Mayo Artists come to Kerry

Samhlaiocht, the leading Arts Organization in Kerry, continues its long tradition of bringing the very best and brightest national artists to the Kingdom with a wonderful new exhibition which opens on Thursday, September 3rd at 7:00 pm. The exhibition will feature work from Ian Wieczorek and Niall McCormack.

"There is a strong connection between Niall and Ian's work," says Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator, Samhlaiocht. "The diversity and vibrancy of their work quite literally leaps from the walls and we’re looking forward to what will be a very special exhibition."

The Samhlaíocht Gallery attracts the best and brightest up and coming artists from Kerry and beyond but also attracts more established artists looking for an additional outlet for their work and Ian and Niall fall very heavily into the second category. Both are accomplished artists and quite successful in their own right.

"My painting practice makes use of the visual language of architecture as a mediator for artistic vision, both as a universal truth and a metaphor for spirituality and personal mediation," said Niall McCormack, who is living and working as an artist in Westport, County Mayo. "I'm also interested in considerations of form and composition, colour harmonies and nuances of light and shade. They've become a vocabulary through which I can develop ideas and realise my intentions."

Niall's buildings and architectural environments depict and address ideals of ambience and spiritual presence. Exteriors and interiors are cleverly used and there is a wonderful interplay between them. Niall uses windows as focus points and to visually enhance the psychological content of the works.

"I am particularly interested in how people are influenced and affected by these architectural forms in both urban and rural environments," says Niall. "I was deeply affected by the monastic environment in which I found myself placed. It made a rich mystical impact on my life and, intermingled with the feelings of silence and austerity, was, at that time, integral to my identity and my particular way of seeing things."

Ian Wieczorek works to represent and investigate the physicality of the human condition. "My inquiry explores issues concerning the base fabric and material essence of what we are, offering insights into the human condition and how we relate to the world as individuals, society and species," says Ian. "On a theoretical level, the work is informed by George Bataille’s concept of Base Materialism, that Hegelian transcendence as a vertical axis denies the influence of a horizontal axis represented by our very physicality and Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, which acknowledges the acceptance of the physical condition as a vehicle of mediation."

Ian was born in England but has lived and worked in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, since 1992. His art practice is based primarily in painting and drawing, thematically exploring the physicality of the human condition, the confluence between biological and inorganic dynamic systems, and notions of context and essence.

The public will have an extra opportunity to interact with the artists as a special night-time showing of Niall and Ian’s work will take place at the Samhlaíocht Gallery on Friday, September 25th, when the Samhlaiocht Gallery will be open until 11pm as part of Culture Night Tralee.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, September 3rd, in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee and runs right through until Friday, September 25th, Culture Night.

Opening times at the Gallery are from 9.00am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday, with a special late night opening for culture night on the 25th September till 11pm at night.

The gallery is open to everyone and is free to visit.

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