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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Exhibition of New Work by Rita Oates and Will O' Kane

Pink Beside Green by Will O' Kane

An exhibition of artwork from two national artists will go on display in the Samhlaiocht Gallery on Thursday, 15th January. The exhibition features work by Rita Oates and Will O' Kane.

"As part of Samhlaiocht's ongoing collaboration with Artists, we invited artists from all over the country to submit work for consideration for our 2009 Gallery programme," said Trish Thompson, Samhlaiocht's Art Gallery Coordinator. "We were absolutely blown away by the level of work we received. The past two years have been wonderfully successful for us in terms of exhibitions. We had more exhibitions, sold more paintings and discovered more talent than ever before. We were hoping that submissions for 2009 would bring more of the same and we weren't disappointed. We attracted the best and brightest up and coming artists from Kerry and beyond, while also attracting more established artists looking for an additional outlet for their work."

Rita Oates was born in America and now lives and works in Co. Roscommon. She is a graduate of N.U.I.G and the Galway College of Art and Design. Rita's first love is graphite, the black and white of paper, pencil, charcoal and inks, its directness and strength. She also works in colour with acrylics and oils on canvas, paper and wood. The theme of Rita's work is 'Mantra' which 'mind freeing' in Sanskrit.

"The pieces in this exhibition dwell on the rhythm and music of the mantra," says Rita, "and how its repetitive nature creates a sense of timelessness. The pieces themselves are physically quite small in order to entice the viewer to come closer and to become intimate with the work."

Rita looks for the heartbeat in the mantra through the silence around it, her work travels through people, places, memory and struggle, yet it always ends in hope; hope that is not naive, but hope that allows one to live and not just survive.

Will O' Kane, who was born in Mayo, also graduated from a school in Galway though this time the Galway, Mayo Institute of Technology where he received Honours degree in Fine Art. Will works full time as an artist and devotes himself to portraiture.

"The artwork I make is focused primarily on the human figure," says Will, "although I create images based on the physical appearance of specific people, I am also concerned with the notion of individuality, in a general sense."

The exhibition opens on January 15th in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee and runs right through until Friday 6th February.

Opening times at the Gallery are from 9.00am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday, the gallery is open to everyone and is free to visit.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and generous corporate sponsorship from Kerry Group.

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