PATRICK’S WORK IN GOREY SHOW
‘ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS’ is the title of a new exhibition of work by the Gorey-based artist Patrick Redmond which was created during the Paul Funge Artist Residency programme.
The exhibition will open in the Periphery Space gallery at Gorey School of Art on Friday, June 15, continuing until June 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday with an interview with the artist taking place on Saturday, June 16.
The Paul Funge residency gives an individual artist or small group access to a studio space, mentorship, an exhibition and the use of facilites such as a print studio, computer room, library, fabrication room and phographic studio.
According to Gorey School of Art director Paul Carter, Patrick’s solo exhibition is the culmination of nine months of what American painter Milton Resnick coined ‘soul-beating’, to describe the method and difficulties of an artist changing his or her work.
During the past year, Patrick has turned his painting practice on its head and challenged and redefined his own methods. Having previously concentrated on oil painting, he now uses paint, collage, plaster, soot, mirrors and dish scrubbers in an approach where painting is not defined by style and consistency but possibility.
His subject matter has also changed from the silent theatricality of his earlier paintings where vulnerable subjects were left forlorn in uncanny settings to his current utopian landscapes that reference National Geographic magazines and holiday brochures.
Although his work has changed dramatically in subject and substance during the residency, he still seems conscious of his own hand in the work.
Before, he worked dutifully from photographs but he has now relinquished the photograph to leave chance and process to choose what remains on the convas, the mirror, the paper and the plaster.
On Saturday, June 16, the artist wil be in conversation at Gorey School of Art with art critic James Merrigan at 3 p.m.