19th January – 23rd February 2019
Opening Reception 7.30p, Friday 18th January
Sadhbh Gaston’s debut solo exhibition at The Courthouse Gallery & Studios Red Couch Space
The Courthouse Gallery & Studios is delighted to welcome artist Cléa van der Grijn with her exhibition JUMP, which opens at 7.30pm on Friday 18th January 2019 and runs until 23rd February.
Trasna 8 marks the final chapter (for now) in The Courthouse Gallery’s annual open submission of small works, where all work is accepted and exhibited.
8th December 2018 – 12th January 2019
Opening Reception 7.30pm Friday 7th December. All welcome
20th October - 24th November
Opening reception with speaker Pauline Goggin 7.30pm Saturday 20th October
20th October – 24th November 2018
Opening reception 7.30pm Saturday 20th October
8th September 13th October
Opening reception Friday 7th September 7.30pm, with guest Shelagh Honan
A multi-media exhibition by the Elephant Collective to commemorate women who have died in our maternity services (2016)
5th May – 16th June
Opening reception Friday 4th May 7.30-9.30pm
Entering Other Territories was a month long project held in October 2016 including an evolving exhibition, workspace, and Public Engagement Programme (see Public Programme list of activities below), created by Maeve Collins and a collection of creatives.
Josephine Quigley is a native of Glasson, Athlone where her childhood summers were spent at her Grandparents’ home in Inchmore off the shores of Lough Ree. This picturesque and idyllic Island was Josephine’s rich source of inspiration and first introduction to explore Nature and Beauty. These early memories would never leave her. 28 - October 28 2016
This exhibition presents a film installation, ‘Other Possibilities’ in the main gallery by Sarah Fuller, and a series of presentation-performances, ‘Actualities’ by Maria Kerin. July 15th - August 11th 2016
'I live and work in the small borough Viimsi in Estonia. Since 1997 I have been exhibiting my work in a number of group and solo exhibitions in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, USA and Ireland. Exhibition "Above the Clouds" consists of giclee prints from my new collage series. Before materialisation all combats and battles are held on the idea level or so to speak, above the clouds or in the spirit.' Sven-Erik Stamberg.
and we sense something
always afterwards,
when it echoes back
out of our memory,
an enduring murmur and
in the thicket
the smell of longing
Sven-Erik Stamberg
‘I Had A Dream’ & ‘Hybrid Portraits’ - new works by MrsRedhead and Alan Wells
Opening 11th June at 8pm in the Courthouse Gallery.
The exhibition runs from June 11 - July 7
I HAD A DREAM by MrsRedhead
MrsRedhead grew up in Poland, surrounded by lush forests that initiated her love of folklore and fantasy. Moving to Ireland 13 years ago was the opportunity to bring to life the fairy tales.
Irish legends have always inspired her and she found a way to show surrealism and exploration into the human soul. MrsRedhead holds a Masters degree in Pedagogy from Poland, which made her learn to better understand feelings and hidden thoughts, so in this way her photography is often a means of self- expression.
“I ask people about their dreams and try to peek into their soul and explore their individual personalities”, she says, “this helps me choose unique locations perfectly. My recent work is an in depth journey into the mystical locations I have found on this spell-bounding Island.
In my own imagination, every abandoned place is an unexplained world that has a lost soul and a story that begs to be told. I want to awaken it, bring it to life, give it a reason to breathe and inspire again, through the lens of my camera”.
http://www.mrsredhead.com
HYBRID PORTRAITS by Alan Wells
A new series of paintings based on famous portraits and self-portraits by well known artists re-imagined as animals.
The works in this exhibition are primarily acrylic on canvas.
Alan does also interior murals and some illustration work.
Originally from Ennis, Co. Clare but now based near Carrick-on-Suir in Co. Tipperary. He graduated from Limerick School of Art & Design in 1999 with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art (Painting).
As well as taking part in numerous group shows, his most recent solo show was in the South Tipperary Arts Centre in 2015.
www.alanwells1.wix.com/alanwellsartist
www.facebook.com/Alan.Wells.Artist
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Gerry O’Mahony is a graduate of LSAD Limerick. He has lived in Ireland, Israel and Malawi. On returning from Africa he became a member of one of Limerick’s first artist collectives (All + 10 sorts), and exhibited at length with the group. His first solo exhibition was in the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, and subsequently he has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. His work is in private and public collections in Ireland and abroad, including Limerick County and City Councils, Government buildings, Dublin, and Berlemonte Buildings, Brussels. His most recent show was at Draiocht, Blanchardstown Art Centre, Dublin in 2015. O’Mahony lives in County Clare and has been a member of Contact Studios, Limerick, since 2005.
Originally trained as a sculptor, his output for many years has been in painting. Working in mixed media, his pieces combine watercolour, gold leaf, and acrylic, using a layering process to give an impression of marks floating on and within the surface. He employs a vocabulary of symbols and characters in work which distorts the line between painting and drawing. The work though not allegorical, flows between the visible and the concealed, the effervescent and the obscure.
His upcoming solo show “Changing Shadows” is a combination of sculptural work and paintings, and will be on show in the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, from May 6th to June 2nd 2016. This exhibition shows parallel strands of O’Mahony’s practice. He works in series, often on a number of paintings at a time, shifting back and forth between the various pieces to create a body of work. Some pieces explore the power of words to produce a positive or negative response in the listener. Other paintings examine the nature of change as discussed in the allegory of Plato’s Cave, which explores the idea that it is easier to live in the shadows than to move out beyond a self-imposed comfort zone.
The exhibition will be opened at 8pm on the 6th of May by Helena Close, a writer from Limerick. A novelist, playwright and teacher, she recently completed the inaugural M.A. in Creative Writing in University of Limerick. “Changing shadows” will run at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, from May 6th to June 2nd 2016.
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Gerald Dunne is a photographer, digital artist and fine art printer based in Quin, Co. Clare.
His current exhibition "Beyond the Lines" aims to stir the subconscious in the same way as a flame or lapping water. A visual distraction allowing mental contemplation.
Nature is at the core of the work, often the neglected details around us, brought to life by exploring the colours and forms just beyond our normal perception.
Gerald has moved from a pared down black and white photographic style with a leap into colour and imagination. Although each piece originates with a photograph, they owe more to modern art than to any photographic genre. Some images have an obvious source, others are totally abstract, but the idea is not "what is it a picture of", more "what is it about". The answer is to give the conscious mind a distraction and let the imagination out Beyond the Lines, to see what else is in the wave.
The exhibition is in the Red Couch Space upstairs in The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon from Friday 6th May 2016, and runs until June 2nd
Opening Friday,March 18 @ 8 pm by Maria Finucane, Artist / Lecturer

hem
The works presented in this exhibition hem embody in one way or another diverse meanings ascribed to its title:
old Frisian word hemme meaning enclosed land
border of a piece of clothing
encircle and restrict the space or movement of
denoting or meaning blood
The starting point was a strange half told family story related to events 100 years ago. Ghost story as allegory perhaps.
This set in motion a meditation through drawing of edges and movement in both external and internal imagined landscapes. We see this in the series entitled Trace, which are made of layers of paper, compressed earth and pencil. They are shown laid out flat at table height in specially constructed frames of perspex and oak. The drawings become at points in their making like a set of shaken out signs and patterns encoded in and into the work, maybe to be deciphered into meaning or taken as direction.
Fiona O’Dwyer’s work possesses a sensitivity to material, a musicality and experiential poetic nature. In the video work we see the repetitive movement of the hem of a garment, the line that circles us in, the part that touches the ground.
In another piece, set out like wings, are six stone guns collected by the artist between 1992 and 1993 while building her studio in Co. Clare. The pieces are sandblasted with the words or more accurately the sound pill powder.
In this year, in the context of the churning of history O’Dwyer ponders her own history and her experience of continuing to be an artist on this rural edge. Articulated through the work itself, its materiality and relation to place she reflects on the possibility that the epigenetic memory of a migratory early life experience made her not the outsider but the artist.
www.fionaodwyer.com
'Neither Rhyme Nor Reason'
Art work by Patsy Ricks & Aoife Murray
March 18 – April 14
Opening Friday,March 18 @ 8 pm
This collaboration between mother and daughter Patsy Ricks and Aoife Murray is about where our minds take us.
Patsy sees the beauty in the everyday things that would probably go un-noticed, and tries to capture that on paper or canvas. Rough, aged objects that have stood the test of time and are all the more interesting and wonderful for it. Her oils are completely imaginary, using a different medium for expression.
Aoife is a freelance SFX makeup artist, interested in fantasy and the surreal and is currently training in prosthetic and postiche. She is FETAC and ITEC certified since 2014 and has worked on a range of projects in film and television from TG4 “Ros na Run” to History Channel’s “Vikings”. She is part of the Cork Bodypainting Crew since October 2015. A group of artists, models and photographers meet up every 2 months and create something together. It is her new found love and she is thrilled to be a part of such an amazing team.
We all have stories to tell.
'Traces & Treks'
Artwork by Antonio Lopez and Declan Kelly
February 19th - March 10th
Opening Thursday, Feb. 18th @ 7 pm
The Courthouse Gallery is delighted to present the joint exhibition “Traces & Treks” – ‘Artwork byvisual artists Antonio Lopez and Declan Kelly’. “Traces & Treks” features a selection of works that focuses on the journey made by the artists, the places remembered and changed by their personal experiences through reflection, observation and investigation.
Antonio’s work is the result of a number of different projects on which he has worked over the past number of years, but with a common source of interest: the habitat in which we live. His paintings and drawings develop from a mixture of sources: found objects, observational drawing, photographic material and found imagery. His work depicts a personal perception of our natural surroundings, observing our relationship with and use of the natural environment while reflecting on the contradiction between our basic connection to the natural world and our simultaneous detachment from it.
Declan’s art work is primarily about how journeys transform us, about how we are in a constant state of change during the passage of our lives. He takes inspiration from the everyday mundane as well as the landscapes and urban architecture he comes across during his many travels. He allows his subconscious to play an important role in the processing and the translation of ideas to paper or canvas. He strongly believes that the more you investigate, the more is revealed in what you might consider everyday wanderings. What you can possibly encounter on the way, both literally and figuratively is where Declan tries to provide a deeper insight.
Antonio Julio López Castro was born in Madrid and moved to Ireland in 1996. He currently lives and works in Co. Cork. He studied Fine Art at Sligo IT receiving an Honours Degree in 2003. Antonio exhibits regularly in Ireland and abroad, and his work was acquired by Mayo County Council, the Irish National Teachers Organization, and is held in many private collections. Antonio was an artist in residence at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo (2014); the Custom House Studios, Westport, Co. Mayo (2014); the Cill Rialaig Project, Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry (2010); and at Belmont Mill Studios, Co. Offaly (2010). He was awarded a Materials & Equipment Bursary by Kerry Co. Co. in 2012.
Declan Kelly currently lives and works in Drogheda. He works as a secondary school teacher, a visual artist and is also a founding member, co-director and curator with NeXus Arts. He has a higher degree in Art (HETAC – Ireland) and a Post Graduate Degree in Education in Art & Design (National College of Art and Design – Ireland). Declan has taken part in several residencies in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan and the Cill Rialaig Project, Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry. His work is part of private and public collections both in Ireland and in Belgium. Declan received awards by Create Louth, Drogheda Borough Council and the Arts Council of Ireland in recent years.
'Bogaigh Na hEireann
(Wetlands of Ireland)
New paintings by Paul Rose
February 19th - March 10th
Opening Thursday, Feb. 18th @ 7 pm
During research and production new areas of interest arise and lead to the next body of work. Past projects have been relating to my nightmares during PTSD, portraits of people within a day hospital which is still ongoing. The project I am working on at the moment is in relation to the Wetlands/Bogs of Ireland. I have always been fascinated by the Irish Wetlands/bogs. Ireland's peat bogs are valued landscapes
and places of unique flora and fauna, they feature throughout Irish history, art, music and folklore, they appear to be ever present and never ending. It’s topography which is transformed by ever changing light, at times crammed or lost in dejection, sometimes standing full of pride with an impression of poignant restraint, calmness, well-being and ruggedness.