Tipperary Institute is delighted to announce the opening of a wonderfully exciting group exhibition by four artists at it’s Thurles Campus from Friday next 14th November. Selected from a highly competitive open submission competition held in Autumn 2007, artists Jane McCulla, Shane Gannon, Angela Darby and Katarzyna Tuzel-Nabzdyk will join forces to bring “Eclectic 2008” to Thurles.

Ceramic artist Jane McCulla’s fascination with clay, and it’s ecological and archaeological connotations, is evident in the power of her sculptural work. Influenced by the great Land Artists and her own experience of remote landscapes and seascapes, Jane’s ceramic forms reflect her sensitive exploration of mankind’s mark on the landscape and his vulnerability to the whim of nature. Physical traces communicate man’s presence, but ultimately, earthly cycles prevail. “I feel overwhelmed by the beauty, scale and miraculous intricacies of nature” says Jane.

Angela Darby’s work reflects on the way in which stepping out of defined roles can build a reputation in which fact and fiction merge. Focusing on May Belle Starr, a female outlaw known as the Bandit Queen the artist has taken gingham fabric and quilting techniques more usually associated with female activity on the frontier and woven them around May Belle’s story.

Born in Poznan, Poland artist Katarzyna Tuzel-Nabzdyk moved to Ireland three years ago to pursue her artistic career outside her home country. In the intervening period Katarzyna, a member of the Visual Artists Ireland has taken part in a number of group and solo shows, while being offered several commissions for private and corporate clients. Commenting on her work Katarzyna states “I treat the painting as a fluid concept – it is a permeation of drawing, texture, colour (mosaic, space installation, glass), either on a plain or in the space. I am interested in the texture and its extraction by means of light. My painting follows the nature and it is from the nature that abstraction emerges. I attach big importance to the lines (vertical, horizontal ones) that constitute the given situation. The pictures compositions do not close themselves within the picture frames but are continued in the space.
My recent works are inspired by the landscape of Ireland.”

Shane Gannon’s work is about intensity, vitality and spontaneity while simultaneously maintaining deeply controlled order. Aspiring to create work that is original, bold and both mind-provoking and emotionally demanding Shane describes his work as an extension of himself -  a record of a past experience and process, a reflection of his own thoughts and ideas in which he became engrossed in the therapeutic and emotional act of painting.

 “Eclectic 2008” opens at Tipperary Institute, Thurles Campus on Friday 14th November 2008 at 8:00pm and runs until Friday 5th December during Institute opening hours. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

 

ENDS

For further information please contact Jean Forbes-Cooke, Tipperary Institute, Nenagh Rd, Thurles at (0504) 28211 or (087) 2362489.