Welcome

The landscape of Kerry is a defining feature in the lives of most of its populace and this is doubly true for many of its wonderful artists and writers. One such artist is Michael O' Cleary, the landscape of Kerry and, in particular, its feathered inhabitants feature strongly in his art. The Exhibition will be opened by Eric Dempsey. Eric is a professional bird tour guide and is a regular panelist from the Derek Mooney Radio show on RTE 1 radio.

"Nature and art are inextricably linked for me and have been, I suppose, since I was 13 years old," says Michael. "I've never really been able to explain it, but I think art is something that every child loves and I think I just pursued it more that others."

Another passion that Michael has followed since childhood is a love of ornithology. "When I first began bird-watching it was easy to incorporate my love of art and it's something I pursued right through to college."

Michael attended the NCAD and, under advisement from his lecturers, his degree show featured his work with birds. It was from this that he was commissioned to work on his first book, The Complete Guide to Ireland's Birds, a task which was to take two years. "It was a ferocious work load," says Michael. "The book has more than 640 illustrations."

Despite the time commitment it developed into a career and Michael now works full time as a wildlife artist, designer, author and illustrator, in Ireland and in Spain, while he resides on the Dingle Peninsula.

Michael who hails from County Down originally visited Kerry in a camper van in January about 6 years ago. "It was actually snowing at the time," laughs Michael, "but I fell in love with the place and moved to Brandon for a couple of years before buying a house in Camp. I'm putting down roots now and can't ever imagine leaving."

"The Samhlaiocht Gallery is delighted to welcome well known freelance bird and wildlife artist, author and illustrator Michael O' Cleary and his 'Barn Owl's Hidden Realm' exhibition to the Gallery," said Trish Thompson, Samhlaiocht Gallery coordinator. "The exhibition will be a treat for all Art lovers but, more than that, will truly inspire anyone who loves wildlife. The life-like quality of the work speaks volumes, not just for Michael's artistic ability, but of his love for these most amazing animals."

The exhibition features barn owls, one of Ireland's most elusive and endangered species of owl. Barn owls are nocturnal and, as such, are rarely seen by the public.

"I spent a year seeking out Barn Owls throughout Kerry, and have been privileged to witness them at first hand on many occasions, in many contexts," says Michael. "With the paintings in this exhibition, I hope to reflect the strange beauty of these animals, mostly within a variety of settings created by man, and also places in slow decay."

Barn owls inhabit human landscapes, nesting and living out their unobtrusive lives almost exclusively in derelict cottages, ruined houses, old castles and neglected farm buildings. The paradox is that, for a species which is so elusive and shy of humans, it is utterly dependent on us for secure nest sites, albeit in the places which we have abandoned.

Most people have never seen a barn owl or have only had the briefest of glimpses and this latest Samhlaiocht exhibition is a perfect opportunity for people to see these beautiful birds captured in their natural habitats.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 25th of June and runs to Friday 17th of July in the New Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

The Samhlaiocht Gallery has issued a call for entries from Artists interested in exhibiting as part of Samhlaiocht's 2010 Gallery programme.

"As part of Samhlaiocht's ongoing collaboration with Artists we're inviting them to submit work for consideration for our 2010 Gallery programme," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht. "The past two years have been wonderfully successful for us in terms of exhibitions. We had more exhibitions, sold more paintings and discovered more talent than ever before. We're hoping that 2010 will bring more of the same and that this call for entries will attract the best and brightest up-and-coming artists from through out Ireland, while also attracting more established artists looking for an additional platform for their work."

The submission is open to all Artists. Applications are invited from individual artists, or groups of artists, working in any medium for inclusion in the 2010 Samhlaiocht Gallery Programme.

Applications should be submitted in writing by Friday, July 10th.

The Application should contain:
1. Current Biography or CV.
2. Artist's Statement (max. 400 words) and Exhibition Proposal (max. 200 words)
3. 10 - 12 high quality images of the work. Images can be submitted as digital prints, photographs, slides, or jpeg format.
4. Image list with titles, medium and dimensions clearly labelled.

The Samhlaiocht Gallery first opened in July 1999 in Maine Street, Tralee. The philosophy behind the Gallery mirrors the overall philosophy of Samhlaiocht, which is to help, promote and establish up-and coming Artists, provide a platform for more established artists and facilitate community groups working in any artistic medium.

The New Samhlaiocht Gallery is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

Please address your applications to:
Trish Thompson, Art Gallery Coordinator, Samhlaiocht, The Old Presbytery, Lower Castle St. Tralee or email trish@samhlaiocht.com or phone 066 7129934

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

Samhlaiocht, the leading Arts Organization in Kerry, continues its long tradition of bringing the very best and brightest of up-and-coming artists to the Kingdom with a wonderful new exhibition opening on Thursday, Thursday 28^th May at 7:00 pm. The exhibition will feature work from Recent Kerry Graduates, Julie Lovett & Cliona Fox.

Julie Lovett was born in Kerry and received her Honours degree in Painting in 2007 from the Limerick school of Art and Design. Since then she has had a studio in Cork and is currently working in Limerick City. She has exhibited widely in Kerry, Limerick, and Dublin and recently in Leipzig Germany. She will be commencing her Masters in Fine art in Belfast this September.

"In a generation that's so consumed with problem and conspiracy, my work investigates the inconsistencies that contributes to a doubtful and insecure civilizatio," says Julie. "Social phenomena excites me, I wish to look at art as a phenomenological activity, i.e., art as a language, art as an entertainment, art as life." Julie intents to use the exhibition as a playful environment suitable for a response to art as a socially constructed phenomenological activity.

Cliona Fox is a recent graduate of N.C.A.D. where she received a BA Honours in Fine Art and Painting. She has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and works between Dublin and her studio in Kerry. "My paintings are a technical combination of both abstract and representational art," say Cliona, "there is a 'tugging' between realism and abstraction that makes for a constant ongoing struggle, where decisions regarding composition, colour, editing etc are a frequent challenge. The value of such struggle however is that by engaging in this process I usually end up trying out new and experimental ideas which I find invariably result in exciting rewards."

The narrative contained in her work deals with the memory of the long standing fishing tradition we have had as an island people and the threat to that industry because of global impacts. The viewer is invited to consider and fill in the blanks of 'all that remains' of a traditional industry now in terminal decline.

The Exhibition will be opened by Clare Horgan on Thursday 28^th May at 7.00pm at the Samhlaiocht Gallery, Lower Castle Street Tralee and runs to Friday 19^th June.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht, the leading Arts Organisation in Kerry, continues its long tradition of bringing the very best and brightest of up-and-coming artists to the Kingdom with a wonderful new exhibition opening on Thursday, April 30th at 7:00 pm. The exhibition will feature work from Dublin based Artist, Maeve Brennan.

Maeve currently lives and works in Dublin where she graduated from DIT with an honors degree in 2003. She has been working steadily ever since and has exhibited at a number of shows in the capital all the while working on current series, which is titled "People and Places of Attachment".

Her work has allowed her to acquire a greater practical knowledge of oil painting particularly given the fact that Maeve works from the Richmond Road Studios in Dublin.

"The feeling of attachment to places of familial history is the thread running through my current work," says Maeve. "Some images focus on the past and the people of the past while others focus on the present, the 'now'."

"We are thrilled to welcome Maeve to Tralee and are looking forward to exhibiting her work in our Gallery," said Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator Samhlaiocht. "Maeve's work is thought provoking and there is a beautiful eeriness to it. It invites viewers in and affords them an opportunity to experience someone else's story through engaging with the work."

Maeve's work has developed and is quiet realistic at times, with a strong emphasis on the use of colour. Her work, while still exploring areas of texture, the fluidity of the paint, as well as experimenting with different opacities displays a maturity and technical skill that is a wonder to behold. Her work is generally figurative, combined with a strong interest in the landscapes surrounding the figures. For the current series, she has used a layered, glazed technique.

"Some of the people in this body of work are living," explains Maeve, "while some are deceased, yet all have had a relationship with me. Presented in this way, that relationship becomes incidental."

Maeve attempts to preserve what has passed and marks the passing of time and family, while striving to preserve the present.

The exhibition will be opened by Mayor of Tralee, Councillor Ted Fitzgerald, on Thursday 30th April at 7.00pm and will run until Friday 22nd May. The Exhibition takes place in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee.

Opening times at the Gallery are from 9.00am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday, the gallery is open to everyone and is free to visit.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Exhibition Titled 'Made in Kerry' to Open on Thursday March 12th

From the delicacy of watercolours to the vibrancy of acrylics by way of sculpture in both wood and ceramics, the latest exhibition from Samhlaiocht, the premier Arts organisation in Kerry, showcases three of the very best Kerry-based Artists. The exhibition, titled 'Made in Kerry', features work from Judy Costelloe, Marjorie Cunningham and Jacinta Scully Usher.

"Kerry is an absolute inspiration," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht, "from the beautiful scenery, to the colourful characters to the weather, there's no denying the undoubted influence that the county has on all our lives. This is doubly true for Artists that are lucky enough to live here."

Take Jacinta Usher, for example, she's a textile artist, living and working on Banna Mountain in North Kerry. Working in woven tapestry and felt, her art is created from natural fibres including merino wool, silk and silk filaments. She draws inspiration from the natural environment, in particular from the beauty found in the distinctive costal grassland, or Machair, found on the sand dunes just above the shore line. "My work is inspired by the shore, the sea and sky," says Jacinta, "and I hope that through my work, I can raise awareness about the threats that exist to the flora and fauna and help preserve the wonderfully delicate balance of nature."

This balance is something that is echoed in the work of Marjorie Cunningham. Her work, in wood and ceramics, was created with the broad them of 'Balance' in mind. "It occurred to me that life is balanced around a sphere and everything flows from that," says Marjorie. "My ideas are very influenced by Celtic design and I love the fact that wood grows from the ground, from clay, and, ultimately, returns to clay when the tree dies. So my work achieves that same balance, that journey, as clay and wood are one."

She prefers, however, to say little about her work, allowing the viewer to form his or her own interpretation. Marjorie graduated from the Crawford School of Art in 1982, having received a Guinness Peat Aviation Award for her sculpture. She has worked in her studio in Blennerville for the past 18 years and the ceramic work in the current exhibition has been created thanks to a Kerry County Council Creative Work Bursary.

Judy Costelloe is no stranger to working in different media and her Art is also a jouney. She has, over her long and illustrious career, worked with watercolours, acrylics, oils, clay and printmaking. "Working in a variety of media has been a wonderful learning process for me and has afforded me a wealth of experience, many challenges and even a little success," says Judy. "My silk-painting continues to evolve and the creation of each individual piece acts like a stepping-stone on my longer journey. The delicacy, but also the resilience of the silk fabric and the jewel like colours of the paints provides tremendous opportunities for expression."

Her work in the current exhibition explores colour as a visual element that defines our world and our moods.

"The exhibition definitely offers the viewer something a little different," says Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator. "With a selection of beautifully handmade silk painting by Judy Costelloe, tactile woven tapestries and felt work by Jacinta Scully Usher and fascinating organic sculpture pieces by Marjorie Cunningham, it neatly encapsulates the magical experience of living in Kerry."

The exhibition opens on Thursday, March 12^th in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee and runs right through until Friday 3^rd of April.

Opening times at the Gallery are from 9.00am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday, the gallery is open to everyone and is free to visit.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and generous corporate sponsorship from Kerry Group.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Samhlaiocht has a long tradition of attracting the very best and brightest up-and-coming artists to its Gallery and the latest show is no different! Robin Jones is a hot topic on the Art Scene and is definitely considered one to watch out for. His exhibition / installation opens in the Samhlaiocht Gallery on Thursday 12th February and runs right through to Friday 6th March.

"We're delighted to be exhibiting work from Robin in the Samhlaiocht Gallery," said Trish Thompson, Gallery coordinator. "We've worked with Robin for a number of years and it's fantastic to see his work improving as time progresses - he started on a level that many artists will never achieve and has been steadily improving."

That's high praise indeed for the artist who was born in Tralee but currently lives in Galway. "He was one of sixteen artists selected for an open submission exhibition in 2000 and we were so impressed that we invited him back again in 2004 for a special exhibition celebrating work by Kerry artists," added Trish. "And we're absolutely delighted that he's agreed to come back again in 2009."

Robin has been making waves with his work but he has an equally impressive theoretical background having graduated from both the Limerick School of Art and Design and the Galway, Mayo Institute of Technology. He is currently studying for a Masters of Fine Art at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London, while lecturing and teaching extramural classes to staff of NUI, Galway and the Galway Technical Institute.

"My work is a process of working out painting and its playing out of its own dumb game. It involves the building and rebuilding of fragments until they arrive at some relationship," says Robin, "I don't feel I want to tell anyone anything, but I suppose that if the work has to say anything, it would be to simply ask the question 'What do you think?'"

"I'm interested in the idea of a world in flux, things neither fixed nor independent, with every little shift creating links between inner and outer states, between the past and the present. I dislike embellishment and try to get rid of everything that seems expendable from my painting," added Robin. "The putting things in is a tortuous, time consuming process."

The exhibition opens on Thursday, February 12th in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee and runs right through until Friday, March 6th.

Opening times at the Gallery are from 9.00am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday, the gallery is open to everyone and is free to visit.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and by the generous corporate sponsorship of Kerry Group.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

An exhibition of artwork from two national artists will go on display in the Samhlaiocht Gallery on Thursday, 15^th January. The exhibition features work by Rita Oates and Will O' Kane.

"As part of Samhlaiocht's ongoing collaboration with Artists, we invited artists from all over the country to submit work for consideration for our 2009 Gallery programme," said Trish Thompson, Samhlaiocht's Art Gallery Coordinator. "We were absolutely blown away by the level of work we received. The past two years have been wonderfully successful for us in terms of exhibitions. We had more exhibitions, sold more paintings and discovered more talent than ever before. We were hoping that submissions for 2009 would bring more of the same and we weren't disappointed. We attracted the best and brightest up and coming artists from Kerry and beyond, while also attracting more established artists looking for an additional outlet for their work."

Rita Oates was born in America and now lives and works in Co. Roscommon. She is a graduate of N.U.I.G and the Galway College of Art and Design. Rita's first love is graphite, the black and white of paper, pencil, charcoal and inks, its directness and strength. She also works in colour with acrylics and oils on canvas, paper and wood. The theme of Rita's work is 'Mantra' which 'mind freeing' in Sanskrit.

"The pieces in this exhibition dwell on the rhythm and music of the mantra," says Rita, "and how its repetitive nature creates a sense of timelessness. The pieces themselves are physically quite small in order to entice the viewer to come closer and to become intimate with the work."

Rita looks for the heartbeat in the mantra through the silence around it, her work travels through people, places, memory and struggle, yet it always ends in hope; hope that is not naive, but hope that allows one to live and not just survive.

Will O' Kane, who was born in Mayo, also graduated from a school in Galway though this time the Galway, Mayo Institute of Technology where he received Honours degree in Fine Art. Will works full time as an artist and devotes himself to portraiture.

"The artwork I make is focused primarily on the human figure," says Will, "although I create images based on the physical appearance of specific people, I am also concerned with the notion of individuality, in a general sense."

The exhibition opens on January 15th in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, on Lower Castle Street, in the heart of Tralee and runs right through until Friday 6th February.

Opening times at the Gallery are from 9.00am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday, the gallery is open to everyone and is free to visit.

Samhlaiocht is supported through grant aid from The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, Failte Ireland and generous corporate sponsorship from Kerry Group.