EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself

Page created by Sherry Lindsey
 
CONTINUE READING
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
EAMON COLMAN
The Width of Yourself
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
Tara Murphy
requests the pleasure of your company
at the private view of

EAMON COLMAN
The Width of Yourself
to be opened by
Dr. Marie Bourke
Cultural historian, former Keeper - Head of Education at the National Gallery of Ireland

on
Thursday 6 February 2020
from 6pm to 8pm
at

Solomon Fine Art, Balfe Street, Dublin 2
tel: +353 (0)1 672 4429 / email: info@solomonfineart.ie / www.solomonfineart.ie

The exhibition continues until Saturday 29 February 2020
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday 10am – 5.30pm / Saturday: 11am – 4pm

front/inside cover: Tangling shadows, shaking all roots, deep in solitude, 2019, mixed media on Somerset paper, under acrylic, 76 x 104cm
back cover: The sodden nest of a cold-eyed thrush, 2019-20, oil & mixed media on 280g Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
Painting Place                                                                                                        The appropriateness of this shift is particularly clear in Cold earth slept below the valley of the thrush and
                                                                                                                      The sodden nest of a cold-eyed thrush. Both evoke the way climate change is inscribing itself ever more
Each of Eamon Colman’s paintings is a new conversation. One between the particular possibilities open to              emphatically on the already battered and weather-worn Kilkenny uplands, rendering them more ragged,
a painter and the almost unlimited material available through a genuinely open approach to engaging with              drearier, wetter for longer periods each year. Living in that raw place, frequently grey or white with mist or
place. A conversation that draws on both the corporeal memory of his walking body and a lively curiosity              winter snow, or saturated by days or weeks of incessant rain, and battered and torn by violent storms, how
about just where that body finds itself in the contingent world at any given time. Whether quick or slow, that        could Colman not respond? In the last few years the surfaces of his paintings have more often seemed almost
conversation is enacted physically in the studio but only concluded when Colman has pondered what he’s                mauled into being, by turn battered, fragile, slippery, textured by the traces of stain and run-off. His attention
made and found the evocative words that become a title. (An imaginative act in its own right informed by his          to surface is played out to extraordinary effect in Horace there by Homer stands – unusually a borrowed phrase
deep engagement with poetry, particularly contemporary Irish poetry).                                                 (from Yeats’ Mad As the Mist and Snow)– and in the small Golden fields showed wet and clear. Both of which
                                                                                                                      testify to the acute attention both to the particularities of everyday world in which he is immersed and to the
Colman listens to places as much as he looks into them. (Sound, from a bell’s tolling to curlew call, is a            broader resonances that permeate his own responses to it. Yet his willingness to acknowledge the worsening
significant point of reference in these works). Walking in long-inhabited places, he attends closely to the stories   of an already harsh local climate – something he has verified for himself by logging the decrease in sunny days
and dreams that underpin our sense of them. In the studio, his touchstones when working are the many direct           where he lives, walks and works - has in no way inhibited the range or subtlety of these recent works. Despite
impressions and inferences gathered while out walking. In consequence, it will be self-evident to him that in         the quieter role of colour in works like A leaning into the light or Swimming through the fog, the night stops at
painting Above the small holding radio signals penetrate the silence he should evoke both the tangible site of        the hill of souls, their capacity to evoke the rich and shifting complexities of a place remains as potent as ever.
the small holding and the radio signals that float, invisible, above it.                                              Indeed, perhaps more so now than ever before.

Previously, Colman has made exceptional use of all the possibilities of high key colour. However, his 2017            Colman’s recent paintings acknowledge the rawness of the world around him, animated as it is by a difficult
exhibition, Thinking-in-movement (at the Stern Studio Gallery, Vienna) indicated that he was increasingly             history and perhaps more difficult future. They serve, that is, not simply as evocations of a place in the here and
modifying that approach, muting his colour to explore new possibilities. In retrospect, this appears as an            now, but are also shot through with traces of a complex past slipping away and intimations of various possible
obvious response to his increasing immersion in rural upland places in northeast County Kilkenny, where               futures. As Colman himself has acknowledged: “the earth is a living being like you or I … it’s an organism that
he and his family now live in a house situated at nine hundred feet above sea level. By 2019 Colman had               breathes and communicates”. These paintings are, I suggest, a clear-sighted response to what one corner of
abandoned the given rectangle of a stretched canvas to work on paper, ‘finding’ the support for his images as         the earth is telling us now.
he went along and so stressing qualities of surface and edge. This puts greater emphasis on tactility, on the                                                                                                               Dr. Iain Biggs
contingent and provisional aspects of the painting process, so that the images appear wrought rather than                                                                              Honorary Research Fellow, University of Dundee
simply painted.                                                                                                                                                                                                             January 2020

2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       3
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
Altocumulus clouds      Horace there by
             blow dreaming       Homer stands
                 to altitude

                   2018-2019     2018-2019
    		           mixed media     mixed media
            on Somerset 360g     on Somerset 360g
              acid free paper,   acid free paper,
                 under acrylic   under acrylic
                 76 x 104 cm     76 x 104 cm

4                                                   5
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
In the imaginary      Cold earth slept
         garden, one can       below the valley
              still hear the   of the thrush
             Angelus bell

                      2019     2018-2019
    		        mixed media      mixed media
         on Somerset 360g      on Somerset 360g
           acid free paper,    acid free paper,
              under acrylic    under acrylic
              76 x 104 cm      76 x 104 cm

6                                                 7
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
Painting for Sonja.    Above the smallholding
    The river wall is reached,    radio signals penetrate
           sudden loneliness      the silence
             and then peace

                          2020    2019-2020
            oil & mixed media     oil & mixed media
            on Somerset 360g      on Somerset 360g
               acid free paper,   acid free paper,
                  under acrylic   under acrylic
                 124 x 111 cm     60 x 56 cm

8                                                           9
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
Songs from the mountain        A leaning into the light
       sing of two worlds: one
      hidden, the other young

                      2019-2020     2019-2020
              oil & mixed media     oil & mixed media
              on Somerset 360g      on Somerset 360g
                 acid free paper,   acid free paper,
                    under acrylic   under acrylic
                      60 x 56 cm    60 x 56 cm

10                                                             11
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
Swimming through the         Through the forest undergrowth
      fog, the night stops at     the wind hesitated and moved
             the hill of souls    towards day

                    2019-2020     2019-2020
            oil & mixed media     oil & mixed media
            on Somerset 360g      on Somerset 360g
               acid free paper,   acid free paper,
                  under acrylic   under acrylic
                    60 x 56 cm    60 x 56 cm

12                                                                 13
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
The wind shred banner       Moorhen call from
        of the autumn light      the smell of the
                                 pond, it seems to
                                 furrow the smooth
                                 surface of silence

                   2019-2020     2019-2020
           oil & mixed media     oil & mixed media
      on Yopo Japanese 280g      on Yopo Japanese 280g
              acid free paper,   acid free paper,
                 under acrylic   under acrylic
                   37 x 43 cm    37 x 43 cm

14                                                       15
EAMON COLMAN The Width of Yourself
Soft winged as an evening      Golden fields showed
                 owl, the night came     wet and clear
                  pink and magenta

                           2019-2020     2019-2020
     		            oil & mixed media     oil & mixed media
              on Yopo Japanese 280g      on Yopo Japanese 280g
                      acid free paper,   acid free paper,
                         under acrylic   under acrylic
                           37 x 43 cm    37 x 43 cm

16                                                               17
The cold north air,     Day came to sunset’s
              like a lens of ice,    windless calm, where
                transforms and       the air was still, heavy
                    clarifies the    and warm between
                     curlew call     the hedges

                       2019-2020     2019-2020
     		        oil & mixed media     oil & mixed media
          on Yopo Japanese 280g      on Yopo Japanese 280g
                  acid free paper,   acid free paper,
                     under acrylic   under acrylic
                       37 x 43 cm    37 x 43 cm

18                                                              19
2006 		 Knot of Souls, South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
EAMON COLMAN                                                                                                                                     		Salt River, St. David’s University, Wales; Oriel Queens Hall Gallery, Wales; Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
                                                                                                                                                 2004 		 Africa 22º – 35º S, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
Eamon Colman was born in Dublin in 1957. He is an elected member of Aosdána since 2007 in recognition of his major contribution to               2002 		 Walking Vermont, Vermont Studio Center, USA;
Irish culture. His professional career spans from 1979, having created nearly forty solo exhibitions presented nationally and internationally.   		Walking Vermont, Vangard Gallery, Cork
In 1997, he was invited to host a major mid-term retrospective exhibition of his work entitled ‘Post Cards Home’ at the Royal Hibernian          2000 		 Rain on Water, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
Academy, Dublin at the age of 39 years. This was accompanied by a monograph on his work by writer and art critic Brian Mc Avera                  1998 		 Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Palais des Congres, Lorient, France
entitled ‘Dreams from The Lion’s Head, The Work of Eamon Colman’ published by Four Fields Press. A 25-year retrospective of his                  1997 		 Post Cards Home, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin (mid-term retrospective exhibition)
work is featured in a substantial publication by Gandon Editions, Kinsale: ‘Profile 25 – Eamon Colman’ (2006). In 1989, he won the First         1996 		 Digging for Pearls, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
Prize Painting Award in EVA International; in 2001 First Prize Painting Award in Eigse, Carlow Arts Festival; in 2002, he was the first Irish    1995 		 Digging for Pearls, Driochead Arts Centre, Drogheda
artist to be awarded Full Fellowship Award from the Vermont Studio Centre, USA; in 2005, he won a CCAT Interreg Major Award for                  1994 		 Home of the Snake King, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
touring an exhibition in Wales, UK and in 2018 he was awarded a Culture Ireland GB18 Award. His work has been included in exhibitions            1992 		 Islands, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
representing contemporary Irish art in Brussels, Denmark, France, Spain, UK, Hong Kong, Canada and USA.                                          1991 		 One man show, Sligo Arts Week, Sligo
                                                                                                                                                 1990 		 India, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
SOLO/TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS                                                                                                                      		Dreams from the Lion’s Head, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
2020		       The Width of Yourself, Solomon Fine Art, Dublin                                                                                     1988		  River Walk, Vangard Gallery, Cork
2019		       The Width of Yourself, Solas Art Gallery, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim                                                                  1986 		 Eamon Colman / Nick Miller, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (two-person exhibition)
2019 		      Double Vision, Eamon Colman and Blaise Smith, Kilkenny Arts Festival (two-person exhibition)                                        		      John Piper/ Eamon Colman, Windsor Arts Centre, London (two-person exhibition)
2018 		      Thaw, Oriel Q (Queens Hall Gallery), Narberth, Wales, UK (part of Culture Ireland GB18 programme)
		Mark Making, Eamon Colman and Gary Robinson, Claremorris Gallery, Co. Mayo (two-person exhibition)                                             SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 		      Thinking-In-Movement, Stern Studio Gallery, Vienna, Austria                                                                         2019, 18 		        Solomon Fine Art, Dublin
2015		       Walking at three miles per hour, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin                                                                         2019, 18, 11, 07, 05, 04, 03,
2014 		      Works on paper, Oriel Queens Hall Gallery, Narbert, Wales                                                                           1996, 95, 92, 91 Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, RHA Gallery, Dublin
2013		       Panorama: A Review, Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, Co. Tyrone (retrospective exhibition)                                                2019, 18, 14, 13 VUE Irish Contemporary Art Fair, RHA Gallery, Dublin
		Scattered Showers, Christchurch Gallery, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork                                                                             2019		             Nineteen Hundred & Nineteen, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo; Irish Consulate, New York, USA
2012		       There is no season for margins, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin                                                                          2016 		            Catherine Hammond Gallery, West Cork
2011		       Monument, Stern Studio Gallery, Vienna, Austria                                                                                     2015, 05 - 01      Eigse, VISUAL, Carlow
2010		       Before the dark gets stronger than the light, RUA RED, Dublin                                                                       2015, 11, 05, 91 Boyle Arts Festival, Co. Roscommon
		What is real or actual, everything or nothing, Oriel Queens Hall Gallery, Wales                                                                2015		             Impressions of W.B. Yeats, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
2008		       Remnant, Cecille R. Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St Louis, USA                                                                 2014 – 04          Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
		Vantage, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin                                                                                                            2014 		            Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, Midsummer Exhibition
2007		       Breath of the River, Galeri Caernarfon Cyf, Wales                                                                                   2012 		            The Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, USA (three-person exhibition)
2006         Between Bog and a Sagging Wall, Vangard Gallery, Cork                                                                               2010, 03 		        Kilkenny Arts Festival

20                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           21
2008 		        Fís, Liverpool Capital of Culture, UK (invited artist)                                                AWARDS, RESIDENCIES & COMMISSIONS                                                             The Danish Arts Council
2007, 05 		    Nicholas Gallery, Belfast                                                                             2018         Culture Ireland GB18 Award, Wales, UK                                            Wexford County Council
2007 		        Colour Fields, Draíocht Arts Centre, Dublin                                                           2018, 04     Arts Act Award, Kilkenny Co. Council                                             Irish Contemporary Arts Society
		             Art Miami, Miami, USA (with Hillsboro Fine Art)                                                       2018, 87, 86 Artist in Residence, Tyrone Guthrie Centre                                       Kings House Museum, Boyle
2006, 1994, 91 Royal Hibernian Academy Banquet Exhibition, Dublin                                                    2017         Culture Ireland Award, Vienna, Austria                                           Tralee Regional Technical College
2005, 03 		    Wexford Opera Festival Exhibition, Greenacres Gallery                                                 2015         ArtLinks Award, Kilkenny Co. Council                                             Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast
		             Amber Arts Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland                                                               2009         Ballyfermot Travellers Action Project – Book Project (residency & commission)    AIB Bank Brussels
2004 		        Irish Art, Angera, Italy (to coincide with Irish EU Presidency)                                                    Cill Rialaig Project (residency)                                                 Bank of Ireland Brussels
		             Grand Gala, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin                                                             2015 – 05 Ballinglen Art Foundation, Co. Mayo (residency)                                     Deutsche Bank
2000 		        Aer Rianta, Dublin Airport                                                                                         Inish Lacken Project, Connemara, Co. Galway (residency)                          Citibank
1997 		        Small Works, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin                                                                               Uni Truck, Belfast, Northern Ireland (commission)                                American Express
		Landscape & Recollection, The Ballinglen Experience, RHA Gallery                                                   2005         CCAT Interreg Major Award for touring exhibition in Wales                        McCann Fitzgerald
1996 		        Irish Art, Dillon Gallery, London                                                                     2002         Percent for Art Commission, Roscommon Arts Centre                                Irish Life
1995 		        Irish Art, Singapore                                                                                               Full Fellowship Award, Vermont Studio Centre, USA                                Arthur Anderson
		             Civic Forum, Barcelona, Spain                                                                         2001         Eigse, First prize painting                                                      Smurfit Ireland Group
1994 		        Iontas, Sligo Art Gallery & RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin                                                          Percent for Art Commission, The Bell Centre, Darndale, Dublin                    Fyffes Ireland
		Irish Artists, Donal / Maxwell, Philadelphia, USA                                                                               Euro World Project, First prize with Crumlin Children’s Hospital, Dublin         Delta Airlines
1994, 88, 82   An tOireachtas                                                                                        2000         Art Flight awarded by the Arts Council of Ireland                                Norwich Union
1993 		        Irish Showcase Exhibition, Hong Kong                                                                  1999         Residency in Hirsholmene, awarded by the Danish Council of Artists               KPMG
		             Touchstone Gallery, Hong Kong                                                                         1996, 91     Arts Council of Ireland, Materials Grant                                         Sheen Falls Hotel
		             Monaghan Arts Centre, Monaghan Open                                                                   1995         Arts Council of Ireland, Major Artist Bursary                                    Jury’s Inn Manchester
1992 		        Contemporary Irish Art Society, Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane, Dublin                            1993         Arts Flight to New York, Arts Council & Aer Lingus                               Gresham Hotel
1990 		        Images from Ireland, Brussels / European Artist of Promise, Brussels / Echoes, Rue de Spa, Brussels                SIPTU Print Award                                                                The Merrion Inn
1988 		        Claremorris Open, Mayo                                                                                1992         Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo (residency)                                 Clery’s Select Tea Rooms
		Celtic Vision, Bank of Ireland, Dublin                                                                                          Set design ‘After the Picnic’ (Evelyn Waugh), Players Theatre, Trinity College   McCormack & Sons
		             Open Circle, Scotland                                                                                 1989         EV+A First Prize Painting                                                        The Green Lizard Restaurant
		             De Bello Gallery, Toronto, Ontario Canada                                                             1988         Studio Exchange for one year to India, Calcutta Artist Union                     Vermont Studio Centre, USA
		Irish Art, Knapp Gallery                                                                                           1987         Purchase Award S.A.D.E                                                           Philip Docahalo Corp. Florida
1988, 84 		    EV+A, Limerick                                                                                                                                                                                      Unitruck
1987 		        S.A.D.E 1987, Cork                                                                                    COLLECTIONS                                                                                   Fitzsimons & Mallon Solicitors
1986 		        Independent Artists, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin                                                       Irish Museum of Modern Art (Gordon Lambert Collection)                                        de Vere’s (private collection)
		Celtic Vision, Museo Español de Arte Contemporaneo & Palacio Municipal de Exposition, Spain                        Office of Public Works – Government Collection
		             Living Art Exhibition, Hugh Lane Municipal Art Gallery, Dublin                                        The Arts Council of Ireland

22                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     23
Eamon Colman: The Width of Yourself                                                                p. 13    Through the forest undergrowth the wind hesitated and moved towards day
                                                                                                            2019-20, oil and mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 60 x 56 cm
6 - 29 February 2020
                                                                                                   p. 14    The wind shred banner of the autumn light
CATALOGUE LIST                                                                                              2019-2020, oil and mixed media on 280gram Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
front   Tangling shadows, shaking all roots deep in solitude                                       p. 15    Moorhen call from the smell of the pond, it seems to furrow the smooth surface of silence
cover   2019, mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 76 x 104cm                       2019-2020, oil and mixed media on 280gram Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
p. 4    Altocumulus clouds blow dreaming to altitude                                               p. 16    Soft winged as an evening owl, the night came pink and magenta
        2018-19, mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 76 x 104cm                    2019-2020, oil and mixed media on 280gram Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
p. 5    Horace there by Homer stands
                                                                                                   p. 17    Golden fields showed wet and clear
        2018-19, mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 76 x 104cm
                                                                                                            2019-2020, oil and mixed media on 280gram Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
p. 6    In the imaginary garden, one can still hear the Angelus bell
                                                                                                   p. 18    The cold north air, like a lens of ice, transforms and clarifies the curlew call
        2019, mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 76 x 104cm
                                                                                                            2019-2020, oil and mixed media on 280gram Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
p. 7    Cold earth slept below the valley of the thrush
                                                                                                   p. 19    Day came to sunset’s windless calm, where the air was still, heavy and warm between the hedges
        2018-19, mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 76 x 104cm
                                                                                                            2019-2020, oil and mixed media on 280gram Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
p. 8    Painting for Sonja. The river wall is reached, sudden loneliness and then peace
                                                                                                   back     The sodden nest of a cold-eyed thrush
        2020, mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 124 x 111 cm
                                                                                                   cover    2019-2020, oil and mixed media on 280gram Yopo Japanese paper, under acrylic, 37 x 43 cm
p. 9    Above the small holding radio signals penetrate the silence
        2019-20, oil and mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 60 x 56 cm
                                                                                                   First published in 2020 by Solomon Fine Art
p. 10   Songs from the mountain sing of two worlds: one hidden, the other young                    ISBN: 978-1-9163536-0-2
        2019-20, oil and mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 60 x 56 cm
                                                                                                   Photography: Anthony Hobbs
p. 11   A leaning into the light
        2019-20, oil and mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 60 x 56 cm   All images in this catalogue are protected by copyright and should not be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder.
                                                                                                   Details of the copyright holder to be obtained from Solomon Fine Art
p. 12   Swimming through the fog, the night stops at the hill of souls
        2019-20, oil and mixed media on Somerset 360g acid free paper, under acrylic, 60 x 56 cm   © Solomon Fine Art and the artist

24
EAMON COLMAN
                                              The Width of Yourself
                                                6 - 29 February 2020
Solomon Fine Art, Balfe Street, Dublin 2, Ireland / t: +353 (0)1 672 4429 / e: info@solomonfineart.ie / www.solomonfineart.ie
You can also read