Monday 22 February 2016

'Get a Real Job' Symposium

On Saturday the 20th of February the Dunamaise Theatre was the venue for a symposium titled Get a Real Job. It was organized by Abbeyleix Further Education Centre and The Dunamaise Arts Centre and involved 9 of us, all past students of the Abbeyleix Centre, speaking about our careers in art since leaving.

It was a really good day because we all got to see what each of us are up to now, also because we got to catch up and also meet artists and designers that I didn't know before. I haven't seen some members of the group in years. We were split into 3 groups, the first group was lead by Jackie Carter and the 3 speakers in that group were Janet O Grady, Laura Amy Dunne and Mary Carroll followed by a Questions and Answers round. 

Our group consisting of all studio artists and oddly all of us named Pat was lead by Jock Nichol. Pat Wallis spoke first, then myself and then Pat Fitzpatrick whose work is going to be installed at The Dunamaise Arts Centre next week after my show closes. Pat Fitzpatrick's show runs from the 4th of March until the 30th of April, the exhibition reception is on the 10th of March and after hearing a little about it at the symposium I think it's going to be an amazing show. We had a Q&A too.

The final group then was lead by Edel O Keefe and the 3 speakers were Heidi Higgins, John Hennessy and Pascal Kenna. After another Q&A round there were a few words said by Jackie, Jock, Edel and Michelle de Forge. 

The links below have some information on the day:



Monday 15 February 2016

'Beneath the Dock Leaf' Video Documentation

I ran through the exhibition during the week and did a little video documentation of the show in The Dunamaise Arts Centre. I meant to do it for the previous showing of Beneath the Dock Leaf  but I forgot to charge my camera battery and I think it's probably more fitting that I captured this one because for the moment it's the last planned solo exhibition of Beneath the Dock Leaf. I'm planning a new project and will start working on that in the next couple of weeks and while it will be the same style and focus on the same themes it will be running under a new working title.

As for Beneath the Dock Leaf, the works in that body will be going out into group shows the first of which is in March at The Presentation Arts Centre in Enniscorthy, County Wexford. The exhibition is curated by artist John Busher.




'Beneath the Dock Leaf' by Pat Byrne from Pat Byrne on Vimeo.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Installation Shots at Dunamaise Arts Centre

Beneath the Dock Leaf opened on the 14th of January at The Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise. There was a great crowd at the opening and I got some very positive feedback,  there has also been a good footfall through the gallery since the launch night. I have a few images of the show in this post, none from opening night but just the installation itself.








With the work being so figurative I was really keen to avoid having exact spacing between each work. I had some of them grouped slightly more for this purpose and interaction rather than for any real narrative. 








The Dunamaise is a great space, It;s an open white cube with a skylight that runs the length of the gallery and along with the natural light there are also spotlights too.




There is 2 new paintings in the exhibition since the work was on display at The Hyde Bridge Gallery in Sligo, they're the one just to the left of the door above and the one beside it. The piece beside the door is titled Upon the Lonely Rath and the one beside it is called Slouching. Slouching was originally intended for the Sligo exhibition but it wasn't ready.




Out of the 15 paintings 6 of the paintings were completed during my time on the MFA at The National College of Art and Design, the other 9 are all new. The 3 above were from the MFA and the one below is new and actually was installed while still wet. Upon the Lonely Rath is my first completed painting of 2016.




The build up was really good and the staff at The Dunamaise were great. All I had to do was get the work to the gallery. Michelle de Forge, who is the Centre Director, Nick who is Installation Technician, Laura is Box Office Manager and Lorraine is Head of PR took care of absolutely everything, installation, promotion, invites, they had everything cover and it was a complete pleasure to work with them, they were brilliant.



I was in yesterday just recording some footage of the show and Michelle asked would I be available during the week to talk with the students of Abbeyleix FEC so I went in today (February 10th) to talk about the work and what I've been up to since I finished Abbeyleix almost 10 years ago. I got to catch up with Jackie Carter who is head of the art department and was one of my tutors when I was in the PLC course. I also got to meet Sharon Murphy who is working with the students as part of their work experience and was running a workshop in the space on documenting artwork. I still find it a little bit terrifying talking in front of a group but I think it went fairly well and it was quite laid back.

I'll be updating my website soon with documentation of the new work and any other little adjustments that are needed. As far as studio work goes, I'm currently working on a commission and after that's completed I'll be starting a new body of work based on the same theme and in a similar style to what I'm doing but I'm hoping to push it on a little bit and also introduce new characters.

On the 20th of February I'll be one of 10 artists speaking at a symposium called Get a Real Job. The symposium is organised by Abbeyleix Further Education Centre Art Department in conjunction with The Dunamaise Arts Centre.

Beneath the Dock Leaf runs until the 27th of February.