Metamurmuration, Joanna Kidney, and Paintings by David Quinn
Uilinn, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Co Cork Until April 11 westcorkartscentre.com
David Quinn’s small-scale, carefully considered paintings are paired with Joanna Kidney’s monumental spatial drawing, an installation comprising about 100,000 particles of suspended felt. Quinn works to a uniform size (eight by five-and-a-half inches), a format set by the notebook he used as a design student. His paintings employ myriad elements and materials, reconfigured in elegant improvisations made within strict parameters. Kidney’s installation evokes time and scale and space, measured against but not limited by individual human consciousness.
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Donegal’s Atlantic Light
Ian Gorden. Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny. Until March 24 regionalculturalcentre.com
Ian Gorden’s vibrant Post-Impressionist landscapes delight in the distinctive, endlessly dynamic atmosphere of the northwest, influenced chiefly by the vast Atlantic. Gorden resettled in Dunlewey from London and his show coincides with the launch of Gréagóir Ó Dúill’s collected poems – in Irish and English, illustrated with reproductions of Gorden’s paintings. Ó Dúill also relocated to Donegal, in his case from Dublin.
Beyond View
Ten years of photographs at Belfast School of Art, Ulster University. Belfast Exposed, The Exchange Place, 23 Donegall St, Belfast Until April 21 belfastexposed.org
A total of 26 photographers in all feature, students, graduates and staff of the BA, MFAA and PhD Photography programme. There is a thematic link: “a contemporary perspective on place”. The show’s title indicates the way students – and lecturers – must look beyond the now, at what is out of sight and what lies ahead. “Photography’s contradictory relationship with time renders it permanently in the past, while continually aiming at the future. The same might also be said of education.”
There and not there Golden Thread Gallery, 84- 94 Great Patrick Street, Belfast Until April 21 goldenthreadgallery.co.uk
Sarah McAvera curates a show of photographic work by two artists, Victoria J Dean and Sharon Murphy, with “absence” as a linking preoccupation. Dean seeks out structures in the landscape that prompt us to question their rationale, even their feasibility: who built them and why? Are they even real? Seascapes and dense forests in Murphy’s work are on occasion attended by the “ethereal presence” of children.
Landmarks and Lifeforms
Freda Meaney and Danny Osborne. Highlanes Gallery, Laurence St, Drogheda, Co Louth Until April 14 highlanes.ie
The current venue for a touring two-person show featuring the work Meaney and Osborne, both based on the Beara Peninsula, both with a scientific edge to their creative interests, both restless spirits who have travelled extensively and “engaged with the landscape in an elemental way, through trekking, sea swimming, boating, archaeological exploration and often working outdoors”. On view are paintings, prints, video installations and sculpture.
