Open from Friday 30 June and running until Saturday 2nd September. Launching on Thursday 6th July at 7pm. All welcome.
glór Gallery is open from 10am – 3pm Monday to Friday and 10am – 5pm on Saturday.
Curated by Conor O’Grady, On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous is a two person exhibition bringing together the distinct artistic practices of Catherine McDonald and Méadhbh O’Connor, challenging our perceptions of contemporary visual art practices and inviting us to explore the boundaries of our perception to the natural world.
Catherine McDonald’s multi-layered installations merge sculpture, painting, film, and sound, transporting us to imagined spaces that exist on the periphery of our consciousness. Méadhbh O’Connor’s interdisciplinary approach collides art, science, technology, and eco-futurism, enabling us to see the intricate connections between the poetic and the analytic, the spiritual and the technological.
Through their thought-provoking works, Catherine McDonald and Méadhbh O’Connor prompt us to embrace the peripheral aspects of our environment, challenging constructed perceptions and opening ourselves to new possibilities. The exhibition guides visitors through a sensory experience where multi-layered installations, sculptures, paintings, photographs, and multimedia encounters blur the line between reality and imagination.
On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is an invitation to expand our consciousness, recognise the significance of the overlooked, and engage with the intricate relationship between humanity and the natural world. It encourages us to explore the boundaries of our perception and shape a more sustainable and conscious future.
Images:
Featured Image: Of Salt and Ore by Catherine McDonald (Detail)
Below: Alt Space by Méadhbh O’Connor (Detail)
Catherine McDonald
Catherine McDonald is a visual artist from county Wexford. Her practice is a magical natural history; a fictional narrative of an existing world. Using sculpture, film, sound and light, Catherine creates installations which probe the relationship between Earth and the imagination. She uses ecological research to construct alternate, playful scenes, blending fact with speculation in order to generate new methods of understanding.
Catherine holds an MFA in Art and Ecology from the Burren College of Art, University of Galway. She has exhibitions in Clare, Kilkenny and Cork in 2023. Her ongoing installation series Past, Present, Future was exhibited at the LAB Gallery and IMMA in 2022. Her micrography series, Genescape, was recently published in SEED: Objects of Wonder journal. Catherine received her BFA from TU Dublin. Her graduate work was chosen for exhibition at the 2021 RDS Visual Art Awards at the RHA and received the Image Now Purchase award.
For more click HERE
Méadhbh O’Connor
Méadhbh O’Connor (b. Dublin, 1984) is a visual artist whose work is composed of an extended exploration at the intersections of art, science, technology and eco futurism. In her work she collides the poetic and the analytic, the spiritual and the technological, the expressive and the restrained, the natural and the engineered; in an effort to find resonance amongst these different registers. She uses sculptural and multimedia installation art, photography, drawing, and the written and spoken word.
She has shown in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally in venues such as The Glucksman, VISUAL Carlow, the Royal Scottish Academy of Arts and Architecture, University College Dublin, University of Oxford, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the 57th Venice Biennale of Art and many more. She has received multiple funding awards from The Arts Council of Ireland. She holds an MFA (Oxon) from the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford (2020) and an undergraduate degree from IADT Dún Laoghaire (2009). She was twice awarded Artist in Residence (for Science) with Parity Studios at University College Dublin (2013 and by invitation in 2017)