20 April – 13 May, 2023
Opening reception Thursday 20 April 5.30-7.30pm. Opening remarks by Michael Waldron, Assistant Curator of Collections & Special Projects, Crawford Art Gallery.
Lavit Gallery presents a collaborative exhibition by artists Johnny Bugler and Diarmuid Breen.
Johnny Bugler’s artwork is often thematically associated with the sea, more specifically the coast as a transitionary space between land and sea. He is interested in the folklore that surrounds the sea and ocean travel; the symbolism of its ever changing surface and the mystery of what lies beneath. Images used in the work are sourced from the artist’s own travels, printed ephemera and found objects, all alluding to the notion of the exotic idyll and paradise lost. Bugler makes work in a range of media including print, sculpture, found objects and mixed media.
Diarmuid Breen’s artwork is a subtle commentary on various aspects of contemporary human experience. This includes the role that work plays in our lives, being busy, the pressure to make money and its connection or disconnection to the pursuit of happiness. As a counterpoint the artist also highlights the importance of escaping the working environment to gain perspective on where happiness truly lies. The uncertainty, strangeness and banal nature of everyday life is portrayed using sources found in old books and photographs, giving the artist’s paintings a nostalgic feel but they are still relatable to contemporary experience.
Johnny Bugler a BA in Fine Art from MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork and am MA in Fine Art Printmaking from Camberwell College of Art, London. He has exhibited internationally and is the recipient of Arts Council awards in travel and training and for further study. In 2015 he won a commission launched by Cork City Council Arts Office that resulted in the public artwork Singers Corner. The mural was selected by writer Doireann Ní Gríofá for a reflective piece published in Paper Visual journal. Michael Waldron, assistant curator at Crawford Art Gallery wrote about Bugler’s installation Bombers and Birdsong: ‘Bugler evokes a charged atmosphere of unsettling beauty in which memory, chance, survival, and peril co-exist in tense yet arresting harmonies’. In 2018 his work was acquired for the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Diarmuid Breen holds a BA in Visual Art from the Dublin Institute of Technology Sherkin arts programme (2012). Since graduating he has exhibited regularly in Cork and Dublin. He is represented by Taylor Galleries, Dublin, McKenna Gallery, Omagh, County Tyrone and Blue House Gallery, County Cork. He has exhibited at Boyle Arts Festival, RHA Annual exhibitions and was the inaugural winner of the Anita Young Award for a mid-career artist at the 191st RHA Annual Exhibition. His works have appeared on a number of book covers including Paul Muldoon’s Frolic and Detour, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill’s Northern Lights and most recently Molly Twomey’s Raised among Vultures.
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For further information please contact info@lavitgallery.com or 021 4277749