New work – Panoramic Pandemic Paintings at Olivier Cornet Gallery – open Tuesday to Sunday by appointment

Panoramic Pandemic I – Bergamo_Oil on Gesso_20cm x 25cm_2020

Panoramic Pandemic II – Dublin_Oil on Gesso_20cm x 25cm_2020

New works – Panoramic Pandemic I – Bergamo and Panoramic Pandemic – Dublin, Oil on Gesso, 20cm X 25cm, 2020 – from a new series of paintings available to view at Olivier Cornet Gallery open Tuesday to Sunday by appointment only.

About the work –

As the corona virus pandemic spread and the world went into lockdown, as the numbers of deaths and cases soared, peaked and epicentred – a live stream of images of the “war against the virus” – battlements constructed in the form of huge hospitals built at high speed in China. But that was all over there. Not here yet. Then across Europe, the abandonment of nursing homes, the repurposing of buildings for the infected, and the building of temporary mortuaries, the lines of army trucks delivering the dead to these temporary morgues. And then it was here in Ireland – a temporary morgue to be constructed at IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

I have begun a series documenting some of these sites. Tourist sites, cultural and historical sites, leisure sites – repurposed as temporary morgues, now commemorative sites or monuments to this pandemic. First in the series was the Palacio di Hielo Ice Rink in Madrid, painted using egg tempera on gesso and in the classical form and style of the frescoes of the palaces of Madrid.

The Panoramic Pandemic work use the composition, and style of a romantic era classical landscape in juxtaposition the pandemic unfolds in these calm and bucholic landscapes, the immensity and impact contained within the vignette frame. Panoramic Pandemic II – Dublin is based on the William Ashford 18th century painting A View of Dublin from Chapelizod as the backdrop includes St.Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park and Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

In the interest of all gallery visitors, during the Coronavirus pandemic, we would ask that you book a slot with before you come.  Just text/call or email to let the gallery know what time would suit you within the normal opening hours.

Appointments outside these opening hours are possible too.

Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 6pm

(until 8pm on Thursdays).

Saturday & Sunday. 12 noon to 5pm

Closed on Mondays

M: +353 (0)87 2887261

E: info@oliviercornetgallery.com

The Kitchen Garden – Claire Halpin and Madeleine Hellier – Sculpture in Context 2020 Virtual Exhibition

 

As Sculpture in Context goes virtual for 2020 due to COVID19 restrictions – artists were invited to create a short video of their artwork or proposed artwork. We created a short video of Kitchen Garden – our proposed work for Sculpture in Context at the Botanic Gardens. We hope to develop and create this work for a future Sculpture in Context exhibition on site in the Botanic Gardens.

The Kitchen Garden, which has its origins in the early vegetable plots of the Middle Ages, became a ubiquitous design element of every large 18th century demesne. In this inventive new artwork the artists, Claire Halpin and Madeleine Hellier, like gardeners of old, will use familiar kitchen utensils and household items which have been selected for their form, function, colour and materiality to create an aesthetically pleasing Kitchen Garden in the beds of the Botanic Gardens. Elements will include icing nozzles, graters, sieves, strainers, colanders, ladles, whisks, steamers, pizza cutters, teapots and other “exotica” found during our own culinary and artistic travels. The artworks will be accompanied by a hand drawn map of the garden including annotated specimens eg. Shamrockus Scrubus, Sievum Bulbum.

http://www.sculptureincontext.com/

 

Resurfacing – Summer Group Exhibition at Olivier Cornet Gallery, 6th – 28th August 2020

Temporary Morgue – Palacio de Hielo, Madrid, 2020, Egg Tempera on Gesso, 20cm x 25cm, 650 euro.

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is delighted to present Resurfacing – Summer Group Exhibition curated with gallery volunteers Maïté Moloney and Molliemia Murphy. Delighted my painting – Palacio de Hielo – Temporary Morgue, Madrid is available to view and purchase at this exhibition. Recently shortlisted at Highlanes Open Exhibition, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda

Following the social restrictions previously imposed by the state, the country is now reopening allowing many of us to go back to work or visit our friends and family again. Taking inspiration from these circumstances, we are ‘resurfacing’ pre-exhibited work by our artists, allowing us to give them a new lease of life, revisit them and think about our shared experience resurfacing.

The exhibition features work by all our gallery artists: Annika Berglund, Hugh Cummins, John Fitzsimons, Jordi Forniés, Conrad Frankel, Claire Halpin, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Miriam McConnon, Yanny Petters and Kelly Ratchford,

Also work by our Associate Gallery Artists (AGA group members): Aisling Conroy, Mary A. Fitzgerald, David Fox, Nickie Hayden, Sheila Naughton, Vicky Smith and Susanne Wawra.

Last but not least, the exhibition also features work by Mark Newman, jewellery and metal work graduate, one of the 5 winners of the 2020 RDS Craft Awards. A special new work by gallery artist Yanny Petters, ‘Calla Lily Blue‘, is also included in the exhibition as part of our celebration of National Heritage Week (15-23 August).

Resurfacing – Summer Group Exhibition – Available to view by appointment at

Olivier Cornet Gallery

3 Great Denmark Street, Dublin 1, D01 NV63, Ireland

info@oliviercornetgallery.com

087 288 7261

Tues to Friday: 11am – 6pm (8pm on Thurs) / Sat & Sun: 12 noon – 5pm 

Last Chance – Highlanes Open Submission Exhibition closes Saturday 11th July

Claire Halpin at Highlanes Open Submission Exhibition

Temporary Morgue – Palacio de Helio, Madrid, Egg tempera on Gesso_20cm X 25cm_2020

Delighted to have been selected for the inaugural Highlanes Open Submission Exhibition and very excited to see the exhibition in the real today. An honour to have my painting exhibited in the fine gallery space that is the Highlanes, alongside the line up of selected artists and to have been selected by the panel comprising artist Joy Gerrard, curator Sean Kissane, and gallerist Jerome O Drisceoil. There were over 500 works submitted for this open submission so to be among the 41 selected works is great. Highlanes Gallery re-opened on Wednesday 8th July. So this left just three days to see the exhibition in the real! The exhibition is beautifully curated and showcases the work beautifully. It has been well documented online and there will be a video documentation of the exhibition installed in the gallery released soon.

Last chance to visit the exhibition tomorrow Saturday 11th July.

Highlanes Gallery

Laurence Street, Drogheda

www.highlanes.ie

info@highlanes.ie

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Highlanes Open Submission 2020 – Shortlisted Artists

Highlanes Open Submission 2020

Highlanes Open Submission 2020

Highlanes Open Submission 2020

Highlanes Gallery Open Submission 2020

The Janet Mullarney Prize (worth €3,000) goes to artist Bernie Masterson for her video work, Flight, with prizes also going to Alasdair Asmussen Doyle for 100ft of Sea, Laura Fitzgerald for A very bad 1:1, Helena Gorey for Untitled, Elaine Grainger for Built Arrangements, and Susan Buttner for Dialogues I sculpt, eventually static, this thing a sort of self , 2020 (homeschooling) #covid19. The full shortlist of artists work selected from over 500 entries are Thomas Brezing, Susan Buttner, Pauline Clancy, Jane Cummins, Amanda Doran, Alasdair Asmussen Doyle, Marta Dyczkowska, Isadora Epstein, Áine Byrne & Bureau Bonanza, Leanne Finnegan, Laura Fitzgerald, Harry Walsh Foreman, Saidhbhín Gibson, Kerry Guinan, Helena Gorey, John Graham, Elaine Grainger, Austin Hearne, Claire Halpin, Méabh Hennelly, Margaret Doyle Hobbs, Bernadette Kiely, Sharon Kelly, Dave Madigan, Bernie Masterson, Sinead Ni Mhaonaigh, Yvette Monahan, Kevin Mooney, Elva Mulchrone, Mark McGreevy, Niamh McGuinne, Astrid Newman, Noël O’Callaghan, Suzy O’Mullane, Kiera O’Toole, Bara Palcik, Emma Roche, Grainne Smith, Padraig Spillane, Jennifer Trouton, Mieke Vanmechelen, Lee Welch and Dianne Whyte.

We are grateful to judges, artist Joy Gerrard, curator Sean Kissane, and gallerist Jerome O Drisceoil. Sincere thanks to our gallery team, and funders Louth County Council and The Arts Council..

An open submission process offers opportunity and challenge, also to the judges, as Joy Gerrard reflects in her response:
It was a great pleasure to see the talent, ambition and breadth of work submitted.
However, the number of works submitted made the task of selecting less than ten percent of the total very difficult. I could have happily selected three or four times this number. It was lovely to hear Seán and Jerome’s responses to the work, and I think as an artist, curator and gallerist trio, we brought very different aesthetic and subjective rationales to the process. I learnt a great deal from looking and considering all the works, and also from my fellow judges.

Jerome O Drisceoil echoes some of the sentiments in his response:
It is true of the list of 517 applicants for this prize that there was work of real originality and depth and lots of colour.  It was a great pleasure for me to discover so much interesting new work among the applicants which might not normally have come to my attention. It was fascinating to see a cross-section of what is being produced in Ireland in the last 2 years and even during the pandemic. I am sure that among these applicants there are names which will become familiar to us in the future. Thank you to Joy Gerrard and to Sean Kissane for their dedication to the task and for sharing their knowledge and ideas.  It was no easy task to reduce the list. There were many more, we all felt, equally deserving of the final nomination.

Highlanes Gallery
Laurence Street, Drogheda

http://www.highlanes.ie/

 

 

 

New Work selected for the inaugural Highlanes Open Submission 2020 at Highlanes Gallery

I am absolutely delighted and honoured to have my work selected for the inaugural Highlanes Open Submission 2020 at the fantastic Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda and online from 9th June 2020. This Open Submission has been developed responding to the social constraints of the current global situation, and acknowledging that many visual artists continue to create and work, though now, many not in their studios, but in smaller spaces, and domestic environments. Its objective is to support and highlight new work by artists living in Ireland, to encourage interest and engagement with contemporary art, and to raise the profile of ambitious visual art in society.

 

My work was selected following a shortlisting by the panel of judges for Highlanes Gallery Open Submission 2020 – artist, Joy Gerrard, Seán Kissane, Curator of Exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and Jerome O’Drisceoil, Gallerist, Green on Red Gallery.

Temporary Morgue – Palacio de Hielo Ice Rink, Madrid 2020

Egg Tempera on Gesso, 20cm X 25cm, May 2020

Artwork Statement:

As the corona virus pandemic spread and the world went into lockdown, as the numbers of deaths and cases soared, peaked and epicentered – a live stream of images of the “war against the virus” – battlements built in the form of huge hospitals built at high speed in China. But that was all over there. Not here yet. Then across Europe, the abandonment of nursing homes, the re-purposing of buildings for the infected, and the building of temporary mortuaries. And then it was here in Ireland – a temporary morgue to be built at IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

I have begun a series documenting some of these sites. Tourist sites, cultural and historical sites, leisure sites – re-purposed as temporary morgues, now commemorative sites or monuments to this pandemic. This is the Palacio de Hielo Ice Rink in Madrid, painted using egg tempera on gesso and in the classical form and style of the frescoes of the palaces of Madrid.

Claire Halpin, June 2020

 

Highlanes Gallery

Laurence Street, Drogheda, Ireland

http://www.highlanes.ie/

Artist Studio at Home in these Strange Times

About four weeks I decided to move my studio to work at home. It was only a matter of time before we went into full lockdown. So it made sense to set up at home. But what would I work on? What would be feasible to work on in the spare bedroom? Both in terms of materials and scale? And that was before I plummeted into the artistic and conceptual crisis of what to paint when the whole world has been thrown into crisis? What is the relevance of my work now that the world is changing beyond all known and recognition? Do I make new work that reflects the crisis? What? As its unfolding? As we are living through it? Is this a pressure to put on myself? But we need art in these times so the town crier is saying!

All of these thoughts swirled around my head as I stood in the middle of my studio three floors up on Talbot Street overlooking the emptying streets, the ghostly Connolly Station. Other than all the boards and canvases that I brought home which I thought if I get these started and finished during the lockdown sure I’ll be ready for a mid career retrospective by the end of May!

I brought home The Annunciation icon of Theotokos that I had begun three years ago with gold leaf water gilded under the guidance of Colette Clarke, my icon tutor. I thought, not in a panic to find religion or spirituality in the impending doom and crisis but that this would be painting. Contemplative painting. Using the simple and ancient materials.

The spare bedroom is bright and quiet. Beautiful light. Surprisingly peaceful. Given my location 10 minutes walk from the city centre. I thought optimistically this new studio space might reflect something of the peaceful monastic space of this stunningly beautiful artwork – another Annunciation – this one by Fra Angelico in the Convent of San Marco in Florence, Italy.

Fra Angelico – The Annunciation, Convent of San Marco, Flroence

Fra Angelico – Saints Cosmas and Damian and their Brothers Surviving the Stakes, National Gallery Ireland

The Annunciation (ca. 1440–1445)^[1] is an Early Renaissance fresco in tempera and gold leaf by Fra Angelico in the Convent of San Marco in Florence, Italy. When Cosimo de’ Medici rebuilt the convent, he commissioned Fra Angelico to decorate the walls with intricate frescos. This included the altarpiece, the inside of the monk’s cells, the friar’s cloister, the chapter house, and inside the corridors; around fifty pieces in total.^[2] All of the paintings were done by Angelico himself or under his direct supervision.^[3] Out of all of the frescos at the convent, the Annunciation is the most well known in the art world. This painting in particular is supposed to have “achieved heights of singular elegance.”^[4] Panels from this altar piece are scattered across the world.

The National Gallery of Ireland has in its collection a small tempera and gold leaf panel – Saints Cosmas and Damian and their Brothers Surviving the Stakes  – a part of the predella (lower register) of Fra Angelico’s most important altarpiece.

 

Janet Mullarney RIP – A Great Artist, A Great Loss

Very sad to hear of the passing of the amazingly brilliant artist Janet Mullarney.

A great dame of Irish art.

A great loss to the Irish and International art world. 

Strangely and weirdly I was thinking of this artwork earlier this week.

A great image of isolation in these current strange times.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

3rd April 2020

 

Artwork: Giotto’s Circle, Janet Mullarney, Highlanes Gallery Drogheda, 2015

Last Chance – Drawing on Don Quixote at Olivier Cornet Gallery until 15th March

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Extended to Sunday 15th March – Drawing on Don Quixote at The Olivier Cornet Gallery – a group exhibition by the artists represented by the gallery and members of its AGA group.

Artists:

Annika Berglund, Aisling Conroy, Hugh Cummins, John Fitzsimons, Jordi Forniés, Conrad Frankel, David Fox, Claire Halpin, Nickie Hayden, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Miriam McConnon, Sheila Naughton, Yanny Petters, Kelly Ratchford, Vicky Smith and Susanne Wawra.

Examples of art inspiring art down the ages abound but it is particularly obvious with ‘the world’s first modern novel’: Jules Massenet’s ‘Don Quichotte’, like so many other dramatized versions of the story, relates only indirectly to the great novel by Miguel de Cervantes. The opera in five acts was composed to a French libretto by Henri Caïn, itself inspired by ‘Le chevalier de la longue figure’, a play by the poet Jacques Le Lorrain first performed in Paris in 1904.

Massenet’s comédie-héroïque, was first performed on 19 February 1910 at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo (France). The French composer was born in 1842 in Saint-Etienne (Loire), a city where most members of gallerist/curator Olivier Cornet’s immediate family were also born and where he himself completed his secondary education, a determining factor when choosing one of this year’s operas for his artists’ response.

The other appeal was the rich palette of contemporary themes in Cervantes’ novel as well as the art-inspiring-art connections: from Alexandre Dumas’ Three musketeers, through Picasso to more recently Salman Rushdie’s novel. Themes such as the quest for truth and justice in this era of fake news, notoriety and the accession to powerful positions by the underdogs -or perceptions thereof in the current re-emergence of populists-, the explorations of the troubled inner-self, love and how we relate to one another. The resilience of the individual (through desperate acts at times) against our modern-day malevolent giants, to the rallying to just causes and the emergence of the real heroes and heroines, have also provided the Olivier Cornet Gallery artists with a rich tapestry of materials.

This exhibition was first presented at National Opera House, Wexford by Kind invitation of Wexford Festival Opera (18 October to 3 November 2019). It was also shown at VUE Contemporary Art Fair, RHA Dublin (7-10 November 2019).

Olivier Cornet Gallery

Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 6pm

(until 8pm on Thursdays).

Saturday & Sunday. 12 noon to 5pm

Closed on Mondays

(or viewing by appointment only)

Reviewed – Drawing on Don Quixote – Olivier Cornet Gallery until 29th February 2020

Gaza May 18, Oil on Gesso, 37cm X 57cm, 2019

Insightful review of Drawing on Don Quixote at Olivier Cornet Gallery by Emma Meehan in Tn2 Magazine.

Read it Here:

First published in 1605, with the second installment appearing in 1610, Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote is widely considered to be the most influential text of the Spanish Golden Age, and an institution in the Western literary canon. Alonso Quixano’s idealistic quest to revive chivalry in an age of moral destitution has been influential for artists throughout the ages, literary and visual alike. From Alexandre Dumas, to Picasso and more recently Salman Rushdie, the enduring resilience of the individual, often through devastating acts, has been a lens by which artists have considered their contemporary environments.

Drawing on Don Quixote, a group show curated by Dublin based gallerist Olivier Cornet, considers this rich thematic palette in regards to the current cultural and political climate. First appearing in the Wexford Opera House in October 2019, then moving on to VUE Art Fair in November, this exhibition is currently on display in Cornet’s Gallery, 3 Great Denmark Street, from 19 January – 29 February.

New work by the gallery’s represented and project artists consider the notion of a quest for truth in an era of “fake news” and re-emerging populism. Aidan Dunne has previously pointed to Cornet’s ability to provoke nuanced responses from exhibited artists without disrupting their individual practices. Indeed, the diversity of fine art practices represented by this exhibition makes for an engaging and surprising visit. Sharp-witted and visually stunning pieces supply commentary on various aspects of the human condition, from Miriam McConnon and Nickie Hayden’s evocations of the feminine mystique through the character of Dulcinea (Quixote’s prostitute-turned-paragon) to Yanny Petter’s botanical monotypes of healing vegetation, mentioned in the text, which question humanity’s contemporary relationship to the environment.

Woodwork pieces by Hugh Cummins contain within fine craftsmanship reflections on the current relevance of chivalric values to our everyday needs whilst Swedish-born Annika Berglund’s stoneware pieces explore the nature of Quixano and Sancho Panza’s relationship, a dynamic which occasions somewhat comic images of our domestic politicians, especially in this fervid General Election.

Claire Halpin’s ambient oil on gesso landscape of Gaza in May 2018 explores the much vexed question of American-Israeli relations. Halpin’s juxtaposition of a chuppah (canopy involved in Jewish wedding ceremonies symbolising the divine security of the institution of marriage) within a barbed wired landscape evokes a sinister view of reemerging populism. 

Irish painter Eoin Mac Lochlainn’s striking watercolour portraits of activists Brother Kevin Crowley and Greta Thunberg places recognisable faces on these themes and seem to assert the power of the individual’s voice in inspiring change.

Olivier Cornet and his artists have managed to avoid cynicism whilst provoking critical thought on the moral reality of our cultural sphere, and humanity’s susceptibility to polarised value systems. I would urge anybody to drop into this space, a short walk from the Hugh Lane, to consider the fluctuation of these perennial themes in our collective imagination.

Emma Meehan

3 February 2020

 

Drawing on Don Quixote continues at Olivier Cornet Gallery until 29th February 2020.

Olivier Cornet Gallery

3 Great Denmark Street, Dublin 1

Opening hours at the gallery:

Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 6pm

(until 8pm on Thursdays).

Saturday & Sunday. 12 noon to 5pm

Closed on Mondays (or viewing by appointment only)