Lavit Gallery, Wandesford Quay, Cork

20 October – 12 November

Event: 

Saturday 5 November, 12pm

Bridget Flannery in conversation with friend and collaborator Angie Shanahan.

 

Lavit Gallery is delighted to welcome Bridget Flannery back to her native Cork for what is her first solo exhibition in the city in twenty-two years.

Bridget Flannery’s art practice is centered on painting and drawing. The series Undersong has evolved from and through sketches and other work on paper made over a six year period out on the Sliabh Bloom Mountains in County Laois, near where the artist lives. The resulting paintings in watercolour and acrylic explore the dense colour and layers of bog, earth and sky. Further inspiration has been drawn from the work of contemporary Irish composers Benjamin Dwyer, Dave Fennessy and Linda Buckley, their sounds echoing what the artist sensed in the landscape, namely the layering of colour, texture, human belonging, isolation and connection; a non-verbal spark of recognition.

The artist’s process of making for this series is similar to that used for her previous work, comprising a layering of colour over torn or cut shapes with an emphasis on edges, however her colour palette now exhibits strong influences from the yellow, white and red ochres she experienced on a recent trip to Australia. Although Flannery continues to work with multiple thin layers of paint, there’s a looseness or airiness in its application which has been influenced by working quickly outside in the weather.

“To be out in the landscape, seascape, street scape is important to the making of work. Time can be spent drawing, working up detailed colour studies, often using natural pigments as in crushed stones, earth or plants. I walk a lot and use photos to grasp at something glimpsed. My phone is in one pocket and the sketchbook is in the other, both ready to record in their own way. The artist Paul Klee’s statement that “one eye sees and the other eye feels” is an appropriate way to describe the making of the work and to how it evolves. It’s also important to make a lot of work, as work makes work. One piece leads to another.” Bridget Flannery, 2022

After graduating in 1981 Bridget received the Student of the Year Award from Cork Arts Society (now trading as Lavit Gallery) and subsequently featured in numerous annual group exhibitions at the gallery including a Student of the Year 40th Retrospective Exhibition and Bridget Flannery Selects, an exhibition she curated, both taking place in 2008.

Artworks purchased can be collected after the 16 November

 

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For further information please contact info@lavitgallery.com or 021 4277749