Cliona Fox & Julie Lovett at Samhlaiocht

Samhlaiocht, the leading Arts Organization in Kerry, continues its long tradition of bringing the very best and brightest of up-and-coming artists to the Kingdom with a wonderful new exhibition opening on Thursday, Thursday 28^th May at 7:00 pm. The exhibition will feature work from Recent Kerry Graduates, Julie Lovett & Cliona Fox.

Julie Lovett was born in Kerry and received her Honours degree in Painting in 2007 from the Limerick school of Art and Design. Since then she has had a studio in Cork and is currently working in Limerick City. She has exhibited widely in Kerry, Limerick, and Dublin and recently in Leipzig Germany. She will be commencing her Masters in Fine art in Belfast this September.

"In a generation that's so consumed with problem and conspiracy, my work investigates the inconsistencies that contributes to a doubtful and insecure civilizatio," says Julie. "Social phenomena excites me, I wish to look at art as a phenomenological activity, i.e., art as a language, art as an entertainment, art as life." Julie intents to use the exhibition as a playful environment suitable for a response to art as a socially constructed phenomenological activity.

Cliona Fox is a recent graduate of N.C.A.D. where she received a BA Honours in Fine Art and Painting. She has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and works between Dublin and her studio in Kerry. "My paintings are a technical combination of both abstract and representational art," say Cliona, "there is a 'tugging' between realism and abstraction that makes for a constant ongoing struggle, where decisions regarding composition, colour, editing etc are a frequent challenge. The value of such struggle however is that by engaging in this process I usually end up trying out new and experimental ideas which I find invariably result in exciting rewards."

The narrative contained in her work deals with the memory of the long standing fishing tradition we have had as an island people and the threat to that industry because of global impacts. The viewer is invited to consider and fill in the blanks of 'all that remains' of a traditional industry now in terminal decline.

The Exhibition will be opened by Clare Horgan on Thursday 28^th May at 7.00pm at the Samhlaiocht Gallery, Lower Castle Street Tralee and runs to Friday 19^th June.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com