Soňa Šmédková
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go under the ivy, away from the party
Project Type
Trio show featuring three Artspace Studio artists at 126 Artist-Run Gallery: Fionna Murray, Anne O'Byrne and Helen Roberts
Date
9th - 25th February 2024
126 Gallery
Link
Go under the ivy, away from the party featuring Fionna Murray, Anne O’Byrne & Helen Roberts
Preview: 9 February, 6-8 pm
Runs: 10 – 25 February, Wed-Sun, 12 to 6 pm
Photo credit: © Vanessa Jordan
Artists
Fionna Murray
Fionna Murray uses loosely connected images to create fragmentary worlds, situating themselves as in-between places that negotiate materiality and make-believe. Her works are often concerned with boundaries and an ordering of forms within and across urban and rural thresholds in an attempt to make visible the experience of shifting sequences of lived time and lived places. Observation and memory inform the imagery; a love of reading, seeing films or remembering a line from a song (that might become a title for a painting) are part of the work. With humour and a little melancholy her paintings and installations suppose more than explain, giving rise to speculation about how the activity of painting might also address the notion of an unlimited space in which to practice freedom.
Fionna Murray studied at Chelsea College of Art, London and moved to Ireland to complete an MFA at University of Ulster, Belfast. She now lives in Galway and has exhibited widely throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe. Recent exhibitions include: Fionna Murray, The Dock, Leitrim, Metropolitan Pastoral, The Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo; Nothing Has Changed, Everything Has Changed, Beep Biennial, Swansea, Wales; Night Walking, The Eagle Gallery, London. Her work is held in a number of public and private collections in Ireland and abroad, including: The University of Galway; The Office of Public Works, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; University of the Arts, London; Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Mayo. She is a lecturer in Painting at ATU, Galway and is a member of Artspace Studios, Galway.
Anne O’ Byrne
Anne O’Byrne is a Cork born artist who lives and works in Galway.Her work looks at ethical, sustainable models of construction, examining the aspects of belonging and connectivity that are inherent in the substance of building. The stuff of architecture goes far beyond concrete and steel and in her work, she asks questions regarding the idea of place and space, and its impact on our daily lives. Sustainability in the way we live our lives, from architectural interventions, using new methods of building, to food sustainability, are all constant themes in her work.
Shelter, home, and belonging are words that are intertwined in the fabric of Anne’s work. Her gentle paintings and installation works are fed by the need to comment on societal happenings, in terms of building and rebuilding our lives and surroundings. The materials used to build and rebuild, and the tactile, sensual elements of those materials are central to her work.
Anne’s work comes from a place of intense research and curiosity about sustainability of mind, body, and environment. Construction and destruction are concepts that play a pivotal role in the making of her work, leading to interesting, compelling ideas.
Incorporating paint, print, video and installation, Anne’s practice seeks to comment on our relationship with space, place and belonging. Anne has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work features in the collections of Bank of Ireland, Office of Public Works, Galway City Council, and NUI Galway.
Helen Roberts
Helen Roberts is an artist based in the west of Ireland. She is a member of Artspace Studios, Galway. She graduated from the School of Design and Creative Arts, ATU, in 2019, with a first class honours degree (BA) in Contemporary Art.
Helen has recently taken part in the Turps correspondence painting mentorship, supported by funding from the Arts Council of Ireland. She has work in both private collections and in the national collection (Office of Public Works). Recent exhibitions include Between the Sights of the Sun (Birr Vintage Week), curated by Maeve Mulrennan and Cairde Visual, Sligo.
Her work touches upon human relationships with the non-human world from the viewpoint of being part of an interconnected and dynamic web. She is interested in observing both the external world and an imagined world and how they influence and permeate each other, borrowing ideas and imagery from sources such as ecology, permaculture design, literature, dreams , memories and folklore.



































































































