Opera in the Park - Merrion Square June 2013

If you fancy a bit of culture on a Friday afternoon then head on over to Merrion Square this June. Dublin City Council who hosted the operas in the grounds behind their offices on Wood Quay last year have organised them to be held in the beautiful setting of Merrion Square this year. It is a perfect introduction to opera as it is casual and you can come and go as you please. Nearby office workers can come in their lunch hour. Last year was very popular with seasoned park audiences bringing deckchairs  so come prepared!



The programme under artistic director David Wray is:

7th June @ 1pm Puccini's La Boheme 

14th June @ 1pm Verdi's Rigoletto

21st June @ 8pm Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro

28th June @ 1pm Bizet's Carmen

Opera in the Open is on Facebook for up to date information

 2012 Opera in the Open at Wood Quay

Royal Hibernian Academy 183rd Annual Exhibition

This summer get yourselves down to the Annual exhibition held at the Royal Hibernian Academy at the bottom of Ely place to sample what is being produced by the up and coming artists as well as the established RHA members. It's website is being updated at the mo but it opened  last Tuesday and runs for June, July and until the 17th August. There is something for everyone; photography, sculpture, portraits, landscapes, installations, abstract art and any other type you care to think of. You don't need to know anything about art to know what you like and if you can't find something here to interest you then you must be completely without soul or a robot!


The exhibition fills all of the rooms in the gallery and is made up of works from established artists and members of the academy and over half from an open submission process. Much of it is for sale. Everyone will have their personal favourites. Works that caught my eye were Peter Monaghan's trademark colored circle Seed Gene, Patrick MacAlister's Suburban Portrait, Gavin Lavelle's very surreal and colourful Station to Station, Janice Lightowler's technically brilliant detailed Forever Painting and  the exciting pictures of the Coda Party Wall.

Peter Monaghan recently had an installation in the spa area of the newly opened Marker Hotel in Dublin's Docklands. His exhibited piece Seed Gene draws on previously constructed pieces using wooden dowels coloured on their angled cut ends such as that in John Smyth Architects in Grand Canal.


Patrick MacAlister's Suburban Portrait is a black on white background study of Anthony Burgess and his wife. It is a painting full of action and detail whilst at the same time a detailed study of the author who looms large to the right of the canvas and his wife who is less easy to identify, a more impressionistic detail, reclining in the back centre of the work.

Gavin Lavelle's playful Station to Station will draw you in by its sharp acrylic colours and to examine its collage details which include beads and jewels. It is a work that draws on Van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece and Titian's Venus and Adonis.


In a break from Janice Lightowler's more usual oil studies, Forever Painting is a permanently reflected painting going back into the canvas set in a physical remaking of the artists materials. It is both technically clever and accomplished with the detail creating interest for the eye as well as thought on its construction.

CODA (Caroline O'Donnell, Ithica, NY) won the New York Young Architects programme  this year with Party Wall. A temporary outdoor installation, it will be built this June at in Long Island to be used  at an outdoor summer music series. More detail can be found at http://momaps1.org/yap/view/16
   

Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, 28th May-17th August 2013
Ely Place, Dublin 2
http://www.rhagallery.ie/

"What Are You Looking At?" by Will Gompertz

I'm halfway through reading this great book that I picked up when I was away on a short break. Purchased from the most excellent Liber Bookshop in Sligo Town, Will Gompertz's book What Are You Looking At? 150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye is a purchase anyone interested in art will not regret.

  
Gompertz's writing style is informative and accessible without mystifying the reader with all the arty-farty bull that often emerges when art is being discussed. Gompertz is the first to admit that the industry is guilty of this fault, with its wealth of highly qualified museum and gallery staff writing exhibition brochures and wall plaques that need to inform the public but at the same time will be seen and judged by the higher echelons of the art world.

It is an art book that sets each major movement starting with the Impressionists in their own place in history and the influences and events that sparked off the changes in approach and thought. Their are colour plates of works from the major artists discussed and black and white prints interspersed throughout to further illustrate Gompertz' text. It is the type of book that makes you want to go away and explore further about specific artists or places that they worked in. These books to me are the best, those that spring board onto other books or websites or even to visiting the gallery where a particular artwork is shown. It encourages further thought and exploration where Gompertz has skirted the surface to give just enough detail to make one feel knowledgeable and to understand the roots of the art movement but not so saturated that there is not  more to discover. His very cleverly designed timeline of the Modern Art movements at the front of the book is laid out like the London underground map- a familiar iconic design that we are used to interpreting but here presenting a sometimes confusing pattern of development in a very clear and manageable way.



The Guardian is quoted as saying that "Will Gompertz is the best teacher that you never had" and I will second that statement. This is the type of book that you will return to again and again as the read about influences are recognised in new artworks that are produced and seen by the critical public.