Irish Craft Portfolio 2013 - 2014

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection 2013 – 2014

irish craft portfolio / critical selection

Contents 5

A message from the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins

7

Introduction

9

Future Beauty? by Amanda Game

13

To be a collector by Gemma Tipton Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

17

Angela O’Kelly jewellery / seodra

73

Liam Flynn wood / adhmad

21

Cara Murphy metals / miotal

77

Liz Nilsson textiles / teicstílí

25

Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill metals / miotal

81

Michael McCrory metals / miotal

29

Deirdre McLoughlin ceramics / ceirmeacht

85

Nest Design furniture / troscán

33

Denis Brown calligraphy / peannaireacht

89

Nuala Jamison jewellery / seodra

37

Derek Wilson ceramics / ceirmeacht

93

Nuala O’Donovan ceramics / ceirmeacht

43

Eimear Conyard jewellery / seodra

99

Paula Stokes glass / gloine

47

Frances Lambe ceramics / ceirmeacht

103 Roger Bennett wood / adhmad

51

Jack Doherty ceramics / ceirmeacht

107 Róisín de Buitléar glass / gloine

55

Jennifer Hickey ceramics / ceirmeacht

111 Sara Flynn ceramics / ceirmeacht

59

Joe Hogan basketry / caoladóireacht

115 Sasha Sykes furniture / troscán

63

John Lee furniture / troscán

119 Sonja Landweer jewellery / seodra

67

Joseph Walsh furniture / troscán

123 Susan O’Byrne ceramics / ceirmeacht

128 Colophon

irish craft portfolio / critical selection

Introduction irish craft portfolio: critical selection is a biennial publication of the leading edge of Irish contemporary fine craft in a world-class context. This volume is published by the Crafts Council of Ireland in order to increase awareness and understanding of top Irish makers and their current work, particularly among Irish and international collectors, galleries, commissioning bodies and museums.

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The featured makers have been selected for achieving excellence in craftsmanship, design quality and technical skill by comparative international standards. They were chosen by an independent expert panel: Amanda Game, contemporary craft curator and former Director of Craft of The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; Professor Simon Olding, Director of the Crafts Study Centre, Surrey and Dr Audrey Whitty, Curator of Glass, Ceramics and Asian collections at the National Museum of Ireland.

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection is part of the broader Irish Craft Portfolio programme from the Crafts Council of Ireland which actively works to promote all disciplines of contemporary fine craft. Full details of the programme can be found on www.irishcraftportfolio.ie.

In recent years there has been a growing appreciation of the cultural and commercial value of the crafts sector in Ireland. The work featured in this book illustrates the significance and quality of Irish contemporary fine craft. We hope that you enjoy discovering more about the makers, their inspiration and their practice.

Laura Magahy Chairman, Crafts Council of Ireland

crafts council of ireland

Karen Hennessy Chief Executive, Crafts Council of Ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

amanda game

Future Beauty?

An exhibition of work from Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, January 2013 In a recent interview 1 the BBC Arts Producer John Mullen described the process of editing film like ‘trying to nail custard to the wall’. To fix words like ‘top Irish makers’ or indeed ‘craft’ to the objects and people that represent the rich layers of contemporary making in

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Ireland can seem a similarly absurd process – doomed to frustrate policy makers, object makers and curators alike. And yet, as Lisbeth van Besten pointed out 2, the art of communication is a critical skill in contemporary culture. This current project – both book and exhibition – may have a valuable role in opening up debates about the place of making and makers in contemporary Irish culture.

The particular challenge I have been invited to consider is how to orchestrate a series of unrelated objects, drawn together via the Irish Craft Portfolio competitive selection process into a coherent exhibition. The emerging exhibition is called Future Beauty? in response to a set of questions which I feel this process invites; namely, what does this collision of technologies, materials and cultures express about art and design now and in the future? There is a kind of beauty here, but is it a beauty valued and understood? As the German artist Dorothea Pruhl commented 3 ‘the handmade is an effort to add something, to contribute something … it is one possibility to charge something in art … it doesn’t mean a better possibility – just a different one … but it is a possibility that is deeply human’.

In a recent lecture, the Australian born Associate Director of Cape Farewell, Ruth Little 4 described her contemporary sense of the aesthetic by placing it in opposition to the word anaesthetic. For Little, the aesthetic implies an embodied, human experience which places an awareness of others, and the environment, at the centre of intellectual and visual thinking.

Such awareness allows each of us to reconsider our relationship to objects – both as producers and consumers – which possess, as Joseph Walsh remarks, ‘intelligence in their creation’.

Following discussion with the exhibitors, Future Beauty? focuses on recent works which are expressive both of the makers’ current thinking but also of their practice over time. It is, by necessity, a highly edited selection under the usual exhibition constraints of time and space. As each conversation has evolved, the focus on physical objects will, in some cases, be complemented by drawings, photographs, text and film where these add an essential dimension to understanding individual practice.

The book in which this essay sits gives a taste of some of the works, but is not a catalogue of Future Beauty?, although the makers are the same – all 26 were chosen for the Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection. The exhibition is a different opportunity for communication and Future Beauty? offers a different edit of the film of Irish craft.

I think it is difficult, at this stage at least, to claim a clearly visible Irish identity to Future Beauty? All exhibitors are linked by a connection to Ireland, through birth, training or place of residence. Ireland and its makers, however, exist in a world in which national identities, and the objects associated with them, are fluid things, informed not just by geographically located pasts but by virtually available presents, globally. Ireland is an active participant in this new virtual world – it is the third largest exporter of IT components in Europe and is home to Google’s headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. How we

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Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

communicate and make things is being shaped by these new worlds.

flowers and grasses preserved with startling clarity in the Perspex

For example, most exhibitors have websites to demonstrate their

furniture of Farm 21 / Sasha Sykes, hints at what we may have lost in

work and some, such as the calligrapher Denis Brown, make full

our increasingly mediated world.

use of the virtual world’s capacity to carry multi-platform commu-

The largest material category in Future Beauty? is clay, suggest-

nications, demonstrated through his use of films, music and blogs.

ing another form of landbound connection, another ‘strongroom

The shape of objects has of course always been determined by

of vocabulary’ 5 that may be particular to Ireland. Such a strong ma-

the changing flow of people and ideas – Viking gold; Huguenot

terial presence tells of the post war histories of small rural ceramic

weaving; Czech glassmaking being a few specifically Irish examples.

production workshops, supported by state initiatives and an active

The glass artist Róisín de Buitléar locates us with her retelling of

tourist trade. Many of the ceramics on show also reveal the deep

Irish histories in subtle blown, engraved glass vessels and archi-

connections to Asia that has characterised so much 20th and 21st

tectural panels – be it the stories of child lacemakers or the skilled

Century European studio pottery. Jack Doherty’s soda glazed bowls

workforces of Waterford Crystal. Yet her glass work is also deeply

echo the feeling, though not the techniques, of the improvised

informed by the international community of art glass makers with

clay/fire of Japanese rakuware. He is currently Lead Potter at The

its roots in 1960s America, a place to which she travels regularly to

Leach Pottery, St Ives, UK. Jennifer Hickey, the youngest exhibitor,

teach and exhibit. Paula Stokes’ training in Dublin facilitated an ac-

lived in St Ives for a period and her shimmering veils of stitched

tive career in glass education in the USA where she now resides.

porcelain suggest a Japanese aesthetic based on transience and

The most senior artist in this collection, Sonja Landweer, moved to Ireland from her native Holland in 1965. This was at the invitation

fragility. Sara Flynn and Frances Lambe both recently participated in residencies in China, historical and spiritual home of porcelain.

of the Kilkenny Design Workshops, a good example of how public

The presence of the well regarded Ceramics Skills and Design

initiatives can foster creative individuals. Landweer’s open approach

Course in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny may also partly explain the

to making, both in clay and other materials – her output ranges across

confident presence of ceramics in this selection which draws our at-

painting, drawing, ceramics and jewellery – has been influential.

tention to the impact of educational structures on the shape of art and

Deirdre McLoughlin, an accomplished sculptor and co-exhibitor,

design. Derek Wilson’s contemporary tableware is informed by both

whose solo show Shaping the Void toured throughout Ireland during

his training at Thomastown and subsequent study at the University of

2012, acknowledges the shaping influence of Landweer. McLough-

Ulster. Of the jewellers and silversmiths represented in this selection,

lin herself is now based in Holland following a period of residence

Eimear Conyard and Cara Murphy studied at Glasgow School of Art;

in Japan in the mid 1980s. Textile designer Liz Nilsson acknowledges

Angela O’Kelly at Edinburgh and the Royal College of Art; Michael

the influence of Irish textile practice, such as found in the Cork Tex-

McCrory at Sir John Cass and Nuala Jamison at Central St Martins.

tiles Network, but her own laser cut memory pieces and design work

Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill’s poetic mokume vessels are a fusion of the city

for Ceadogán are also deeply informed by her design training in her

metal cultures of Dublin (he worked in a bronze foundry there before

native Sweden. These networks of physical journeying inform Future

going to college), Glasgow, Sheffield and Japan.

Beauty? in perhaps deeper ways than the virtual pathways now opening up in Ireland and elsewhere.

Travelling to learn, a physical crossing of borders, can stimulate imagination as well as technical skill. Such border crossing can

If this sense of movement between places and cultures is one

also develop different economic possibilities for artists and de-

strand evident in this selection, another is the deep relationship to

signers. Susan O’Byrne runs a community ceramic workshop in

the forms and languages of the natural world. The painfully fragile

Glasgow and this active social practice successfully supports her

bone china Teasel forms by Nuala O’Donovan arrest us with their vir-

work in her own studio. Both Nuala Jamison and Angela O’Kelly

tuoso constructions; the sense of wonder they bring is then turned

have developed a strong link to the world of fashion through work-

outward to the microscopic beauty which inspires them. Joe

ing with the late Jean Muir and Shirin Guild respectively.

Hogan’s woven willow baskets give us back, however fleetingly, the

A final observation on this collection must focus on the fine

memory of relationship that growing and harvesting willow for

woodwork it contains. In one of the apparently least wooded coun-

practical objects represented. In a more mediated form, the dried

tries in Europe, these extravagances of wood seem interesting, par-

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

adoxical even. Joseph Walsh, a self taught furniture designer, eschews a traditional bothy aesthetic (the straw chairs and cupboard beds of a deeply resource conscious daily life) to employ a dozen Japanese makers in his West Cork studio to create his exuberant, flowing, sculptural forms. John Lee brings a more pared down aesthetic to wood craftsmanship, although it still belongs to the traditions of fine furniture making, as does the new lacquer

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work of Nest Design in France. In addition, the assured works of Liam Flynn and Roger Bennett capture the more private world of ritual vessels in wood.

Through a juxtaposition of 26 individuals and some 100 objects, Future Beauty? asks what intelligent creation may bring to contemporary objects in the future and what it will contribute to Irish economies and values in the coming years. As is clear from the diversities illustrated here, there may be many possible answers to that question and we must thank all the exhibitors for helping to make those possibilities more apparent to us all.

Amanda Game, Cambridge 2012

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Interview for Crafts Magazine about Handmade Films.

Deskilled Craft and Borrowed Skill by Liesbeth den Besten, pp. 15 – 21, Think Tank Papers, Edition 5 (2008). ibid.

Talk given at Andrew Raven Trust Annual Weekend, June 2011, www.andrewraventrust.org.uk Line from the Seamus Heaney poem To a Dutch Potter in Ireland, dedicated to Sonja Landweer.

Amanda Game is an independent curator and writer in the field of craft and design and is based in Oxford. She was Director of Crafts at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh for 20 years and is currently undertaking doctoral research at the Royal College of Art, London on the role and impact of exhibition making on the culture of craft.

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Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

gemma tipton

To be a collector While some might underestimate the power of an object, a collector never will. As every collector knows, even the simplest-seeming things can contain worlds of ideas, as connections to other places and windows onto ways of being are concentrated in different forms. A Jack Doherty ceramic bowl carries the colours of a hillside, or the changing blue green waters of a river flowing under cloud chased skies. Spring, by Cara Murphy, a silver and

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enamel dish, hints at the small daily miracles of growth and seasonal change.

To be caught up into the passion of collecting is to be drawn into a relationship with objects that is both transforming and defining. After all, what we collect forms a continuum with what others have collected in the past, and so creates the legacies that will describe us to future generations. From major museum pieces to smaller finds, all become part of the story. Look closely enough, and everything is revealed through objects: from daily routine to faith, emotion, love, belief, hope and dreams. And although history books try to tell the stories of lives, objects connect to more inchoate feelings too. Michael McCrory’s silver Blister Box shivers with the sense that what is contained within might just be breaking free – and haven’t we all wished for that feeling from time to time?

Considering collecting, Walter Benjamin’s gorgeous little essay, Unpacking My Library, was written in the 1930s. Taking his precious books from crates, following a move, Benjamin describes the mood as one of anticipation. The collector of books, says Benjamin, doesn’t collect to read his prizes, far from it. ‘But ownership,’ he says, ‘is the most intimate relationship one can have to objects.’ Each book is a memory, a memory of when, and how, it came into his collection, and each acquisition includes a rebirth of the object itself, although he also adds, ‘not that they come alive in him; it is he [the collector] who lives in them.’

A collector has a more intimate relationship with things, because they risk more of their emotional selves when buying, and they do this because they put more of themselves into the relationship with what they buy. But what of the objects themselves? What is contemporary Irish craft communicating, what is its emotional content, and in what ways will the collectors of this portfolio of objects live in them?

Contemporary Irish craft, with all its consummate variety, is a language of making connected to a unique and special place. Integrated into the tentacled network of international collections – Sara Flynn’s pieces are in Chicago, Ohio, Dublin, Cork; Liam Flynn’s in London, Cambridge, Philadelphia, Limerick; and Deirdre McLoughlin’s work is collected by museums from Korea to Belgium, the Netherlands to Northern Ireland – Irish craft nevertheless bears the histories and mysteries of place in the language of its forms.

This idea of language is particularly important to an understanding of contemporary craft. In their debates, played out across the gaps of centuries, linguists try to get to grips with how we use words to share how we feel, often even when we can’t quite find the words to describe those feelings. The poet Seamus Heaney, writes of attempting to put ‘feeling into words’ and of those words as being ‘Janus-like’ as they look back to former meanings, and forward to potential associations. Language comes between our shared experiences as human beings, and our uniqueness as individuals, with Ludwig Wittgenstein writing that if only one person speaks a language, there is no possibility of communication. What Wittgenstein didn’t realise is that that is exactly what artists and makers do – they take an

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Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

individual, private and personal language, and they use it to com-

boundaries and places of greater faith. Writing on how things

municate beyond language.

gather meanings to themselves by association, use and belief, the

A collection does the same, it builds up to create a language

philosopher Martin Heidegger pointed out that ‘our thinking has

about being. This is not a new idea, we are used to understanding ob-

of course long been accustomed to understate the nature of the thing.’

jects as carriers of meaning beyond their functional use. There is the

And he has this to say on the subject of boundaries: ‘a boundary is

crown, the wedding ring, the key, even the suitcase on the top shelf re-

not that at which something stops but, as the Greeks recognised,

tains a whiff of travel and adventure. The best of craft takes that trans-

the boundary is that from which something begins its presencing.’

formation further, so that Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill’s Ritual pieces

As an island nation, in Ireland we have been traditionally more

transcend both their material (copper) and form (cup-shape), to re-

considerate of boundaries and how they relate to our sense of self-

mind us of the millennia during which human beings have structured

hood than other nations might have been. Or perhaps not. Perhaps

survival, turning the necessity of eating and drinking into memorable

it is a human condition to consider ourselves in relation to others, to

occasions, infused with the sacraments of custom and care.

engage continuously with inquiring into where we stop and others

Similarly, Cara Murphy’s work makes you rethink what it is to

begin, how they see us, how we see ourselves. Contemporary Irish

take up a pen, place a cup on a table, share salt at a meal. Stemming

craft is part of this story, part of this drive to know more about our-

from such new knowledge is a richer experience of everyday things

selves, and how we connect to the world around us – wherever we

and events. These are objects that speak to us in insistent whispers.

are from, and wherever we happen to make our homes.

Roger Bennett’s Bowl series mixes sycamore and silver, bringing out

So experience a ghost of memory dancing into light in Jennifer

the precious nature of the wood itself in context of the dotted silver

Hickey’s tulle and porcelain Remain, and revel in the discovery

strands. An award-winning maker, Bennett’s works are held in col-

of the intricacies of nature, marvelling over the repetition in her

lections in Ireland and the USA, and challenge the idea that there is

sculpted porcelain forms. Then realise that the careful building

anything merely ordinary in natural objects, even ones that have

of layers of delicate forms in a piece such as Untitled is simply one

been shaped and refined through use. Coupling hand and nature is

of nature’s sleights of hand when it comes to making a rose.

also intrinsic to the work of Joseph Walsh, as wood is fashioned

Or smile at how Sasha Sykes puts a whole hillside in a clear resin

into the fantastical: shelves, chairs, tables, an incredible bed. And

bureau with Burning Gorse, or creates a bed of roses with Shogun Stool.

yet these are all objects you can use, live with, love, express yourself

And then, if you’re not lucky enough to live in one of the inspira-

through, and fundamentally enjoy.

tional places that are spread with such blessed natural profligacy

I could live forever in a piece by Frances Lambe. Look at her

across Ireland, connect to it through the word-free language of Irish

Land and Sea, and, in addition to enjoying a beautiful object, you’ll

makers. Collect it, own it, have it, be with it. Even that alone makes

also see a sense of the delicate structures of townland, homeland,

you part of the story.

Gemma Tipton is a writer and critic of contemporary art and architecture.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection 14 . 15

2013 – 2014

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

jewellery / seodra

Angela O’Kelly

16 . 17

angela o’kelly’s work crosses boundaries of jewellery, sculpture and textile art. She creates impressive, wearable neckpieces and intricate brooches and bangles. Ideas evolve and develop through manipulation of an eclectic mix of materials, textures and colour. She combines paper with mixed media using a variety of traditional and contemporary textile and jewellery techniques. Her inspiration derives from a fascination with simple shapes, textures, repetition and colour in urban and rural landscapes. Paper, fabric, felt, silver, gold, cord, plastics and stones are all treated as precious.

O’Kelly studied Jewellery and Silversmithing at the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, graduating with a Degree in 1997 and a Postgraduate Diploma in 1998. She currently lectures in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and is an established curator of contemporary craft.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Sculptural Neckpiece Blue, fabric paper, felt, platinum leaf, labradorite beads, dyed nylon, stainless steel wire, 350 × 350mm. Photographer, Ben Millett.

Angela O’Kelly Coolmine, Saggart, Co. Dublin e angela_o_kelly@hotmail.com t +353 87 6780784

www.angelaokelly.com Collections Office of Public Works, Ireland Ulster Museum, Belfast National Museum of Ireland Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland Georgia State University, USA Cleveland Arts Centre, UK Royal Museum of Scotland American Museum of Art and Design, New York Crafts Council, UK Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Exhibitions Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny

2012 – 2013 Out of the Marvellous, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and 2012 2000 – 2012 2011

2004 – 2011 2009 – 2011 2009 2008 2007

2006 1999 – 2006 2005

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan Turning Leaves, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK SOFA, Chicago and New York, USA dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Seoid, touring exhibition, Australia Electrum Summer Show, London, UK COLLECT, V&A Museum and Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Paper Show, Flow Gallery, London, UK Inner Voice, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK Electrum, Showcase exhibition, London, UK New York Art & Design Fair, USA International Paper Exhibition, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Paper Exhibition, Lesley Craze, London, UK Vivid Colours, Electrum Gallery, London, UK London Art Fair, UK 100% Proof, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Galerie Beeld and Aambeeld, Enchede, The Netherlands Origin, London, UK 100% Proof, touring exhibition, UK and USA Edinburgh Comes to Clerkenwell, Lesley Craze, London, UK Loot!, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK

Gallery Representation

• Nine Gold Balls recycled newspaper, felt, 23ct gold leaf, stainless steel wire, 330 × 330mm.

Photographer, Trevor Hart.

Charon Kransen, New York, USA Electrum Gallery, London, UK Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco, USA

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Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

metals / miotal

Cara Murphy

20 . 21

cara murphy utilises traditional silversmithing techniques to create innovative and sculptural tableware. Focusing on how pieces interact with their setting, she challenges the established knowledge of silverware by creating work which does not have an obvious purpose. Functionality becomes open to interpretation and is created through the users own participation and involvement. In her forms, she aims to create a sense of movement, both physical and visual, whilst still remaining cognisant of the sense of ritual and ceremony linked to the use of silver. Inspired by the natural environment, she sees the table setting as a type of landscape from which objects emerge and grow.

Murphy trained at The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland and the Royal College of Art, London. She is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and works mainly to commission. She is an Associate Lecturer in Silversmithing & Jewellery at the University of Ulster.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Spring, silver and enamel, 60 × 260 × 260mm. Photographer, David Pauley.

Cara Murphy Blessington House, 18 Ballynahinch Street, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT266AW e cara@caramurphy.com t +44 7811 958807

www.caramurphy.com Collections Arts Council of Ireland Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland Shipley Art Gallery, UK Ulster Museum, Belfast National Museum of Ireland The Silver Trust Collection at 10 Downing Street, UK Queens University Collection, Belfast Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland Arts Council of Northern Ireland Rangers Football Club, Scotland Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Awards 2012 2008 2008

Disperse, 1st Prize Gold, Silver & Alternative Materials, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin Sam English Commemorative Bowl, Rangers Football Club, Scotland Major Individual Artist Award, Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 1997 1996

Metalanguage: Cara Murphy, Barbican, London, UK New Silverware, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010

2009

• Infuse silver, enamel and ivory substitute, 280 × 250 × 190mm.

Photographer, David Pauley.

2008

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Fit for Purpose, V&A Museum, London, UK RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin My Place, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK 26 Treasures, Ulster Museum, Belfast Thirty, Flowerfield Arts Centre, Co. Antrim Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Contemporary British Silversmiths, V&A Museum, London, UK Objects of Light, Danish Museum of Art & Design, Copenhagen, Denmark Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Side x Side : Edge > Edge, Häme Castle, Finland Object, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK A Pinch of Salt, Goldsmiths Hall, London, UK Silver Sounds, Queens University, Belfast Connect: Eat and Drink, Hillsborough Courthouse, Belfast You’ll Never Walk Alone, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK and National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny

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Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

metals / miotal

Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill

24 . 25

cóilín ó dubhghaill focuses on the exploration of vessel forms in metal through a study of process, materials and colour. He is particularly interested in looking at ways to relate the use of colour and pattern to the form and construction of his work. This is largely driven by research into special alloys and patination techniques, which is a continuation of his doctoral studies. The creation of his work is a complex balance between production of raw material and finished piece. Each form is custom cast, uniting two or more metals into a unique alloy and forged by hand using traditional silversmithing hammer techniques. Ó Dubhghaill trained at Grennan Mill Craft School, Kilkenny and Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, graduating in 1996. He worked as a designer for industry in India, the Philippines and the UK. In 2005 he received a doctorate from the metalwork department at the National University of Art and Music, Tokyo Geidai, Japan. Ó Dubhghaill was appointed Senior Research Fellow in the Art and Design Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University in 2007.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Ritual 1, copper, 170 × 160 × 160mm. Photographer, Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill.

Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill Studio 1, Yorkshire Artspace 21 Brown Street, Sheffield S12BS, UK e coilin@coilin.com t +44 77 4823 6470

www.coilin.com Collections The Goldsmiths’ Company Collection, London, UK Galeria Sztuki w Legnicy, Poland Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland National Museum of Ireland Incorporation of Goldsmiths, Edinburgh, Scotland Glasgow Cathedral Galerie Marzee Collection Irish State Art Collection Toride City Collection, Japan Birmingham Assay Office Collection

Selected Awards 2008 2006

National Metalwork Design Award (shortlisted), Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, UK Special Merit Award, Golden Fleece, Ireland

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2011 2010 2008 2006

Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill, Galerie Marzee, The Netherlands Focus, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill, Galerie Marzee, The Netherlands

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny

2012 – 2013 Out of the Marvellous, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan domesticMATTERS, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (also 2011, 2010 and 2006) KunstRAI International Art Fair, Amsterdam, The Netherlands dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society New York, USA 2011 – 2012 Beneath the Skin, Galerie Marzee, The Netherlands and SIA Gallery, Sheffield, UK 2011 Silverstruck, Ruthin Craft Centre and National Museum of Wales dubh – dialogues in black, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin 2010 Legnica Copper Ore Seminar, Galeria Sztuki w Legnicy, Poland Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2009 KeyPiece, SIA Gallery, Sheffield, UK Object, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2008 9 Create, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Treasures of Today, National Museum of Ireland 2012

• Shakudo Bowl shakudo copper/gold alloy, 280 × 280 × 100mm.

Photographer, Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill.

Gallery Representation Galerie Marzee, The Netherlands Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK

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Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Deirdre McLoughlin

28 . 29

deirdre mcloughlin’s work is imbued with an intense physicality and dedication to perfection of forms and surfaces.

Her making process is demanding. Using subtle glazes and meticulous coil building techniques, her abstract ceramic forms undergo an intense process of polishing and repeated firing. Timing is key – she typically spends a number of weeks on the skillful execution of many of her pieces.

McLoughlin’s work has the capacity to disarm the viewer.

Some objects, while having the appearance of clay, are like stone to touch – the silky smooth textures are achieved through a rigorous process of diamond polishing and firing at extremely high temperatures. Others contain surprises or secrets, such as tiny semi-precious gems, often resembling pimples, deftly placed in the airholes. Finding value in imperfection and ambiguity, her sculptural ceramic works have been described as having anthropomorphic, zoomorphic or biomorphic qualities. In her adept manipulation of the material, McLoughlin combines abstract and figurative allusions into one defined shape.

McLoughlin received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin.

She subsequently moved to Japan to work amongst the Sodeisha Group in Kyoto, Japan. She has been based in Amsterdam since 1988 and regularly lectures in art colleges throughout Ireland.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Silver, high fired ceramic, L 400mm. Photographer, Rob Bohle.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Deirdre McLoughlin Atelier 1, Xpositron, Elektronstraat 12 – 14 1014 AP Amsterdam, The Netherlands e d.mcloughlin@chello.nl t +31 20 6221846

www.deirdremcloughlin.com Collections Icheon World Ceramic Center, Korea National Museum of Ireland Ulster Museum, Belfast Keramikmuseum Westerwald, Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany Museum het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands Frank Steyaert Museum, Ghent, Belgium Arts Council of Ireland Limerick City Gallery of Art National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland, University of Limerick Office of Public Works, Ireland

Selected Awards 2011

2007

We are too was one of five pieces featured in a special stamp series celebrating contemporary craft in Ireland issued by An Post to mark Year of Craft 2011 Certificate of Honour, 4th World Ceramic Biennale, Korea

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2012 – 2013 Shaping the Void, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Wandesford Quay

Gallery, Cork, Ireland; Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, France 2003 + 2008 Deirdre McLoughlin, Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010 2009

• Sceitimíní high fired ceramic, L 300mm.

Photographer, Rob Bohle.

2008 2007

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Deirdre McLoughlin, Marian Bijlenga, Geer Steyn & Thijs Buit Galerie De Kapberg, Egmond aan den Hoef, The Netherlands VUE: National Contemporary Art Fair, Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin transFORM, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin VAN/VOOR, CBK, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 15A Galerie en Beeldentuin, Lochem (also 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007) Wat van ver komt…, Kunst is Kunst Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Art & Antiques Fair, Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin (also 2008, 2006, 2005) Select, Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin Keramik Europas Westerwaldpreis, Hohr-Grenzhausen, Germany Eenvoud, Museum Nagele, The Netherlands From Traditional Expression to Modern Context Indiana State University, USA VII Ceramic Congress, Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey WALL & PLINTH, Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin 4th World Ceramic Biennale, Korea Irish Contemporary Ceramics, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

Gallery Representation Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

calligraphy / peannaireacht

Denis Brown

32 . 33

denis brown pushes the boundaries of calligraphy and letter arts. The roots of his work are in the ancient traditions of manuscript writing which he explores in a contemporary and inventive context. One aspect of his work involves creating innovative, three-dimensional layered glass pieces.

These glass works combine traditional craft with stateof-the-art digital techniques. They consist of up to six layers of overlapping glass, each engraved with writing on both sides and layered over a background image. The lettering is hand-engraved using a tool powered by compressed air, which spins a diamond-tipped burr. For Brown, speed in writing is imperative. It encourages free, fast strokes whilst still demanding control and discipline. The background images behind the layers of glass are often composites featuring unique prints on hand painted and gilt paper, resulting in extraordinarily textural pieces.

Brown graduated with a Degree from the Roehampton Institute, London in 1989. He is a Fellow of the UK Society of Scribes & Illuminators and an Honoured Fellow of the Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society, UK. He is a regular contributor to international conferences on calligraphy and conducts workshops for calligraphy guilds worldwide.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• The Scribes (version 2 of 2), glass, paper, paints/inks, gold leaf, resin. 300 × 300 × 40mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Denis Brown 4 Sandyford Hall View, Dublin 18 e denis@quillskill.com t +353 87 7866997

www.quillskill.com Collections European Parliament, Strasbourg & Brussels British Library, London Newberry Library, Chicago San Francisco Public Library Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK National Museum of Ireland Akademie der Künste, Berliner Sammlung Kalligraphie, Germany Trinity College Library, Dublin Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Crafts Council of Ireland Office of Public Works, Ireland The Great Book of Ireland, Dublin Castle Irish Life PLC

Selected Awards 2009 2007 2006

Work from the 1,000 Wishes Series, RDS Arts Committee Acquisition, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin The Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary Award

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2008

Wordscapes by Denis Brown, Gallery 13, Hollywood, USA

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010

• The Scribes (version 1 of 2) glass, paper, paints/inks, gold leaf, resin. 300 × 300 × 40mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

2009

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny International Calligraphy Conference, Reed College, Oregon, USA Japan Calligraphers Guild, Tokyo, Japan Art Source, RDS, Dublin Landmark Trust Art Exhibition & Sale, RHA, Dublin Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin Modified Expression, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Illuminate: Contemporary Irish Glass, Kenny Gallery, Galway Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Exploring Perceptions of Contemporary Craft, Lavit Gallery, Cork Modified Expression, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny The Saint John’s Bible and the Art of the Book, Naples Museum of Art, Florida, USA Living Letters Three: Small Objects of Desire, Reg Vardy Gallery, University of Sunderland, UK Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Kennys Gallery, Galway; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin; Stour Gallery, Warwickshire, UK Botanica: Nature up close, Gallery 13, West Hollywood, USA Living Letters Three: Small Objects of Desire, Riverhouse Gallery, Walton-on-Thames, UK RDS National Crafts Competition Prize Winners Traveling Exhibition, RDS Dublin and touring Letters Mingle Souls, Chicago, USA

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Derek Wilson

36 . 37

derek wilson’s practice as a ceramicist centres on the making of a diverse range of contemporary objects from functional to sculptural. His ideas spring from a complex blending of familiar to abstract, evident in both his functional ware and sculpture work. The colour, shape and materiality of his objects reference ideas of restraint, containment and minimalism. His search for simplicity of form draws inspiration from a diverse range of sources from mid-century British Constructivism to the history of the ceramic industry in Europe and Asia. Working in celadon glazed porcelain and stoneware, his objects, whether usable or not, tend to be placed in groupings, which evoke communality and sociability. Wilson aims to push the boundaries of a traditional and diverse artform through playing with its aesthetics, materiality and processes.

Wilson graduated with a distinction from the Ceramics Skills & Design Course, Crafts Council of Ireland in 2002. In 2007 he received an MA in Applied Arts, Ceramics from the University of Ulster, Belfast.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Void Series, stoneware with engobe, Dia 330mm, H 220mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

Derek Wilson 25 – 51 York Street, Belfast Co. Antrim, BT15 1ED e studio@derekwilsonceramics.com t +44 786 0533681

www.derekwilsonceramics.com Collections Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark University of Ulster, Belfast Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Selected Awards 2007 2007 2006

Craft NI, Making It Programme Crafts Council of Ireland 3rd Level Postgraduate Award Richard K Degenhardt – Belleek Collectors Scholarship

Selected Exhibitions Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010

2009

• We all Contain Things porcelain with coloured engobe, various sizes.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

2008

2007

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny domesticMATTERS, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK Wallpaper* Handmade, Brioni Salone del Mobile, Milan, Italy Porcelain, Oxford Ceramics Gallery, UK For the Table, Contemporary Ceramics, London, UK Ceramic Art, Royal College of Art, London, UK New Domestic Ceramics, Gallery Top, Derbyshire, UK Origin, London, UK Cultural Connections, Collect in the Country, Henley on Thames, UK transFORM, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Linen Diaspora, 4th Biennale Internationale Du Lin De Portneuf, Quebec, Canada Artists Showcase, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK Ceramic Art, Royal College of Art, London, UK Origin, London, UK Cultural Connections, Collect in the Country, Henley on Thames, UK Ceramics+, London Design Festival, UK FUNKtional, Leach Pottery and Museum, St Ives, UK The Art of Dining, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham, UK 20:10, Ruthin Craft Centre Gallery, Ruthin, UK Ceramic Art, Royal College of Art, London, UK White Christmas, Naughton Gallery, Belfast Christmas Exhibition, Gallery Nine, Bath, UK Gifted, Wexford Arts Centre Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Manchester, UK Designer and Makers, FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, Co. Down Irish Potters Showcase, Harley Gallery, Nottingham, UK Northern Ireland Contemporary Ceramics, Belfast Beyond Traditional Boundaries, University of Ulster, Belfast Belfast Exhibition, Space CRAFT, Belfast Breaking Out, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Emerge and Infuse, Space CRAFT, Belfast Group Show, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, Co. Antrim RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin New Designers Exhibition, London, UK Master’s Exhibition, University of Ulster, Belfast

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

jewellery / seodra

Eimear Conyard

42 . 43

eimear conyard’s jewellery and timepieces are immersed in a design process which identifies the purpose and functionality of the object without allowing this to restrict her choice of form or use of material. She creates sculptural pieces which explore combinations of contrasting colours and textures. The use of perspex influences the design and balance of precious materials such as gold, silver and pearls.

The idea that an object is not just for the body but exists as an independent, aesthetic entity in its own right is central to her practice.

Conyard combines her practice with working in education.

She is Manager of the Crafts Council of Ireland’s Jewellery & Goldsmithing Skills and Design Course. She graduated with a Bachelor of Design specialising in Metals from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1995. In 1999 she received a Masters of Design specialising in Jewellery and Silversmithing from the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Centered 1, silver, perspex, Tahitian pearl, 70mm diameter 8mm thick. Photographer, Roland Paschhoff.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Eimear Conyard Archersfield, Bennettsbridge Road, Kilkenny e eimear@eimearconyard.com t +353 87 7533648

www.eimearconyard.com Collections Ulster Museum, Belfast Turnov Museum, Czech Republic National Museum of Ireland

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2003 2000

Watch Dog, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada Jewellery is not merely adornment, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2008 2007

2006

2005

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Museum of Art and Design Craft Show, Philidelphia, USA LOOT, Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA My Place, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK Festival of Irish Design, Project 51, Dublin Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin 21st Century Icons, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin Ornament, Rua Red Gallery, Dublin Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Goldsmith Design and Craft Awards Exhibition, London, UK Embrace, School of Jewellery, Birmingham, UK; Da Capo Studios, Dublin Turnov Jewellery Symposium, Turnov Museum, Turnov, Czech Republic Silver School, Legnica, Galleria Sztuki, Lodze, Poland Adorn, Da Capo Studios, Dublin Time, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland Piece, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Praxis, Appalachian Centre for Crafts Gallery, Tennessee, USA Object Lessons, School of Jewellery, Birmingham, UK

• Flux 24ct gold, gold foil, silver, perspex, 60mm diameter 8mm thick.

Photographer, Roland Paschhoff.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Frances Lambe

46 . 47

frances lambe is interested in the way in which humans make sense of the world and how art, science and philosophy inform this understanding. She creates abstract sculptural work that is rooted in the natural world. Curved forms explore shapes and structural growth patterns found in plants and animals.

Ideas for her work come from the place where she lives and special areas of interest that include the marine environment, geology, botany and astronomy. Ideas informed by the glacial drumlin landscape are combined with those gleaned from the eroded rock surfaces of local beaches.

The concept of containment is explored in pieces where the structures of shells, eggs, cells, pollen grains and seedpods are investigated. Issues particular to the language of ceramics – including the relationship of surface detail to form, the vertical versus horizontal orientation of ceramic objects and ‘the multiple’ – are explored from a sculptural perspective. The ceramic wall or outer membrane is perforated by holes that link exterior to interior, surface patterns are linked to the formal qualities in a piece, objects are recumbent rather than upright and installation pieces are created from many small parts.

Lambe graduated in Education from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1984.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Convex Concave, ceramic stoneware, 150 × 230 × 220mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Frances Lambe Allardstown, Knockbridge, Co. Louth e info@franceslambe.com t +353 87 6180080

www.franceslambe.com Collections Office of Public Works, Ireland Ulster Museum, Belfast Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland Louth County Council National Museum of Ireland Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Awards 2009 2007 2006

The Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary Award Seeded, Sculpture in Context Award Winner Borderland, Cast Award, Sculpture in Context

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2011

Frances Lambe – Solo Exhibition, Kinsale Arts Festival, Co. Cork

2009 – 2010 Microcosmos, Basement Gallery, Dundalk; National Craft Gallery,

Kilkenny; Millennium Court Arts Centre, Co. Armagh

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny

2012 – 2013 Out of the Marvellous, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and 2012

2011

2010

• Land and Sea #2 ceramic stoneware, 150 × 330 × 160mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

2009 2008

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan dubh – dialogues in black, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin My Place, The Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK Distant World, Het Bildt, The Netherlands Bricks in the Rain, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Two person show with Lut Laleman, Galerie Hélène Porée, Paris, France Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny transFORM, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin and Millennium Court Arts Centre, Co. Armagh Song of Amergin, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda Ceramic Art Museum, Fuping, China dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA European Ceramic Context 2010, Bornholm, Denmark Ceramics Ireland Annual Exhibition, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Kenny Gallery, Galway; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Object, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny SOFA Chicago, USA Going Green, Louth County Museum, Dundalk Us and More, Louth County Museum, Dundalk Going Green, Space CRAFT, Belfast

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Jack Doherty

50 . 51

jack doherty questions the vernacular of functionality, creating objects which subtly interconnect with domestic space and daily life. He aims to challenge traditional rules of refinement and containment. According to Doherty, his soda-fired vessels can be solitary and contemplative or ceremonial; for everyday use or for special occasions. Archetypal forms from history are touchstones in his practice. His work explores the subtle purity of porcelain and more recently, the opposing robust qualities of stoneware. He works with one porcelain clay, uses one slip and carries out one single firing. The forms are thrown, then carved and shaped. Copper carbonate is added to the slip as the colouring material. His firing process involves spraying a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and water into the kiln when it is at a high temperature. The resulting vapour is drawn through the kiln chamber where it reacts with chemicals present in the clay, creating a rich patina of surface texture and colour.

Doherty graduated from the Ulster College of Art and Design in 1971. He subsequently worked as a studio potter at the Kilkenny Design Workshops and is currently Lead Potter and Creative Director at The Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Round Pod, porcelain 420 × 300mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

Jack Doherty Garden House, The Parade, Mousehole, Cornwall, TR19 6PP, UK e jack.doherty@virgin.net t +44 17 36731303

www.dohertyporcelain.com Collections National Museum of Ireland Museum of Liverpool, UK Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, UK Princesshof Ceramics Museum, The Netherlands The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2012 2010

Jack Doherty and Tomoo Hamada, Gallery St Ives, Tokyo, Japan A Place In The World, Garden House, Cornwall, UK Solo Exhibition, National University Taipei, Taiwan

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny The Ethics of Objects, Kinsale Arts Festival, Co. Cork Vessels, Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Co. Kerry Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin Ceramic Art London, Royal College of Art, London, UK Talking in Clay, Courtyard Arts Centre, Hereford, UK Art Fair Tokyo, Japan Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin transFORM, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin and Millennium Court Arts Centre, Co. Armagh COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny A Place in the World, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall, UK Through Fifty, CCC, London, UK Tea Ceremony Pots, Mitzukoshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan European Ceramics Context, Denmark

• Cylindrical Bowl porcelain, 470 × 200mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Jennifer Hickey

54 . 55

jennifer hickey’s practice is concerned with themes of fragility, weightlessness, translucency, rhythm and movement. Working with porcelain and bone china, her ceramic sculptural forms explore the discipline and delicacy demanded by those materials. She is interested in the Japanese aesthetic of simplicity, one which connects spirit to nature.

The natural properties of clay are intrinsic to her completed pieces which often have an organic or sensual sense. Hickey’s most recent body of work involves sewing wafer-thin parts of porcelain together or meticulously stitching them on to tulle.

The physicality of the making process allows a different kind of consciousness to be expressed through the completed forms. As the pieces progress spatially, they gain in strength and energy from the repetition in their making.

Hickey graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2002 with a BDes in Ceramics.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Untitled, porcelain pieces and tulle, 180mm diameter. Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Jennifer Hickey e jennynihici@hotmail.com

www.jenniferhickey.com Collections Office of Public Works, Ireland Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2011

My Spot, Temple Bar, Dublin Rupture, Temple Bar, Dublin

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012 2011 2010

2008

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin Irish Contemporary Ceramics, The Source Arts Centre, Thurles; Millennium Court Arts Centre, Co. Armagh; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Winter Group Show, The Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin Made on Monday, The Complex, Smithfield, Dublin Summer Group Show, The Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin Sculpture in Context, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin Sonja Landweer and Jennifer Hickey, The Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin Made on Monday, Broadstone Exhibition Space, Dublin

• Remain porcelain pieces and tulle, 1300 × 250 × 150mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

basketry / caoladóireacht

Joe Hogan

58 . 59

joe hogan was initially attracted to basketmaking because he wanted to grow his own willow, the raw material for most of his baskets. His practice allows him the opportunity to live rurally and to be involved in the entire process, from growing the material to making the finished object. His home and landscape have had a profound influence on the style and diversity of his work, encouraging him to explore and develop new designs based on old traditions.

Hogan values the repetition and fluency which develops in the making of functional baskets. He has become increasingly interested in making non-functional or sculptural baskets, many of which involve the use of finds of bog wood from an area of wild isolated bogland near his home. Some of these include the use of twigs from birch, bog myrtle, catkins, lichens and other wild material. Hogan is prompted by a desire to develop a deeper connection to the natural world and reawaken a sense of wonder.

Hogan works from his studio in Connemara, Co. Galway.

He teaches basketmaking skills and has written two books on the craft, Basketmaking in Ireland (2001) and Bare Branches, Blue Black Sky (2011).

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Ripe, willow rods and bog pine, 620 × 890 × 810mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Joe Hogan Loch na Fooey, Finny, Clonbur, Co Galway e joe@joehoganbaskets.com t +353 94 9548241

www.joehoganbaskets.com Collections National Museum of Ireland Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland

Selected Awards Selected for Living Legend programme, World Crafts Council Summit, Chennai, India 2008 Award of Excellence, Reserve, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin 2007 + 2008 1st Prize Basketmaking, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin 2007 Don Juan Gonzalez Farina Award, Spain 2006 1st Prize, Pinolere International Basketry Competition 2006 Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary Award (joint award) 2012

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2012 2011

2008 2005

Tradition and Innovation, Dungarvan Arts Centre, Co. Waterford Bare Branches, Blue Black Sky, Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford; Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; Aras Eanna Arts Centre, Co. Galway; Dunamaise Arts Centre, Co. Laois Wood meets Willow, Linen Hall Arts Centre, Co. Mayo Weaving the Harvest, Grennan Mill, Co. Kilkenny

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny

2012 – 2013 Out of the Marvellous, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and 2012

2011

2010

• Ripe willow rods and bog pine, 620 × 890 × 810mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan Vessels, Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Co. Kerry RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin Baskets, old and new masters, Landskrona Museum, Sweden Made by Hand, Moulshams Manor, Essex, UK 35 years Galerie Ra, Galerie Ra, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Object, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Frame Munich, Germany Materials and Messages, R Space, The Linen Rooms, Lisburn, Co. Antrim Contemporary Baskets, Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales Sculpture in Context, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin Gorey Market House Showcase Exhibition, Gorey, Co. Wexford Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Cherry Baskets, Johannes Larsen Museum, Kertminde, Denmark MATERIALpoetry, Galway Arts Festival MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Noon Passama, Gallerie Ra, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Archaic Shelter, Maison & Objet, Paris, France Irish Craft Portfolio, Kenny Gallery, Galway; National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Stour Gallery, UK European Baskets, Strule Arts Centre, Omagh and Draíocht Arts Centre, Dublin COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (also 2009)

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

furniture / troscán

John Lee

62 . 63

john lee uses naturally occurring geometric forms as the starting point for his practice. Working with hardwoods such as oak, elm, maple and ash, he focuses on timber’s natural properties, experimenting with form, function and finish.

His investigations into natural grain patterns have resulted in an innovative design technique whereby he methodically forms a twist in the plane of many of his pieces. In creating this change, he meticulously ensures that the correct balance is maintained between proportion and scale. The aesthetic of his work is often inspired by the natural landscape. The holes in the Salcombe piece were influenced by the Devon coastline and the effects of erosion on sedimentary rock.

Lee graduated from the Bachelor of Furniture Design and Manufacture Course, GMIT Letterfrack, Co. Galway in 1993.

He received a Bursary Award from the Crafts Council of Ireland in 2010 and used this to complete a course in AutoCAD and 3-D Design. He is based in Co. Meath and works mainly to commission.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Wave, fumed oak, 1680 × 850 × 600mm. Photographer, Roland Paschhoff.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

John Lee Pagestown, Maynooth, Co. Meath e john@johnleefurniture.com t +353 150 54660

www.johnleefurniture.com Collections National Museum of Ireland Office of Public Works, Ireland Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Awards Áras an Uachtaráin, Commission for new Irish Presidential Inauguration Chair 2008 + 2009 Áras an Uachtaráin, Commission for President of Ireland, Mary McAleese 2011

Selected Exhibitions Group Exhibitions and Fairs Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny From Table to Wall, Flow Gallery, London, UK Design Miami / Basel, Nilufar Gallery, Basel, Switzerland 2011 Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin 2005 – 2010 Interior Design & Art Fair, RDS, Dublin 2010 COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Designers and Makers, FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, Co. Down 2009 100% Design, Earls Court, London, UK Organic Geometry, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2008 SOFA Chicago, USA Ecology, Mythology, Technology, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 2007 Ecology, Mythology, Technology, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2006 Furnishing the Details, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 2005 Create, Fota House, Cork 2013 2012

Gallery Representation Todd Merrill Studio Contemporary, New York, USA

• Salcombe solid ash, 2500 × 760 × 1300mm.

Photographer, Roland Paschhoff.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

furniture / troscán

Joseph Walsh

66 . 67

joseph walsh creates innovative, sculptural furniture works.

His fluency with design techniques and knowledge of wood allows him to start at a conceptual point and explore its many interpretations. Walsh’s approach stems from his intimate understanding of the nature and form of wood. He states that his practice is informed by the belief that objects which possess intelligence in their creation and values beyond their function or aesthetic, can enhance the quality of our lives.

In his Enignum series, the composition of each piece is directly informed by Walsh’s manipulation of the material and how it will resolve. Using olive ash, he creates expressive curvilinear shapes through bending the wood free-form and stripping it into thin layers. In some works, layers are interwoven with materials such as copper, suede, and fine meshes of coated wire. Throughout this process, Walsh strives to reveal the integrity of the structure as well its sculpted form. By doing so, he creates a distinctive visual language, merging craft, functionality and art.

Walsh is a self-taught designer maker. He is based in Co. Cork and works to commission and for exhibition.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Enignum II Console Table, olive ash, glass, 2600 × 550 × 900mm. Photographer, Andrew Bradley.

Joseph Walsh Fartha, Riverstick, Co. Cork e info@josephwalshstudio.com t +353 21 4771759

www.josephwalshstudio.com Collections The National Museum of Ireland Embassy of Japan, Ireland Duke of Devonshire Collection, UK McCann FitzGerald, Dublin Coillte – The Irish Forestry Company Sacred Heart Church, Minane Bridge, Co. Cork St Mary’s Church, Innishannon, Co. Cork The Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA John H Bryan Collection, Illinois, USA Paul Stuart, Madison Avenue, New York, USA

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2012 – 2013 Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art and Craft,

2012 2011 2008

Mint Museum Uptown, North Carolina and Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA Enignum at Palazzo Durini, Nilufar Gallery, Milan, Italy Enignum and other stories, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin Realisations, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012 2011

2010

2009

• Enignum IV Copper Chair olive ash, copper, 940 × 560 × 750mm.

Photographer, Andrew Bradley.

2008

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Wallpaper* Handmade, Palazzo Brioni, Milan, Italy Design Days Dubai, Nilufar Gallery, United Arab Emirates dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA SuperDesign, Nilufar Gallery, London, UK Black & White, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin Design Miami / Basel, Nilufar Gallery, Basel, Switzerland Pavilion of Art & Design, Nilufar Gallery, Paris, France and Salone de Mobile, Milan, Italy COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny dubh – dialogues in black, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin Pavilion of Art & Design, Todd Merrill Studio Contemporary, London, UK Design Miami, Florida, USA Pavilion of Art & Design, London, UK Grassimesse, Grassimuseum, Leipzig, Germany Design Miami / Basel, Messe, Basel, Switzerland SOFA Chicago, USA (also 2007 and 2006)

Gallery Representation Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin Adrian Sassoon, London, UK Todd Merrill Studio Contemporary, New York, USA

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

wood / adhmad

Liam Flynn

72 . 73

liam flynn works primarily in Irish oak turning strong, simple and lyrical vessel forms. Oak wood is rich in tannins, which respond well to fuming and ebonising, a colouring Flynn uses to accentuate his stark forms. His work has evolved over the course of his career from smaller explorations of open vessels to his current work exploring volume, shape and line. His elegant and reďŹ ned wood pieces express the delicacy and intimacy found in the nature of working in wood. Flynn redeďŹ nes the classic vessel by allowing the line of grain to integrate into the design. A keen understanding of the complexities of oak and how it will dry inform his prediction of the resulting line, surface and tone of the object.

Flynn is self-taught. He comes from a family who have been involved in joining and woodworking for generations.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Ebonised Oak Vessel, oak, 240 × 240mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Liam Flynn Convent Road, Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick e liam@liamflynn.com t +353 87 6106989

www.liamflynn.com Collections V&A Museum, London, UK Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK National Museum of Ireland Minneapolis Institute of Arts, USA Woodturning Centre, Philadelphia, USA Limerick City Art Gallery Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, UK Crafts Council of Ireland Royal Dublin Society Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland

Selected Awards 2005

Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary Award 1st Prize, Turned Wood, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2012 2010 2007

New Works in Wood, Beaux Arts, Bath, UK New Wood Vessels, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Solo Exhibition, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Group Exhibitions and Fairs Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny SOFA New York, USA (also 2011) SOFA Chicago, USA (also 2011, 2010, 2007 and 2006) Design Days Dubai, Nilufar Gallery, United Arab Emirates My Place, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK International Turned Wood and Ceramics, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, UK dubh – dialogues in black, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin 2005 – 2012 COLLECT, V&A Museum and Saatchi Gallery, London, UK 2011 Retrospective and New, Hunt Museum, Limerick dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA 2010 MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Turned Wood, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, UK Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2009 Wood Willow Paper, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Modern Masters, Munich International Trade Fair, Germany In the Window, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK Organic Geometry, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2013 2012

• Inner Rimmed Vessel oak, 310 × 310mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

Gallery Representation Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, UK Beaux Arts Bath, Bath, UK Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, USA

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

textiles / teicstílí

Liz Nilsson

76 . 77

liz nilsson’s practice blends art, design and function. She creates concept art pieces which use textiles as both medium and subject and regularly works within a formal structure of repeated elements. These occur thematically and physically in her making process. Nilsson cites the circle as a symbolic influence in her work, seeing it as a representation of the cycle of life. Using recycled materials, she cuts away from the surface creating open lace-like structures which integrate light and shadow. She incorporates contemporary techniques such as laser-cutting, print, stitching and layering into her finished forms. Her pieces are multi-layered, weaving new and used fabrics together, resulting in highly tactile surfaces. Nilsson is interested in memory traces and the ability to memorise experiences. The layering of her work illustrates repetition, recall and habit, and references how memories are instituted.

Nilsson received an MA in Conceptual Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London. Originally from Sweden, she now lives and works in Dublin.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

•• Hazy memory, viscose satin, PVC mosquito netting, pigment dyes and thread, 900 × 900 × 250mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Liz Nilsson 54 Kenilworth Square, Rathgar, Dublin 6 e nilssonliz@yahoo.ie t +353 86 8307294

www.liznilsson.com Collections National Museum of Ireland Harris Museum, Preston, UK Region Skåne, Malmö, Sweden Trelleborg’s Museum, Sweden Borås Högskola, Borås, Sweden Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 1995

Trinity Arts Centre, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK

Group Exhibitions and Fairs Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Sculpture in Context, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin Linen Diaspora, R Gallery, Lisburn, Co. Antrim OAK Open Art Killenure Exhibition, Killeneure House, Co. Tipperary 2011 Lost in Lace, Birmingham Museum, UK Bite Size, Anglo-Japanese Institute, London, UK and Gallery Gallery, Kyoto, Japan Linen Diaspora, 4th Biennale Internationale Du Lin De Portneuf, Quebec, Canada Crafts Meet Technology, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, USA Exploring Perceptions of Contemporary Craft, Lavit Gallery, Cork 2010 13th International Triennial of Tapestry, Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland Embracing Technology, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Craft and Context, Mason Hayes & Curran, Barrow Street, Dublin and Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin Embellished, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, UK 2009 – 2010 Sculpture in Context, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin 2009 Object, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK My Space, Limerick City Municipal Museum Nano, Gallery Studio 44, Stockholm, Sweden Gifted, Wexford Art Centre 2008 RDS National Crafts Competition Prize Winners, touring exhibition Pink Thursday, Trelleborg’s Museum, Sweden 2007 Ecology, Mythology, Technology, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Design Crafts, Bilston Craft Gallery, UK 2006 Origin, London, UK Traces, The Atrium Gallery, Dublin 2005 00 – 04 Review, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2013 2012

• Conversations beyond recall viscose satin, pigment dyes and thread, 900 × 900 × 150mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

metals / miotal

Michael McCrory

80 . 81

michael mccrory’s designs are founded on a balance of line, form and proportion which harmonise with the detail in the tactile finished pieces. He aims to create silverware which is aesthetically pleasing and has a sculptural visual strength. Inspiration for his designs comes from observing natural and manmade objects, visiting museums and archaeological sites. He is particularly interested in the growth, surfaces and textures of plants and this has led to the development of his forms of the ‘prickly pear’ and ‘blister’ surface decoration. This decoration with its featured textured finish also has the added function of hiding fingerprints that would otherwise be visible on a highly polished silver surface.

McCrory makes his silverware through a combination of hand raising and hydraulic pressing.

McCrory lectured in Silversmithing & Jewellery at the University of Ulster from 1967 to 1996 and served as Head of School of Fine and Applied Arts until 1996. He works mainly to commission and is a member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Blister Salt, silver and enamel, 140 × 82 × 82mm. Photographer, David Pauley.

Michael McCrory 22 Ballynahinch Street, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6AW, UK e michael@michaelmccrory.com t +44 28 92683014

www.michaelmccrory.com Collections National Museum of Ireland Ulster Museum, Belfast Arts Council of Northern Ireland V&A Museum, London, England British-Irish Intergovernmental Council, Northern Ireland Lisburn Museum, Co. Antrim

Selected Awards 2011

Awarded a Support for the Individual Artist Programme from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (also 2008 and 2005)

Selected Exhibitions Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012 2011

2010

2009

2008 2007

2006 2005

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin ACNI Contemporary Art in Northern Ireland, Parliament Buildings, Belfast Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin Thirty, Flowerfield Arts Centre, Co. Derry Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin C3 Collecting Contemporary Craft, CraftNI, Ulster Museum, Belfast Objects of Light, Danish Museum of Art & Design, Copenhagen, Denmark Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin; Kenny Gallery, Galway Designers & Makers 2009, FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, Co. Down White Christmas, Naughton Gallery, QUB, Belfast Design Collection 2009, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland Silver with a Pinch of Salt, Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, England Portfolio, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK You’ll Never Walk Alone, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Making Changes: Contemporary Craft in Northern Ireland, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast and Millennium Court Arts Centre, Co. Armagh Made in Northern Ireland: A Dynamic of Change, The S Dillon Ripley Centre, Washington DC, USA Silver Connections, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, Co. Antrim; Flowerfield Arts Centre, Co. Derry; National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Art of Dining, Ireland Fund of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

• Prickly Pear Salt silver and enamel, 45 × 81 × 81mm.

Photographer, David Pauley.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

furniture / troscán

Nest Design

84 . 85

neil and annabel mccarthy established Nest Design with the aim of breaking new ground in crafted timber furniture. Drawing inspiration from the traditions and concepts of fine furniture, their partnership consistently produces pieces distinguished by their clarity of line, seamless profiles and labour intensive finishes. Their decision to work in small series has resulted in a rich and constantly changing exploration and testing of new methods, such as the use of Jesmonite and resin inlays. Fin du Voyage pays homage to traditional craft and making skills by using an original vintage suitcase for its structural base. The upholstery references the suitcase’s original function – the owner worked in the textile industry and used to travel with fabric samples. The Delphine Desk and Chair showcases their meticulous lacquer finishes and interest in classical design proportions.

Both Neil and Annabel studied Furniture Design and Making at Rycotewood College, Oxfordshire graduating in 1998. Nest Design was originally established in Cork and is now based in the south of France. They work mainly to commission and for exhibition producing one-off pieces and limited editions.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Fin du voyage, solid French walnut, antique leather bag, 710 × 500 × 690mm. Photographer, Anthony Noel Kelly.

Nest Design Lassalle, 32380 Pessoulens, France e info@nest-design.com t +33 562 677903

www.nest-design.com Collections National Museum of Ireland Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Awards 2005

Irish Furniture Design Award

Selected Exhibitions Group Exhibitions and Fairs Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Les Nouveaux Artisans, Paris, France 2010 Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA 2009 Showcase of European Interior Design (European Gateway Programme), Tokyo, Japan 2005 – 2008 100% Design, Earls Court, London, UK 2007 Ecology, Mythology, Technology, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh, Dublin Sema, Paris, France 2006 Avantcraft, Habitat, Dublin 2005 Create II, showcase of Irish Furniture Designer Makers, Fota House, Cork 2013 2011

• Delphine Desk and Chair solid maple, solid French walnut, high gloss black lacquer, Desk 1400 × 600 × 820mm and Chair 420 × 450 × 810mm.

Photographer, Anthony Noel Kelly.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

jewellery / seodra

Nuala Jamison

88 . 89

nuala jamison’s sculptural jewellery is inspired by urban city spaces as well as the southern Irish coastline. She combines acrylic with silver or 18 carat gold. Using sheets or rods of acrylic, she cuts, files or carves it into a primary form. It is then treated with pumice and water over several weeks in order to achieve a soft, matte surface. This echoes the natural weathering action of waves on beach stones.

Jamison has developed a unique way of dyeing and colouring clear material to enhance its reflective qualities. Her current work explores the making of larger scale jewellery using a technique of painting dye on the surface of the acrylic and firing it in a kiln at high temperature.

Jamison studied Jewellery Design at Central St Martins, London, graduating in 1972. She teaches Jewellery at Morley College, London and runs workshops from her studio in Co. Cork.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Spotty Bangle, clear acrylic, dyestuff, 115 × 92 × 12mm. Photographer, Phil Green.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Nuala Jamison Dromataniheen, Durrus, Nr Bantry, Co. Cork e nuala.jamison@mac.com t +353 27 61538

www.nualajamison.com Collections National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Van Reekumgalerie, Apeldorn, The Netherlands West Midlands Arts, UK Lincolnshire and Humberside Arts, UK East Midlands Arts, UK The Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland The Contemporary Arts Society, London The Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection, Geneva, Switzerland The Ulster Museum, Belfast The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK National Museum of Ireland

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2002

Individual Showcase, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland

Group Exhibitions and Fairs Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin 2011 Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 2006 – 2010 Origin, London, UK 2010 Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Kenny Gallery, Galway; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 2009 Cork Craft Fair, Glucksman Gallery, Cork 2008 Jean Muir: a Fashion Icon, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2007 Craft Fair, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK 2006 Loot, Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA 2005 Showcase, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham, UK 2013 2012

• Three Rings clear acrylic, fine silver, dyestuff, 35 × 25 × 10mm each.

Photographer, Phil Green.

crafts council crafts of ireland council of ireland

Irish Irish Craft CraftPortfolio: Portfolio Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Nuala O’Donovan

92 . 93

nuala o’donovan’s ceramic sculptures explore patterns found in nature and fractal geometry. The ability of living organisms to respond to changes in their systems, and to subsequently recover, adapt and grow, is a central theme in her work. O’Donovan uses the characteristics of irregular fractal patterns in nature as constraints or guidelines when making decisions about her forms: patterns are regularly irregular, patterns and forms are self-similar; the pattern records a response to random events during the making process. Her pieces are constructed slowly over a period of weeks or months. Each element is built individually by hand. The finished forms are the result of an intuitive response to the direction the pattern takes. By using the characteristics of fractal geometry, the finished piece – although resolved – still retains a sense of potential change. O’Donovan aims to evoke the transitory quality of living organisms, combining past, present and future.

O’Donovan completed a BA in Three Dimensional Design at Middlesex University, UK in 1994. In 2008 she received an MA in Ceramics from Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Teasel, Exposed Interior, porcelain, ming and paperclay, 570 × 280 × 280mm. Photographer, Sylvain Deleu.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Nuala O’Donovan 4 Hollymount House, Lee Road, Cork e nualaodonovan@hotmail.com t +353 87 6413651

www.nualaodonovan.com Collections Ulster Museum, Belfast National Museum of Ireland Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork

Selected Awards Golden Fleece Award, Merit Prize 1st Prize Contemporary Ceramics, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin Ceramics Ireland Award Allianz Business to Arts Award, Commissioned Artist Golden Fleece Award, Shortlist 2009 Crafts Council Of Ireland Purchase Award 1st Prize Contemporary Ceramics, RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin Ceramics Ireland Award Annual Irish Ceramics Award, Millcove Gallery, Co. Cork 2008 Crafts Council of Ireland / Irish Arts Review Emerging Maker Award 2006 – 2008 CIT Post-Graduate Scholarship / Research Award 2011 2010

Selected Exhibitions Group Exhibitions and Fairs Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA 2011 – 2012 Craft in the 21st Century, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin transFORM, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 2011 Ceramic Art London, RCA Galleries, London, UK Perceptions of Contemporary Craft – selected by Nuala O’Donovan, Lavit Gallery, Cork MATERIALpoetry, Galway Arts Festival Eunique Applied Arts Fair, Karlsruhe, Germany Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin S’Herthogenbosch Applied Arts Fair, Zelligman Gallery, The Netherlands RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin Talking in Clay, Herefordshire Centre for the Arts, UK SOFA West, Santa Fe, USA On Repeat, Flow Gallery, London, UK SOFA New York, USA 2010 COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London UK Positive Space, Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork Ceramic Art London, RCA Galleries, London, UK MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Kenny Gallery, Galway; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 2013 2012

• Banksia, Dynamic high fired unglazed porcelain, 330 × 380 × 380mm.

Photographer, Sylvain Deleu.

crafts council crafts of ireland council of ireland

Irish Irish Craft CraftPortfolio: Portfolio Critical Selection

glass / gloine

Paula Stokes

98 . 99

paula stokes is strongly influenced by Scandinavian and American design. Attention to form, line, texture, functionality and use of colour are central to her practice. Collages created through printmaking are the starting point for her finished glass forms, providing her with the opportunity to explore colour combinations and composition.

Her making process often involves using a team of people for extra large work. A dense concentration of colour, or overlay, is applied to a clear bubble and allowed to cool. Layers of clear glass are gathered over the overlay before air is blown in to the bubble. Once there is enough volume, the bubble is sculpted using heat, gravity, compression and momentum.

She deliberately makes off-centre work resulting in organic and gestural forms. Sandblasting of the surface alters the finish, making it look soft and pliable.

Stokes graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin with a Bachelor of Design in 1991. She specialised in printmaking at the University of Washington and was awarded the Milnora Roberts Scholarship for Academic Excellence in 2005. She regularly instructs and teaches glassblowing in schools and colleges in the USA and Ireland. She is currently based in Seattle, USA.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Babybottles / Baby Bellies (Warm Series), glass, 160 × 120 × 120mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

Paula Stokes 1125 8TH Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119, USA e paula_stokes@hotmail.com t +12 06 285 9886

www.paulastokes.com Collections National Museum of Ireland

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2006

Points of Reference, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, USA

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010

2009

2008 2007

2006 2005

• Big Red and Babybottles / Baby Bellies (Warm Series) glass, 360 × 300 × 200mm and 160 × 120 × 120mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Shift, SHIFT Gallery, Seattle, USA Sure It Will Be Alright, Solomon Gallery, Dublin Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin Engaging with Glass, Traver Gallery, Tacoma, USA COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK G8, Winston Wachter Gallery, Seattle, USA Intersection, SHIFT Gallery, Seattle, USA Vitreography and Paintings on Glass, SAM Gallery, Seattle, USA Glass Divas, Attic Gallery, Jerpoint, Kilkenny Engaging with Glass, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan 21st Century Irish Craft, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin Illuminate; Contemporary Irish Glass, Kenny Gallery, Galway North South East West, Era Living, Seattle, USA Relativity of Color, SHIFT Gallery, Seattle, USA Featured Artists, SAM Gallery, Seattle, USA New Work: 3 Puget Sound Artists, Alexis Hotel, Seattle, USA A Look Back, Viscosity Glass Gallery, Seattle, USA Resident Aliens, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, USA Sea Shift, Fayetteville Underground, Arkansas, USA Boston Printmakers Biennial, Boston, USA Points of Reference, SHIFT Gallery, Seattle, USA Sea Shift, G Gallery, Houston, USA Contemporary Makers, Attic Gallery, Jerpoint, Kilkenny New Members’ Show, SHIFT Gallery, Seattle, USA Wild Geese: The Irish in America, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Pratt / Pilchuck Show, Pratt Fine Arts Center Gallery, Seattle, USA 4 x Abstraction, Art Patch Gallery, Seattle, USA SPA Group Show, Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle, USA Plugged in and Caffeinated, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, USA North by Northwest, Kala Institute, Berkeley, USA Works on Paper, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle, USA BFA Show, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle, USA Pratt Instructors’ Show, Rainier Club, Seattle, USA Group Show, Recovery Café, Seattle, USA A Common Language, Shenzhen Art Institute, China

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

wood / adhmad

Roger Bennett

102 . 103

roger bennett’s bowls, vessels and wall-pieces combine wood with precious metals. His turning employs a precise and demanding making process. He inlays his forms by filling hundreds of individually drilled holes with dots of silver wire. After the metal has been sanded flush with the surface, he applies colour to the wood and finishes with Danish oil. Bennett prefers to work in sycamore, a wood whose paleness responds well to colouring. He uses water-based dyes to enhance and complement the natural figuring of the wood.

The refined coloured surfaces of his pieces compliment the constellations and geometric patterns of silver points placed against the finely finished wood. The patterns range from flowing spiral lines to controlled random concentrations.

Through the simplicity of his design and the paper-thin quality of his material, Bennett achieves a sense of lightness and delicacy in his finished forms.

Bennett received a BA in Modern Languages and a HDip in Education from Trinity College, Dublin in the 1970s. He is a self taught woodturner and works from his studio in Dublin.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Bowl #2, sycamore, brilliante silver, water-based woodstains, 60 × 200mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

Roger Bennett 7 Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6W e parkbenn@gmail.com t +353 149 22224

www.rogerbennettwoodturner.com Collections Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland Crafts Council of Ireland National Museum of Ireland Ulster Museum, Belfast Dublin Airport Authority Office of Public Works, Ireland The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii Columbus State University, Georgia, USA Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Awards 2012 2007

RDS National Crafts Competition, Dublin; Crafts Council of Ireland Purchase Award Crafts Council of Ireland 50% Award

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2011 2005

Roger Bennett: Fine Wood Vessels, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Solo Exhibition, Leitrim Design House, Co. Leitrim

Group Exhibitions and Fairs Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny My Place, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK Vessels, Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Co. Kerry Craftboston, USA 2011 Craftboston, USA Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 2010 Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, USA Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Kenny Gallery, Galway; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Craftboston, USA 2006 – 2010 SOFA Chicago, USA (also SOFA New York, 2007) 2009 Gifted, Wexford Arts Centre Contemporary Craft Fair, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK Turning Wood into Art 2009, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, UK Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, USA 2006 – 2009 Turning Wood into Art, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, UK Origin, London, UK 2008 Gifted, Wexford Arts Centre Craftboston, USA 2013 2012

• Bowl #1 sycamore, brilliante silver, water-based woodstains, 50 × 185mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

Gallery Representation Designyard, Dublin Designworks, Cork Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Stour Gallery, Warwickshire, UK del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

glass / gloine

Róisín de Buitléar

106 . 107

róisín de buitléar describes herself as being fascinated by both the beauty glass affords as well as the challenge of working with it. Using a variety of techniques, her response to the making process is both personal and intuitive. Working in layers, she uses the inherent beauty of the material to draw the viewer into the objects through light, shadow and colour. She incorporates subtle, intricate patterns into many of her pieces with diamond point engraving. When light is cast through the glass, patterns emerge in the shadow, giving the works an added dimension.

Cultural heritage and shared histories are central to her practice. She pays homage to traditional crafts such as needlework and lacemaking and integrates skills and stories from former factory workers at Waterford Crystal. In this way, she aims to translate what is perceived as ordinary into the realm of the extraordinary – using glass as the new medium so this handwork can be viewed with a fresh perspective.

De Buitléar graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1983. She teaches and lectures on glass in Ireland and overseas. She is based in Dublin and works to commission and for exhibition.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Vedrarfjiordr, blown, cut, diamond point engraved glass, Diameter 260 × H140mm. Photographer, Philip Lauterbach.

Róisín de Buitléar 37 Ashfield Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 e rdebuitlear@yahoo.com t +353 87 7751938

www.roisindebuitlear.com Collections National Museum of Ireland Ulster Museum, Belfast Crafts Council of America Crafts Council of Ireland

Selected Awards 2012 2011

2009

Selected for European Glass Context, Bornholm, Denmark Catch a Breath was one of five pieces featured in a special stamp series celebrating contemporary craft in Ireland issued by An Post to mark Year of Craft 2011 Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary Award

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 1992 1990

Ulster Museum, Belfast Design Aer 90, Dublin Airport

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010

• Breath blown, cut glass, 340 × 300 × 600mm.

Photographer, Philip Lauterbach.

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny New Glass Art, Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts, China RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin Between Art and Industry, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Engaging with Glass, Tacoma, Washington, USA Irish Wave 3, Beijing, China Elements, Shengling Gallery, Shanghai, China Keep going sure it’s grand!, Soloman Fine Art, Dublin Adornment, Designworks, Cork Engaging with Glass, Solstice Art Centre, Navan 21st Century Irish Craft, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin 21st Century Icons, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Eunique Applied Arts Fair, Karlsruhe, Germany On the Edge: Contemporary Glass from South west England and Ireland, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; National Botanic Gardens, Dublin; Garter Lane, Waterford; Triskel Gallery, Cork; Linen Hall, Castlebar Remarkable Glass Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin Sculpture in Context, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin Slow architecture and place, travelling exhibition, Grand Canal from Shannon to Dublin

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Sara Flynn

110 . 111

sara flynn interprets the theme of the vessel in both literal and abstracted ways. Dealing with the qualities of porcelain, she manipulates, cuts and reassembles freshly thrown forms to highlight movement and volume. Flynn actively observes roads, pathways and hedgerows as well as the curves and contours of the local landscape. These aspects inform the design and production of her sculptural decorative vessels.

The subtle contrasting tones, contours, edges and textures of rural ancillary buildings further inspire her practice. Her current body of work is a continuation of her interest in the exploration of materials and the making process. Flynn takes great care in the construction of her pieces. The clay must be thrown precisely on the wheel and then altered at exact stages in the drying process. Avoiding collapse and cracking of the porcelain is challenging, but Flynn harnesses this in the skillful execution and resolution of her forms. Her careful choice of subtle glazes highlights unexpected textured ďŹ nishes.

Flynn graduated from Crawford College of Art in Design, Cork in 1992 with a Diploma in Ceramic Design and in 1998 with a Degree in Ceramic Design. She is based in West Cork.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Gesture Vessel, porcelain, 110 × 110 × 110mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Sara Flynn Hannah’s Cottage, Gurteenaduige, Leap, Co. Cork e saraflynn71@gmail.com t +353 28 34566

www.saraflynnceramic.com Collections The Art Institute of Chicago, USA Office of Public Works, Ireland National Museum of Ireland Columbus State University, USA Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland

Selected Awards 2010

Winner of the Peter Brennan Pioneering Potter, Ceramics Ireland Award

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2012

Sara Flynn, Erskine Hall & Coe, London, UK

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012

2011

2010

• Indented Vessel porcelain, 125 × 110 × 110mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (also 2011, 2010 and 2006) SOFA New York, USA (also SOFA Chicago, 2008 and 2007) dubh – dialogues in black, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin Ceramic Art London, Royal College of Art, London, UK In Situ, The Civic, Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK My Place, The Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK Duet, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle, UK dubh – dialogues in black, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA transFORM, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Ceramics Ireland Annual Exhibition, Rathfarham Castle, Dublin fineEarth, Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork Newcomers, OnLine Gallery, Hampshire, UK Ceramic Art London, Royal College of Art, London, UK Present – Contemporary Craft, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, UK Design Miami / Basel, Miami, USA Black, Leach Pottery Museum, St Ives, UK MATERIALpoetry, The American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA Summer Exhibition, Galerie Besson, London, UK Positive Space, Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork Women’s Work, Gallerytop, Derbyshire, UK Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny; Kenny Gallery, Galway; Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Thrown – Ceramics selected by Sara Flynn, Lavit Gallery, Cork Sculptural Ceramics, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Black and Gold, Platform Gallery, Lancashire, UK Ceramic Art London, Royal College of Art, London, UK

Gallery Representation Erskine Hall & Coe, London, UK

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

furniture / troscán

Sasha Sykes

114 . 115

sasha sykes is influenced by the scale and aesthetic of the Irish landscape and its impact and relationship with social history and humanity. Using acrylics and hand-cast resins, she embeds found objects and collected organic materials such as wildflowers, thistles, mosses, lichens, seaweeds and shells. Sykes aims to preserve, present and recontextualise in an innovative and functional way. The resins heighten the colours, textures and forms of the material, highlighting their fragility and also their stage in the cycle of life.

Sykes’ furniture designs combine contemporary processes with traditional crafts and materials. Shogun Stool reinterprets a Japanese concept, utilising a form/flop technique she developed which allows the seat to curve. The cast resin is meticulously sanded and polished giving it its translucency and emphasising the delicacy of the rosepetals.

Sykes received an MA in Architecture from Edinburgh University, Scotland in 1998. She subsequently worked in retail design in London and New York. In 2001 she established Farm21, designing and making contemporary rural furniture.

She lives and works in Co. Carlow.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Shogun Stool, rosepetals, polyester resin, acrylic, 500 × 350 × 200mm. Photographer, Rory Moore.

Sasha Sykes The Strawbale Studio, Knocknagan, Tullow, Co. Carlow e sasha@farm21.co.uk t +353 86 8711901

www.farm21.co.uk Collections National Museum of Ireland Carton House, Co. Kildare The Cliff House Hotel, Co. Waterford The Bank of America

Selected Awards 2003

Chelsea Flower Show Garden, Silver Award

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2003

Farm21 Solo Show, CC Gallery, Westbourne Grove, London, UK

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012 2011

2010

2009 2007

2005

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Irish Craft Portfolio, RHA, Dublin Celebration of Craftsmanship & Design, Cheltenham, UK Start, Clarence House, London, UK The Irish Craft Garden, Bloom in the Park, Dublin Blooming Art, Kilgraney House Gallery, Carlow Interior Design & Art Fair, RDS, Dublin Showcase of European Interior Design (European Gateway Programme), Tokyo, Japan The Family Silver, Éigse Festival, Carlow Interior Design & Art Fair, RDS, Dublin 100% Design, London, UK Interior Design & Art Fair, RDS, Dublin Ecology, Mythology, Technology, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin Urban Retreat Gallery, Dublin Create, Fota House, Cork Space Downtown, New York Design Week, USA Insomniac Dreams, M Gallery, New York, USA

• Burning Gorse gorse, traceable Irish ash, acrylic, polyester resin, 650 × 650 × 750mm.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

jewellery / seodra

Sonja Landweer

118 . 119

sonja landweer’s practice has developed through a close understanding of the natural world. Her forms, laden with intensity and fragility, are evocative of subtle balances found in nature. Working in contemporary jewellery and body sculpture since the early 1960s, she has pioneered designs using beads, slate, wood, paper, feathers, bone, leather, plastic, ceramic and other fibres. Landweer has been instrumental in changing perceptions of what can be worn as personal adornment without using precious metals. In the 1990s she developed unusual techniques of knotted monofilament, inspired by a winter visit to Crete, where she was drawn to prickly, skeletal structures of plant remains, organised around otherwise empty spaces. Her recent forms incorporate large sequins and semi-precious stones, together with gold crimped nylon to form exquisite objects of jewellery and body sculpture.

Landweer studied at the Amsterdam School of Industrial Design, following which she was apprenticed to Zaalberg Pottery in 1952 and 1953. In 1965 she was invited to Ireland to set up a ceramic studio at Kilkenny Design Workshops. She tutored in various art colleges in Ireland and UK between 1972 and 1996. Landweer is renowned internationally for her jewellery, bronze and ceramic work and is based in Co. Kilkenny.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

•• Bronzesickles, bronze nylon with African turquoise and moonsickles, bronze sequins and aubergine pearls, 280mm diameter. Photographer, Rory Moore.

Sonja Landweer Jerpoint House, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny t +353 56 7724325

Collections Textile Museum, The Netherlands National Museum of Ireland Ulster Museum, Belfast Numerous private collections nationally and internationally

Selected Exhibitions Solo Shows 2011 2005 2004 2002 2001 1998 1997 1996 1993 1991 1990

1989

1988

A Life’s Work, Visual Art Centre, Carlow Knottings, Brigitte Moser Gallery, Zug, Switzerland Retrospective, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny Retrospective, Designyard, Templebar, Dublin Surprise – Surprise Body Adornment, Rudolf Heltzel Gallery, Kilkenny Cretan Knots – Nerve Ends, Franshals Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands Knots, Monofilament, Museum Textil Forum, Jutland, Denmark Cretan Knots, Gallerie Tactus, Copenhagen, Denmark Cretan Journey, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Slate and Bone, Brigitte Moser Gallery, Zug, Switzerland Inlaid Stoneware, Leather and Textile Fibre, Rudolf Heltzel Gallery, Kilkenny Paper Rhythms, Rudolf Heltzel Gallery, Kilkenny Sculptural Body Pieces in Paper and Slate Combined with Bone, Ulster Museum, Belfast Arcane Ornament, Paper and Slate Body Sculpture, Taylor Gallery, Dublin Lightweight Adornment Tissue Paper and Handmade Paper, Taylor Gallery, Dublin Body Sculpture: Inlaid Clay, Rudolf Heltzel Gallery, Kilkenny

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny

2012 – 2013 Out of the Marvellous, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan 21st Century Icons, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny and Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin 2009 Herinner-Ring : Remember-Ring, Gallery Expoarte, Oslo, Norway; Sandström Dewit, Linköping, Sweden; Galerie Cebra, Düsseldorf, Germany; National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2008 Herinner-Ring : Remember-Ring, Galerie Beeld en Aambeeld, Enschede, The Netherlands Image of Longing, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2007 SOFA Chicago, USA Sierwerk, Museum Nairac, Barneveld, The Netherlands 2006 Ballade Irlandaise, Embargo Gallery, Paris, France SOFA Chicago, USA Fenton Gallery, Cork Gallery Ra, Amsterdam, The Netherlands More than Metal, Ulster Museum, Belfast 2005 Quartets in Materials, RAI Jewellery, Silver and Design Fair, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2005 – 2008 Irish Craft Portfolio, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny 2011

• Gold torc with black cluster of sickles and gold beaded ring with black moonsickles brass wire with beads and moonsickles, black sequins, 240mm diameter.

Photographer, Rory Moore.

Gallery Representation Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

ceramics / ceirmeacht

Susan O’Byrne

122 . 123

susan o’byrne uses the animal form as a vehicle to express deep human emotions. She is interested in the function and history of animal imagery – its presence in childhood imaginations and its use in storytelling, legends and folklore to simplify the complexities of adult life. Her current body of work is inspired by illustrations from medieval bestiaries, many of which were created to impart moral lessons.

O’Byrne strives to give her animals a certain awkward vulnerability. Utilising a wire framework, she meticulously applies three layers of clay, each with a different composition, to create a skin. The natural twists and kinks of the wire frame and shrinkage during firing dictate the posture of the finished form – the element of chance in the making process is central to her work.

O’Byrne graduated from Grennan Mill Craft School in 1991. In 1999 she was awarded a First-Class Honours Degree in Design and Applied Art from Edinburgh College of Art where she went on to receive a Post Graduate Diploma in ceramics in 2002, when she also established her current practice at Glasgow Ceramics Studio.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

• Lamb, nichrome wire and porcelain paper clay, 500 × 600 × 300mm. Photographer, Susan O’Byrne.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

Susan O’Byrne Flat 2/2, 177 Meadowpark Street Glasgow G31 2TF, Scotland e susanobyrne@hotmail.co.uk t +44 1415563427

www.susanobyrne.com Selected Awards Craft Potters Association Charitable Trust Fund Award, UK

Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2012 2011

Menagerie, The Harley Gallery, Nottingham, UK Fox – Marten – Hare – and some other beasts, Galerie Marianne Heller, Heidelberg, Germany Grandeur Nature, Galerie Le Don du Fel, France

Group Exhibitions and Fairs 2013 2012 2011

2010 2009

2008

Future Beauty?, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Künstlerisches Spielzeug – spielerische Kunst, Galerie Handwerk, HWK Munich, Germany Group Exhibition, European Makers Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Large Group Exhibition, The Lavit Gallery, Cork Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, Wales Wild Thing, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales and Galerie Terra Delft, Delft, The Netherlands Contemporary Ceramics, London, UK Ceramic Art London, UK Creature Feature, The Harley Gallery, Nottingham, UK Ceramic Art London, UK Winter Collection, Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland Hallward Gallery, Dublin Keane on Ceramics, Kinsale, Co. Cork Aberdeen Artists Association, Aberdeen, Scotland Compass Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

• Fox nichrome wire and porcelain paper clay, 1100 × 400 × 400mm.

Photographer, Susan O’Byrne.

crafts council of ireland

Irish Craft Portfolio: Critical Selection

irish craft portfolio / critical selection

Introduction About the Crafts Council of Ireland

Colophon

The Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI) is the main

Editor: Ciara Garvey

champion of the craft industry in Ireland, fostering

Editorial Team: Muireann Charleton, Susan Holland,

its growth and commercial strength, communicating

Kate Simpson, Susan Brindley and Brian McGee.

its unique identity and stimulating quality design,

Publication Design: Atelier David Smith (www.atelier.ie)

innovation and competitiveness. CCoI’s activities are

Photography (still life): Rob Bohle, Andrew Bradley,

funded by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and

Sylvain Deleu, Phil Green, Trevor Hart, Anthony Noel

Innovation via Enterprise Ireland. CCoI currently has

Kelly, Philip Lauterbach, Ben Millett, Rory Moore,

over 75 member organisations and over 2,700

Susan O’Byrne, Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill, Roland Paschhoff

registered clients.

and David Pauley.

Printing and Lithography: MM Artbook Printing & Repro

Crafts Council of Ireland

Binding: Schwind Trier

Castle Yard, Kilkenny, Ireland t: +353 (0) 56 776 1804

ISBN: 978-1-906691-31-8

f: +353 (0) 56 776 3754

www.ccoi.ie Brian McGee Head of Market Development e brian@ccoi.ie / t (056) 7796145

List of illustrations (monochrome pages): Page 4, 42: Liam Flynn at work in studio.

Photographed by Brendan Landy.

Page 8: Liz Nilsson at work.

Photographed by Molly O’Cathain.

Page 12: Derek Wilson at work in studio.

Ciara Garvey Development Manager, Collector & Tourism Programmes e ciara@ccoi.ie / t (056) 7796137

Photographed by Christopher Martin.

Page 16, 98: Derek Wilson’s studio.

Photographed by Christopher Martin.

Page 41: Close-up of Jennifer Hickey at work.

Image courtesy of the artist.

Page 71: Sara Flynn at work in studio.

Image courtesy of the artist.

Page 72: Susan O’Byrne’s studio.

Image courtesy of the artist.

Page 97: Róisín de Buitléar at work in studio.

Image courtesy of the artist.

All images and captions reproduced in this book have been supplied by the selected makers. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, CCoI does not, under any circumstances, accept responsibilty for errors, omissions and/or inferior digital files/sources. © Copyright the authors, makers, photographers and publishers.

All rights reserved. Under no circumstances can any part of this book be reproduced, in any way, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.