PRESS RELEASE
I.C.E. ART
Irish Contemporary Exhibition of Art
at
The Bankside Gallery
48 Hopton Place
London SE1 9JH
Tel: 02079287521
Fax: 02079282820
info@banksidegallery.com
www.banksidegallery.com
www.iceartlondon.com
from
June 22 - June 28 2009
The Bankside Gallery, next door to Tate Modern in London, presents
I.C.E. ART an artist initiated exhibition of painting and sculpture
organised by a group of mid career artists from the north and south of
Ireland. Cathy Carmen, Charlie Cullen, Michael Cullen, Diarmuid
Delargy, Graham Gingles, Colin McGookin and Margot Quinn have pooled
their resources and created this opportunity for their work to be seen
and highlighted in this pivotal London gallery in the hope that the
exhibition will stimulate greater interest in their work and the Irish
cultural presence in London.
Cathy Carman exhibits regularly in group and solo shows both in
Ireland and abroad, and remains a strong advocate of the human form in
her art. She has been acclaimed for her large figurative work in
wood, stone and bronze, over many years, and her expressionist style
is evident in the many public commissions she has undertaken in
Ireland in the 1990’s. For this show, she presents the female figure
in three distinct aspects, or as metaphor for three separate
conditions of Being - Being, in Solitude. Being in Relationship. And
Being in Communion with Nature.
Painter Margot Quinn studied in London and graduated with a BA(Hons)
Fine Art. She has exhibited widely both in Ireland and the UK and has
work represented in many public and private collections. Her work is
directly influenced by her immediate environment and the
eccentricities of the quotidian.
Diarmuid Delargy studied at the Slade and is a member of Aosdana and
the Royal Society of Painter/Printmakers, London.
Painter, sculptor and print-maker, Delargy has exhibited extensively
nationally and internationally. His present painting concerns resonate
extinction and residua. These works were inspired by a rare encounter
with a large Thresher Shark in the 1960s.
Charles Cullen was born in Longford in 1939. A painter and printmaker,
he works mainly from his studio in Dublin city. He was Head of
Painting at the National College of Art & Design before retiring in
2000. A major retrospective exhibition of his work took place in 1997
at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin. He will be exhibiting
'Nighttown' a set of 10 etchings published by Stony Road Press in
Dublin. The suite is based on the Nighttown episode in James Joyce's
Ulysses and is presented in a boxed set together with a cover
sheet,self-portrait and notes by the artist.
Graham Gingles was born in Larne, Northern Ireland in 1943 and studied
at Belfast and Horsney Colleges of art. In 1980/81 he became a
recipient of the British School at Rome Scholarship. He is a member of
the Royal Ulster Academy and has exhibited extensively at home and
abroad. These works are recent examples of the mixed media glazed box
constructions he has been producing since the early 1960's and include
all the main themes encountered in our day to day existence.
Michael Cullen was born in Kilcool, Co. Wicklow in 1946, he studied at
the National College of Art & Design in Dublin and the Central School
of Art & Design in London before moving abroad. He has lived in Spain,
Morocco, the U.S., Mexico, Berlin and Languedoc, France. He won the
Independent Artists major painting award in 1984, the National
Portrait Award in 1989, and several Arts Council bursaries. A prolific
painter and drawer the work he presents here is both strong in colour
and figurative elements.
Colin McGookin was born in Belfast in 1958 and graduated from the
Ulster College of Art in 1981. He has held many group and solo
exhibitions in Ireland and abroad and won a number of prizes including
1st Prize at the Claremorris Open and Conor Prize at the Royal Ulster
Academy to which he was elected associate member in 1989. He is
currently Artist in Residence for one of the largest health trusts in Ireland.
These paintings of money growing on trees are influenced by the
destruction of global finance and a recent trip the artist and his wife made around India.
A website containing further information on the artists and an online
gallery of all the artworks on show is at www.iceartlondon.com and
will be updated during the show. Press packs can be obtained from the
gallery or by contacting katymclister@gmail.com