To mark the conclusion of his major solo exhibition ‘Mutators’, Sample-Studios will host artist Kevin Mooney In Conversation with Curator Sarah Kelleher in St. Luke’s Crypt on Saturday 28th May at 2pm. This event is free but places are limited so booking in advance is advised: Click here to book.
Kevin Mooney’s work considers the voids which mark Irish visual culture, particularly related to Irish diasporic traditions and journeys. His paintings are like haunted tales- sometimes they are inventions or tall stories which present as artefacts from a lost culture, and sometimes speculative imaginings of an alternative art history.
In ‘Mutators’, his work expands from wall-based works to sculptures and hybrid painting/ sculptural objects. The materials of this new work- oil paint, varnish, timber, clay, jute, and iron nails, draw on the remnants of Irish folk art and folklore, blending them with influences from Europe and further afield. His ongoing research interests in historical connections between Ireland and the Caribbean has been a rich source of inspiration. This body of work reimagines artefacts that might have resulted from an integration of peoples with a shared but divergent transatlantic history.
About the Artist
Kevin Mooney is an Irish artist based in Sample-Studios, Cork. His recent solo exhibition, The Erlish Tide, was held in the Excel Gallery, Tipperary in 2021 and was supported by The Arts Council of Ireland Commissions Award. Previous exhibitions include Pines Eye, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 2020, EVA International, Limerick, 2018, The Law Is a White Dog, Tulca Festival, Galway, 2020, Fragments of San Borondon, Triskel Arts Centre, 2019, (Solo), Everything Is In Everything, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, 2019, Apparition, Sternview Gallery, 2018, (Solo), Seeing Things, Artbox Projects, Dublin, 2017,(Solo), Twilight Head Cult, Ormston House, Limerick, 2016, (Solo), What Is and What Might Be, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 2015, Making Familiar, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, 2012, and Wave, Pallas Projects, 2014, (Solo).
Kevin graduated with an MFA from NCAD in 2012. Since then, he has received several Visual Arts Bursaries from The Arts Council. His work is held in various private and public collections in Ireland and abroad, including Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, The OPW, The Arts Council of Ireland and Galway City Council.
About the Curator
Sarah Kelleher is an arts writer and a Government of Ireland Scholar. Sarah is an experienced programmer and administrator, having worked as part of the programming team of the National Sculpture Factory and managed the Vangard Gallery, Cork. Sarah has published widely, writing scholarly texts on Gerda Frömmel for the catalogue to Gerda Frömel, A Retrospective for the Irish Museum of Modern Art, contributing to Photography and Doubt (Routledge, 2016) and writing reviews for Paper Visual Art Journal, Enclave Review, and The VAI Visual Artists News Sheet. Sarah also has an independent curatorial practice and has co-curated the exhibitions Affective Entities in collaboration with MAKE 2016, and This is not my voice speaking (2015) at the Wandesford Quay Gallery. Formed in 2014 by Sarah Kelleher and Rachel Warriner, Pluck works closely with artists to realise ambitious exhibitions of innovative and avant-garde work, most recently as part of Cork Midsummer Festival.