2″x2″; collage & mixed media on canvas; 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Land-mark: Comhartha talún
at The Ballinglen Gallery in Ballycastle, Co Mayo, Ireland
21 February–17 March 2025
Déirdre Kelly and Kaitlin Zorah McDonough come together in “Land-mark”, a presentation of the multifaceted ways that place anchors and informs their work.
The artists first met in Venice, Italy, a place whose unique urban construct and vibratory qualities expand and shape one’s perceptions. The pulse of Venice is quite different from the raw natural energy and unmitigated magnetism found in the West of Ireland, specifically at Ballinglen.
Déirdre Kelly (image above) focuses on the language of mapping the aesthetics of cartography recognizing the intrinsic beauty of the physical map made up of familiar signs, symbols and colors. The mechanisms and language key to reading maps, provide a kind of ‘grounding’, a ‘grip’ on the world, a fundamental connection with time and place. Kelly continues to focus on the map of Ireland, in particular, relationships and experience of the distinctive details of the North Mayo Atlantic coastline. Their experiences of this magical location crystalized into the works on show, marking a coming together and a return: to place, to shared identity, to past and future connections.
13″x14″; oil, acrylic, beads, collage on cardboard on panel; 2025. Courtesy of the artist.
Relationality is a key modality of McDonough’s painting. She seeks to make the etheric material through resonant color and rhythm. For the Ballinglen works, she was moved by the primal directness of the land, ocean, animals, and sky. And by the extraordinary mist and air of Sea-Angels. For McDonough, the paintings become distinct places unto themselves: mobile access points to the harmonics of the earth-place from which they came.
(text adapted from material provided by the gallery)
The Ballinglen Gallery at Ballinglen Arts Foundation
Main Street
Ballycastle, County Mayo F26 X5N3, Ireland
+353 96 43184
Hours:
Monday-Friday, 12PM-5PM
Weekends, by appointment only