Category Archives: Exhibitions

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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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Your Invitation to ‘Shared Destiny – The Pattern that Connects

 

 

 

You are cordially invited to the opening of  ” Shared Destiny -The Pattern that Connects ” a duo exhibition with woodcut artist Ma Liangfen and myself ….. focussing on nature and our relationship with it . …..opens on Saturday 3.30 at Dong Yue Art Museum Beijing . The exhibition runs till Oct 3 . If you cant make the opening but would like to visit another day please contact me and I will try to be there to give you the personal tour. 

 

 

 

Here is the link to exhibition document preface written by academic curator Zeng Luhong. 

 

 

 

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Sucrose Series -currently showing at Wuxi Bund Art Centre

Pond Poplars   池边白杨11.02.20 sucrose series Niamh Cunningham 2020

I am very pleased to be exhibiting some of my work in a physical space for the first time in the year 2020. Silent Explosion opened it’s doors  last week  at the impressive venue Wuxi Bund art Centre.

My work showing at this group exhibition is a digital work, a video showing the stages of transition of four Sucrose works in mid transformation:

We are deeply rooted in the ways we see our reality. When you observe ‘process’ you see constant change and consider the flux of relationships that intermingle to make up our systems. When we don’t see the delicate tendencies within an ecosystem which gives it its integrity there is a problem.  

Spiked Stardust   星芒  18.03.20  Niamh Cunningham 2020

Transformation and Nature are recurring themes in my work. Transformation has an essential role in life and I have been exploring this through materiality and process of art making. For several years I have been looking at the monocrystal sugar and its interaction with paper and ink and other materials.

 

 

 

I explore this process of crystalisation in the painting process where minute ink particles pulled from the under layer of digital print are lifted into the mixture which later forms crystals. Occasionally you can see the movement of ink as the crystalisation takes place. Therefore the painting process continues without further interventions. There are two things of interest that are taking place here. At the early process stage, near the surface of the cotton paper there is a slight movement of tiny ink particles which are lifted into the sugar mixture. But this is minute in scope. The more obvious surface crystallization spreads its delicate web obscuring the image some might call this a painting in reverse.

Cotton Catkins Flying    飞絮濛濛. 15.02.20 Niamh Cunningham 2020

The dense and often disorienting landscape  of the Chinese garden has fascinated me for a long time. For these sacred gardens scholars borrowed geometrical order from Confucianism, the search for the elixir of life in Taoism (which is more in touch with natural world than the artificialities and etiquette of Confucianism)  and the garden as an aid to meditation as in Buddhism. These cosmic diagrams reveal an ancient view of man’s perspective of the natural world.

My idle Dreams roam far    闲梦远 12.02.20 Niamh Cunningham 2020

I have chosen garden sucroses, ‘Pond Poplars’, ‘Spiked Stardust ‘and ‘My Idle Dreams roam far’ which are based on my favourite Chinese garden Yu Yuan in Shanghai. The title for “Cotton Catkins Flying’ is taken from a poem by Li Yu who wrote about the West Lake in Hangzhou from where the underlying image is taken.

 

Taken from exhibition text

 

Silence is an illusion

Spring has passed through in silence

Nature is flattered by man’s inertia

 

沉默是假象

沉默了一整个春

人类的静止让大自然受宠若惊

Silent Explosion is an exhibition curated by Jiang Danming.

Art director :  Ma Yiying

Academic host: Tong YongSheng

Video Media : Wang Yanning 王彦宁

Participating artists include:

Chen Hao, Liu Jincai, Liu Lang, Li Jintao, Niamh Cunningham Ruilian (Ireland) ), Wang Jianrong, Wei Ying, Zhang Xuebo, Zhang Ziyi, Zhu Jiancheng, Zhu Zhigang.

 

A personal thanks to Ma Yiying and Zhuzhigang and Jiang Danming .

 

Link to the exhibition  Silent Explosion 

 

The Exhibition “Silent Explosion” at Wuxi Canal Bund Art Centre  continues till July 31st 2020

 

 

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Portrait Project 2019

Bachmann Girl (week19) and Friend to Many (week 32) Bloomsday event at the Embassy of Ireland Beijing June 16th 2019 (photo by Eric Favreliere )

A very Happy New Year to all. A huge thank you to all the galleries curators and collectors who have supported me throughout 2019.

Here is a quick overview of the portraits posted during 2019 . The subjects range in age from 6 months to 100 years young. I began this series when living in Prague in 2010. There are many more friends, artists, curators, family members whom I have yet to paint however for the year 2020 I will continue at a more reasonable pace , perhaps 4 or 5 portraits alongside commission work.

This blog will look at the portrait series installed in different exhibitions in 2019 and a look at the portrait for each week through the year. Also included in this blog is a curatorial statement on my portrait series by renowned curator Huang Du.

Portraits at the exhibition ‘Odyssey The Return’ at Dong Yue Art Museum Beijing April 2019
Granary Art Centre, SiShui county , Shandong, May 2019
Dancer (week 10) and Twin Song (week 8) showing at Wick Art Centre, Budapest, April 2019
From right to left :Praha Cafe (week 3) and Scoop (week 24) and others showing at China Ireland exhibition , Museu&m Expo Park , Shanghai Nov 2019


Week1 ：Blazer Blue oil on canvas 50x50cm Niamh Cuningham/倪芙瑞联 2018
Week 2 Princess of Daxing 50×50 oil on canvas, Niamh Cunningham 倪芙瑞莲 2013
Week 3 : Café Praha (C.C) oil on canvas 80x60cm Niamh Cunningham/倪芙瑞莲2010

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Gobi Heaven- Int’l Art Show : What the Artists Say

Gobi Heaven festival August 2019

The first of the Gobi Heaven festivals was held in Bayan Nur, Inner Mongolia August 6-11 2019. This is the first of five annual festivals .

The International artist camp, curated by Suzanne Matz included various happenings alongside the exhibition hall. Apart from the indoor exhibition there were  out door art installations, impromptu art performances, music,  belly dancing, bilingual poetry happenings, rap workshop,  environmental  workshops, meditation  and visualization workshops.  I presented a workshop on Image and Memory in Space – Memory Palace workshop ….more on that in the next post.  

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1919 exhibition based on WB Yeats Poem currently showing in Sligo, Ireland

1919-Whirls in the Old Terezin acrylic on canvas 30x30cm Niamh Cunningham 2019

I first saw these unusual black metal disc grave markers (Austro-Hungarian army) on a visit to Terezin in the Czech Republic many years ago. The area was witness to different strife and horror over time. This cyclical horror which Yeats refers to reminds me of this place. The reticulation from the different printing I use on this work I think also reflects traces from the past being relived .

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Bloomsday pop up exhibition at Embassy of Ireland

Bloomsday event Embassy of Ireland Beijing portraits by Niamh Cunningham
photo by Eric Favreliere

Bloomsday celebrates an ordinary day from which an extraordinary book is based. The 16th June 1904 is the day when James Joyce’s epic modern novel ‘Ulysses’ takes place. June 16th 2019 witnessed lots of fun events at the Embassy of Ireland in Beijing with a play directed by Mario Perez, readings, improv by the Beijing Broads, photo costume booth and of course art. The NorthGateProject founders Fion Gunn, Gulistan and myself exhibited a collection of artworks. We had an exhibition Odyssey the Return in April with Ulysses as the main theme.

When the rain stopped….Bloomsday Irish Embassy event photo credit: Zhou Jian 周建

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