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ART BEIJING 2021 Irish “Garden of Friendship” exhibition April 30 -May 3

 

Welcome to ‘The Garden of Friendship’ at Art Beijing 2021, a compelling exhibition by Irish contemporary artists. Much has happened since Irish artist Maurice Quillinan organized the first ‘Youyi Visual’ event in Hangzhou in 2019.

At this unique moment, ‘The Garden of Friendship’ offers new perspectives on connections and elicits from us our greatest creativity and courage and the intriguing prospect that we can build a safer and more inclusive home.

The collection ranges from literal visual realism to conceptual abstraction with a broad language of convergence. Are the answers for our new world in transition immersed within these diverse contemporary works?

A global journey beckons. Passports and quarantines are not required. It is our ideas and endeavors which will take flight. The exhibition is arranged in two seasons. A busy season full of movement and action. Many of the artworks discover the value of functioning networks, whether in family dining rooms or in geometric grids hinting at the screen divisions on video conference calls.

There are multifaceted ecologies among them include the allegorical, infinite and shimmering. These can be seen in the quieter more reflective side of the exhibition space.  Other ecologies show oceans we know to be fragile violently crash on the shoreline.  Cutlery drawers reference our food cultures that are also in transition and demand agriculture be a force for sustainable nourishment. 
Vaccines may give us time but only art will ensure our ability to survive as it endorses the realism and dignity that recognizes our planet as a living system. This is not so much an issue of independence nor dependence nor even interdependence but learning that friendships are an important measure of humanity.
I would like to thank Irish Ambassador Ann Derwin  and all from the Embassy of Ireland  especially Jack Mc Cormack and Han Bai for their support and hard work. A huge thank you to Emily de Wolfe Pettit , Shi Yang and Michelle Feng of Peking Art Associates who installed and operated Booth B 28  as I have been physically indisposed recently. 
Madam Bi Hong, Ambassador Ann Derwin and Emily de Wolfe Pettit at the VIP preview.
 
Participating Artists  参展艺术家及作品
Helen G Blake           海伦·G·布莱克
Abigail O’Brien  阿比盖尔·奥布莱恩
Tom Climent             汤姆·克莱门特
Niamh Cunningham        瑞莲
Bernadette Doolan   伯纳黛特·杜兰
Pauline Flynn             宝琳·弗林
Maurice Quillinan     莫里斯·奎利南
Robert Ryan              罗伯特·瑞恩
Una Sealy           尤娜·西利，
皇家西伯利亚皇家艺术学院院士
Donald Teskey         唐纳德·特斯基
Samuel Walsh           塞缪尔·沃尔什
 
Bernadette Doolan  
This painting illustrates through the human, an innate strength that through life events and social connections empowers us to steady our belief in moving forward. I have always been interested in the symbolism of the red thread of fate, or invisible red thread in Asian mythology. It has influenced my work before and appears again with this painting. In this painting it shows the girl ready to play, however a little uncertain. 
www.bernadettedoolan.com
Bernadette Doolan, Steadfast, Oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm, 2019
Pauline Flynn
My work is abstract but sometimes suggests landscape. While working on paintings I was thinking of icecaps, rocks, Ogham script (ancient Irish writing dating back to at least the 4thcentury CE), the fragility of earth, light and space. I graduated as a sculptor and later began to make painting.  I often use mixed media as well as paint in my work.
www.paulinebflynn.wixsite.com
Pauline Flynn Earthwork I, Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2019
Maurice Quillinan
In recent years I have incorporated Chinese ideograms as my primary mark making process, continuously drawing, erasing and redrawing until a logical, visual conversation becomes fleetingly tangible. The poetry of Hanshan and T.S. Eliot (my other important influence) brings the reader into the DNA of places and ideas, narratives I endeavour to engage with via a visually tactile painterly platform. www.mauricequillinan.net
Maurice Quillinan Poem 117: There is a Mist Eater, Oil on linen, 99.3 x 122 cm, 2019

 

 

Niamh Cunningham

‘The Sucrose Series’ explores transformation through crystalisation and drying of water content in mixed media. This transformation occurs on two levels. In the early stages ink is lifted from the surface with hot mixed media, particles of ink are moving and shifting as the process of drying occurs and crystallization takes place and to a certain extent the painting process continues. This layer could be the metaphor for our unique current era of the ecological emergency, being the first generation to witness climate change and the last generation to be capable of taking meaningful action. www.niamhcunningham.com

Niamh Cunningham, Meeting of the Waters -‘The Sucrose Series’,Original sucrose, mixed media, 30 x 22 cm, 2015

 

 

Helen G Blake

Blake’s work is self-referential and without a theme. Using a working method where process and contemplation are both allowed to guide the evolution of the work, she composes overtly hand-made paintings which record and examine colour conversations within accumulating pattern structures, embracing accidents, flaws and discrepancies within their rhythms. The title here is deliberately ambiguous but may be taken as a comment on how the colours and shapes were selected and arranged. www.helengblake.com

Helen G Blake, Working Together, Oil on linen, 80 x 100 cm,  2019

 

 

 

Abigail O’Brien

O’Brien works in a range of media including painting, photography, video, sculpture and embroidery. She explores ideas of tradition, religion, ritual and domesticity. Table for Two, 2019. refers to preparations being in train, for dinner with a friend or loved one. A meal cooked for you by someone else is very special and food made with love tastes delicious.

www.abigailobrien.com

Abigail O’Brien: Cutlery Drawer,  from ‘Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner No. 3’, Lambda chrome print on archival paper,  116.5 x 90 cm, Ed 1/2 & AP, 2019

 

 

Tom Climent

Tom Climent’s work investigates the borderline between abstraction and representation. His current body of work is predominantly landscape in nature, it suggests a narrative but never actually reveals what that might be. The paintings also investigate materiality and aesthetics. The layers and the mobility of the paint and textures become a witness to the thought process of their making. 

www.tomcliment.com
Tom Climent, Giant , Oil & plaster on canvas, 92 x 92 cm, 2019
Robert Ryan
Referencing post-modern, it borrows qualities from European old masters, using traditional characteristics in a modern context. Robert Ryan paints landscape, but his work cannot be described as ‘landscape painting’. Allegorical concepts including the infinity of space and time, solitude, vulnerability, fragility and the cycle of life are explored in his paintings and drawings in which a generic four-legged creature is central. This creature inhabits another world, a universal landscape. Ryan has cultivated his images, of both place and its inhabitants, into a hybrid, a non-specific and as a result the viewer is left to reflect on essential truths. This is work that ultimately celebrates the commonality between man and all other creatures – past, present and future. 
www.robertryanireland.com
Robert Ryan, Last of a Species, Oil on canvas, 61 x 76 cm, 2019
Samuel Walsh
Ver is the Latin for Spring which indicates the time of the year that the painting was
made. The Maya were a Mesoamerican, Central American civilization. The painting comes from researching the Mayan period probably through images of Mayan art and architecture. No subtitle, so it was probably a reaction to the season. Influence is not something I am aware of, but I live in and work in the world and occasionally the world taps me on the shoulder and says, look! www.samuelwalsh.com
Samuel Walsh, Vex X (Maya), Oil and acrylic on canvas, 51 x 51 cm, 2013
Una Sealy RHA
This painting chronicles a moment in time in a kitchen in Dublin, Ireland. The individuals are a diverse group of young people, some are members of a band, some are family and friends. There are 12 figures present. There are many details in the painting of typical foods, drinks, packaging and furnishings. All the characters posed for me, but not all were there at the same time, and the painting evolved organically, as a kind of time lapse, a glimpse into the lives of others.  www.unasealy.com
Oil on canvas, One of the diptych, 100 x 120 cm, 2019
Donald Teskey
For the last 40 years the focus of my work as a painter, printmaker and draughtsman, has ranged from aspects of the urban landscape to the ruggedness of the western seaboard. Working outdoors and returning to the studio to develop work on a larger scale, my images reflect the formal elements of composition; – Shape, form and fall of light, with large abstract passages and surfaces which articulate the relentless, energetic and elemental force of nature.  www.donaldteskey.com
Donald Teskey, Summer Storm, Acrylic on paper, 76 x 105 cm, 2018
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Art for a sustainable future – exhibition

TreeSong Jinan Sucrose Series (3.7.) Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲2020

I believe the ecological crisis is a crisis of culture and art  (in all its forms) has an essential role in confronting the environmental emergency. It can be cross disciplinary, it can span the divides of science, agriculture, food culture, education , ethical consumerism, economics, film, music and so much more.

This week I was very happy to be part of the  exhibition “Art promotes a Sustainable Future” which coincided with the 13th China Corporate Social Responsibility Report International Symposium at the Taifu Hotel Beijing  2-3 rd December 2020.

Foggy Dew – Wu Hou Ci (8.6.)Sucrose Series Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲2020

The Sucrose Series began five years ago and explores transformation through crystalisation and drying of water content in the mixed media.  This transformation occurs on two levels. In the early stages ink is lifted from the surface with hot mixed media , particles of ink are  moving and shifting as the process of drying occurs and crystallization takes place. This layer could be the metaphor for our unique current era of the ecological emergency, being the first generation to witness climate change and the last generation to be capable of taking meaningful action.  The outer layer is a crust of opaque crenulation of crystal obliterating the original image.

Purls in the Undercut sucrose （4.6.） Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲 2020

 

 

 

 

 

Participating Artists include:

Jing Yumin 景育民

WangXiaokie 王小杰

Zhang Meng 张锰

Zheng Jing 郑靖

Liu Yue 刘悦

Niko de la Faye 尼可。德拉法耶

Eine Lem 艾娜。莱姆

CROW

ZhangFan张帆

HeShan何杉

Lv Zhiqiang  吕智强

Mica Kuehn 米卡。库恩

Niamh Cunningham 倪芙瑞莲

 

 

 

With CEO Zhuang at the CSR Symposium 

 

 

A big thank you to Mr Zhuang Creative CEO of Goldenbee  organiser for the symposium and  exhibition and also to Shiyan Wang of GoldenBee and artist Liu Yue  .

13th China Corporate Social Responsibility Report International Symposium
Art for a Sustainable Future

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September _ Kosima’s corkscrew willow

Willow- Sucrose series (11.8) UV print on Aluminium 120x160cm Niamh Cunningham 2020 

 

简体中文

Willow- Sucrose series (11.8) UV print on Aluminium 120x160cm Niamh Cunningham 2020 

(This artwork is currently exhibited at The Pattern that Connects at Dong Yue art Museum BJ  until Oct 3 2020)

My friend Kosima is a Mother Earth kind of gal. She is a fountain of knowledge on matters ranging from where best to hike outside Beijing to what kind of non harmful detergents to use in the house. Lately we have been chatting about the willow tree.

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Kosimas corkscrew willow

Willows have always been my special friends, a weeping willow that would greet me when walking first to kindergarten and then school, its branches touching the ground, inviting a child to dive under immediately feel its protecting softness.

When we moved house, I so much wished for a big weeping willow tree behind our house – and indeed we did plant it. I remember It costing 20 DM at the time. Perhaps I even paid for it from my own money. And it is still standing proud with benches my father built, circling around its big dark trunk.

Behind the house even further there were some craggy willow trees, their branches holding on to each other, calling me to find refuge on their broad easy to climb bark where I would often read books.

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Later on in life,  I moved to China and when we moved to our new courtyard it was absolutely barren.

Soon after my mother arrived for the children’s easter holidays, bringing easter egg paints and chocolate eggs – and most excitingly a branch of a corkscrew willow. It served to display our easter egg creations of hand painted blown out eggs shells. During the time she visited, the branch started to grow roots in the vase just as she had hoped. So just before she left for Germany, she planted the little sapling in our courtyard, on the west side of the entrance (just realizing that is actually the direction of Germany …)

The tree grew well throughout that summer, hardened in its first ice cold Beijing winter  – and ever since fully adapted to the local climate. It has grown so tall that we cut it back a year ago to avoid breakage from strong winds. 

Its graceful elegant leaves and soft curly branches contrast dramatically with its strong dark core, a double stem. It gracefully and sincerely represents the presence of my mother.

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Memory Palace of Trees 2020 is socio- ecological art practice which invites your participation to tell a story (or give some kind of information) about trees. It is a social enquiry of how to live better with the planet and with people by simply sharing stories. You are cordially invited to tell me your story of a tree or trees. (email : niamh@niamhcunningham.com) I would love to hear from you. Throughout 2020 a story will be posted with either an artwork already made or perhaps your story will inspire me to make a new work!

 

 

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Leafy with Love & Green Waters of the Canal -showing at 9th Floor Art Museum , Songzhuang

Two of my sucrose works are currently showing in Songzhuang, Beijing .

9th Floor Art museum , Songzhuang.
Green waters of the Canal， sucrose and mixed media, Niamh Cunningham瑞莲 2018

More than 40 artists from the Beijing area participated in “A piece of Cotton Paper” curated by Chang Feng, special thanks also to Ms Yang Yang owner of this beautiful venue . Exhibition continues till July 15th .

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Granary Art Exhibition, Shandong

Granary Art Centre , Sishui, Shandong

It is not often contemporary art is brought into the countryside of Shandong. The exhibition title ‘Seeking Spring by the Riverside on a fine day ‘ is taken from Song dynasty poet Zhu Xi. Shandong is home to centuries of tradition and learning, the birthplace of Confucius is only 40mins drive away from the Granary art museum. At the foot of rolling hills this special contemporary exhibition curated by Tie Xin opened on May 25th. In the exhibition essay by poet Liu Xi, he writes that the search for ‘the good” is sincere and necessary and is a way of integrating nature and humanity…’.

Participating artists with Granary Art Centre people

 A huge thank you to the group of interesting artists who set up this unusual art and library refuge four years ago and to Tian Bing  and to exhibition director Yue ShenFeng for hosting and facilitating this exhibition and to all the staff such as Chen ling and Dong Ying , teacher Zhao Yue Feng and other teachers . Special thanks also to the impressive participating artists whose company made for a truly great weekend.

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