To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Ballinasloe based artist collective Group 8 hosted the opening of its annual exhibition, LEONARDO 500, in the Church Gallery, Ballinalsoe Library, on Tuesday evening.
The exhibition will run for two weeks and will feature writing, paintings, photography, textiles, ceramics, mixed media and sculpture inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, whose quincentenary is this year. Writer and art curator Margaret Hickey will open the exhibition.
LEONARDO 500 is the result of collaborative work the members of Group 8 undertook, taking inspiration from the life, art and ideas of Italian painter, inventor and literal Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci was an extraordinary thinker, responsible for the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and designs for the first flying machine, parachute, and machine gun. Sigmund Freud said of him, ‘he was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep.’
Group 8, was founded in 2009 and is comprised of eight visual artists and two writers, Joyce Little – visual and multimedia artist; Tommy Campbell – sculptor and woodturner; Lily Kelly – visual artist; Grellan Ganly – visual artist; Úna Spain – visual artist; Nuala O’Connor – writer; Zara Little-Campbell – writer; John Soden – painter; Walter Coughlan – ceramicist and Fiona Ormsby – textile designer.
Group 8 is a non-profit, professional arts group whose aim is to foster awareness, imagination and co-operative learning between the artist and the community. The group hosts exhibitions, literary events, artist talks, readings, workshops and book launches. See thegroup8.blogspot.com for more.
