Deirdre Gallagher	Bursary Award Winner 2008-2009
Dark falls the Night	5th November – 26th November 2009

 

Deirdre Gallagher, 'Moments of Absolute Blue', Collograph and Monoprint

Each year Limerick Printmakers Studio and Gallery award a BA Graduate from the Printmaking Department at Limerick School of Art and Design a Bursary Award in the form of a year’s membership and a solo exhibition at the end of that year. The aim of the award is to promote printmaking as a viable career choice and to support graduates through provision of specialist facilities and to build a community of innovative printmakers in Limerick City. Our 2008/2009 winner is Deirdre Gallagher. 

In her first solo exhibition ‘Dark Falls the Night’ Deirdre Gallagher explores the most basic of human desires ‘the longing to belong’.  After reading John O’Donohue’s book “Eternal Echoes, Exploring our Hunger to Belong”, she visited the places John lived and loved (Connemara and The Burren) with a new insight. These places still remain wild and untamed by human domestication. The freedom of these places allows our bodies to unclench and our minds to reach a level of calmness that is only obtained by being truly alone. 

John O’Donohue had a fascination with what he called ‘the ambiguity of the visible and invisible world’ and he talks about the threshold of darkness. He also speaks of another threshold, which is that where we exist in this world but are on the threshold of the next. Deirdre’s use of twilight colours, and contrasting texture and line through the use of collograph and monoprint work to express this threshold in both landscape and ourselves.  

O’Donohue speaks to the deepest calling of our soul, the longing to belong.  Deirdre’s work features stones and rock in many of the pieces to reflect this. Stone as a natural entity is an appropriate image and subject because of its ability to blend in or stand out.  It is in itself harsh and rugged but it tries to belong by covering itself in soft moss, yet underneath it is still itself a rock. There is a contradiction of acceptance and rejection of its surroundings. It belongs to the landscape but it is also independent of it. In either case it remains present in the environment, a silent witness to nature and humanity that keeps our memories and secrets but withholds judgement. 

Deirdre uses monoprint and collograph to create her stunning fine art prints. The use of natural materials including stone and wood evokes the landscape of Connemara and the Burren. A Limerick native Deirdre graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design with a first class honours and a sell-out degree show in 2008. Her work featured in the RDS Students Awards at the Dublin Horse show 2008 and the Arno Kramer Open Drawing award in 2008. 

LSAD Printmaking lecturer Des Mac Mahon will officially open the exhibition at 8pm on Thursday 5^th November and it will run until the 26th November.  

The exhibition will run until 26^th November 2009. For further information on this exhibition, please contact Limerick Printmakers Studio and Gallery at the details below. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 11am to 5.30pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm. All are welcome. Admission is free.