To accompany PASSAGE: Selected Works from the Niland Collection which is currently showing at Luan Gallery, local artist Aoife Doolan’s work is on display in the Boardwalk Gallery.
Aoife, an Athlone native currently living and working in Bantry, Co Cork, created a series of paintings inspired by Thomas Kinsella’s translation of Táin Bó Cúailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley.
Louis LeBrocquy illustrated this translation in 1969 and Irish poet Seamus Heaney beautifully described these illustrations as “images thrown from text”. Today this work is considered the finest Irish artists book ever created and these prints currently make up one third of the exhibition drawn from the County Sligo municipal collection: PASSAGE: Selected Works from the Niland Collection.
Aoife said, “Having the opportunity to exhibit my series of paintings An Táin in Athlone’s Luan Gallery has been a great pleasure. I am particularly pleased to have had the honour of exhibiting along side of Louis LeBrocquy’s own Táin series. LeBrocquy has been such a significant influence on my work, since first reading The Táin by Thomas Kinsella, which he illustrated.
“This series of paintings has taken me on a journey. Each painting has a different birthplace, its own significance, its own nature, and its own epic tale. Bringing these works home and watching them as they look down from the gallery walls onto the river Shannon, has been extremely poignant for me.”
Luan Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11am-5pm and Sundays 12-5pm. Admission
