Luan Gallery is set to launch their 2014 spring exhibitions programme tonight, Friday March 21, at 6pm. All are welcome to attend the wine reception where guest speakers will introduce the work of the exhibiting artists.
Launching on the evening will be three new exhibitions featuring the solo works of male Irish contemporary artists: Tom Fitzgerald, Tim Mann, and Tom Climent.
Featuring in the River Gallery is the work of Tim Mann who recently completed a participatory project in AIT called The Crowed Room. Mann hails from Stamford, Lincolnshire and moved to Ireland in 2001 to pursue his artistic career. Mann has a keen interest in community-based projects. Addressing the challenges faced with building an audience for the arts, Mann describes himself as ‘unremitting’ in his commitment to ensure that engagement with the arts is “innovative, accessible, diverse, and sustainable and is a catalyst for further cultural expansion”.
The exhibited works were created in February in AIT for a wellbeing initiative called Wellness? - Be Well. Stay Well. Get Well. A video and audio piece documenting the making of the work at AIT will accompany the work.
Showing in the New Gallery is The Celtic Zoo by Limerick-based artist Tom Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, a member of Áosdana served as head of sculpture in the Limerick School of Art and Design from 1976-2000. Fitzgerald has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and completed an impressive number of public commissions including the JFK commemorative coin commissioned by the Central Bank of Ireland, ‘The Singing Cosmos’, a sculpture for St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin and ‘Temple for Molly Bloom’ in Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea.
The Celtic Zoo is series of mixed media drawings on paper which comment, in a humorous and daring way, on recent Ireland and in particular on its social, political, and economical landscape with emphasis on the fall of the Celtic Tiger.
With titles such as ‘Bank evacuated as moral vacuum is detected on top floor’ and ‘Crime suspected as the Celtic Tiger’s body is exhumed’ this series of topical works while amusing, inspire thought and debate. This work will be introduced on the evening by Dr Marian Fitzgibbon, head of the school of humanities at AIT.
Finally, showing in the Library Gallery are the stunning paintings of the very talented Cork native, Tom Ciment. Climent’s spectacular works of oil, and occasionally plaster, on canvas and board are explorations of colour and structure informed but not constrained by his knowledge of art history. In contrast to the work of both Tom Fitzgerald and Tim Mann, Climent’s art speaks directly to the emotions of the viewer, and avoids the use of repetition, irony, and references to popular culture.
The exhibition runs from March 21-April 22. For more information email [email protected] or call (090 ) 6442154.
