March 12thDonal Curtin, Senior Partner, BCK Chartered Accountants and Chairman of the Board of Chambers Ireland will give a talk in the gallery onThe Art of Collectingat 6pm.  All welcome.

Green On Red Gallery,Park lane( rere of apartments ),Spencer Dock,Dublin 1. For further information contact us at T: +353 (0) 1 6713414 or +353 87 245 4282 or E: jerome@greenonredgallery.com / www.greenonredgallery.com

Fergus Martin wins O'Malley Art Award 2014

O'Malley Art Award 2014 Fergus Martin

O'Malley Art Award 2014 Fergus Martin

Green On Red Galleryis delighted to announce that the recipient of the Irish American Cultural Institute O'Malley Art Award 2014 isFergus Martin.  The award is given annually to an Irish artist of choice by a selection committee composed of curators and museum directors in Ireland.  The award is sponsored by the Irish American Cultural Institute on behalf of the Ernest O'Malley family. 


Image (above): the artist andAChair (2014) Archival pigment print, 266 x 150cms, edition of 3 from the artist's recent solo exhibitionOutside Inside, 2014, in Green On Red Gallery, Dublin.

Martin's work will be shown by Green On Red Gallery next inVUE, National Contemporary Art Fair, RHA Gallery from October 31-November 2, 2014 and will feature in Tulca Festival of Visual Arts, Galway, 7 - 23 November, 2014.  Please contact the gallery for complementary passes toVUEor for further information on the artist.