October 25th – November 15th, 2016
Martin Gale – Recent work
The Lavit Gallery is delighted to announce a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Martin Gale. The exhibition opens Tuesday, October 25th and will run until November 15th.
Gale sees the landscape as a living entity, a place where things happen. Knowing and living in the place he paints is important to him. Although full of detail, these are not simply realist paintings, but also provide a social commentary on how we interact with places and environments. His focus is not the romantic Irish landscape but rather the realities of living in rural Ireland. His paintings are a series of suspended narratives, stories implied but never elaborated on; a businessman strolls down a country road, a villager waits at a bend, a parked car outside a house. Heavy clouds, long shadows and glimpses of strong light help create the narratives, while titles such as Beginning of Darkness and The Visit help catch the viewers’ imagination.
Gale lives and works in Co. Kildare, was elected a member of Áosdána in 1982, and has been a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy since 1996. He has been exhibiting for over 40 years, has had fifteen solo exhibitions and been involved in many prestigious group exhibition. A large-scale retrospective of his work travelled from the Royal Hibernian Academy to the Ulster Museum in 2004-05. Gale’s work is held in numerous private collections in Ireland and abroad and represented in major public collections including The Arts Council, AIB, Bank of Ireland, OPW / State Art Collection, ESB, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Chester Beatty Library, and Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
Martin Gale is no stranger to The Lavit having last shown in Artists’ Choice in 2014 and our RHA in the South exhibition in 2013. This, however, will be his first solo exhibition at the Lavit, and his first solo show in Cork city since 2008.
A preview of this exhibition will take place on Tuesday October 25th, from 5pm, with the artist speaking about his work at 6.30pm.
A full colour catalogue sponsored by The Imperial Hotel, Cork accompanies this exhibition. Gallery opening hours Tuesday – Saturday 10.30 – 6.00.