'and with each breath taken' // Aras Inis Gluaire Gallery, Belmullet, Co. Mayo // Sep 2 -27, '09

'And With Each Breath Taken', installation view.

'Preponderance of the Small' // Douglas Hyde Gallery 3 // Sep 25-Oct 31, '09

Preponderance of The Small, an off-site project which forms part of The Douglas Hyde Gallery's ongoing Gallery 3 initiative, will feature works by twenty-one younger artists working in Ireland.

Each artist will exhibit at one of twenty-one locations in and around Trinity College, creating a trail of artworks. This is intended to give the viewer the opportunity to look anew at more familiar locations, while also highlighting spaces that are often overlooked.

The title, which derives from a hexagram in the Chinese I-Ching, or Book of Changes, points to the great power and value of small things. In a rapidly changing culture, at a time when many of yesterday's monumental gestures have proved to be empty, grandiose artistic statements seem superfluous. This exhibition is intended to question how we attribute value in today's culture, and to suggest that it is in small things that we may find our way forward.

The exhibition will feature works in a broad range of media, including painting, drawing, installation and video. Many are formally linked through their employment of small elements (marks, gestures, objects) which are repeated or accumulated in order to form a whole that is somehow greater than the sum of its component parts. In each case, beyond the formal relationship of the works, the attitude or approach of each of the artists is key.

The artists, works and venues were selected by a Curatorial Collective composed of three members of The Douglas Hyde Gallery's staff and three young Irish artists.




Untitled Graph Drawing, No.8 (pencil on A1 graph paper, 2009)
(shown in 'Preponderance of the Small' show, Bewley's Cafe)

Untitled Graph Drawing, No.9 (pencil on A1 graph paper, 2009)

Untitled Graph Drawing, No.6 (pencil on A1 graph paper, 2008)

'Parklife' A Visual Art Exhibition, St. Anne's Park // July-Aug '09

Participating Atists:
Aideen Barry, Carl Giffney, Niamh Jackman,
John Jones, Maria Mckinney & Beth O'Halloran.
Curated by Claire Power.

'PARKLIFE borrows its title from the 1994 popular song by Blur, chosen to evoke associations with the mid 1990's when Ireland enjoyed a more optimistic economic outlook. When I was researching for this exhibition in the early 2009, there was no escaping the prevailing national mood of despair. My thoughts began to form around the idea of the park, as a place of recreation and leisure where people spend time freely. While PARKLIFE does not offer clever solutions to the nation's problems, the intention is to create a playful, summer exhibition that celebrates 'park-life' and intrinsically, St. Anne's Park, as a free civic space. PARKLIFE conjours up ideas of carnival, humour, new ways of looking at things and a value of the past. The exhibition presents a spectrum of responses from artists working in different media, subject matter and scale. The six artists embraced the concept for the exhibition and the huge scale of the park with tremendous vigour and freshness.' CLAIRE POWER, CURATOR.

The idea of the past and the present and the line where they meet greatly influences my practice. I am particularly interested in how that line can become highlighted or obscured. STUDY ROOM is an attempt to bring back a once vital element of St. Anne's past to the pressent day. An architectural space, once occupied by the old Guinness estate house, becomes that of a relic or a reminder of a time past. STUDY ROOM questions the ownership of land and asks what is seen as private and what is seen as public? The work, while evoking elements of the park's history, becomes a kind of obstruction to the present environment, which is almost entirely devoid of man-made structures.
JOHN JONES







Study Room (Wood, 2009)

Exhibiting in a public space such as St.Anne’s Park, is in many ways far more challenging than in that of the gallery space. The artist has to allow for a far greater physical interaction with the work from the viewing public, and unlike the relatively safe confine of the gallery space, there is very much an unknown quality to how the work will be recieved by the general public. While the original inentions of Study Room were successful, the continuous damage it recieved on an almost daily basis, only served to heighthen the idea of what we see as public and what we see as private. The piece while creating a positive interest and a curiosity within the parks daytime visitors, provoked a more physical reaction from its night time visitors. Study Room became that of an intrusion, and underwent numerous damages. It became a kind of strange interaction between myself as the artist and the anonymous ‘vandals’, as in the mornings I would fix the damages as best I could, only for it to be damaged again. In the end Study Room was damaged beyond repair and had to be taken down before the end of the exhibition. But I find it quite poignant that as the piece itself was meant to evoke an architectural space in the parks history, we can see the mark left behind, however temporary, where Study Room itself once stood. And rather than that of a physical space that can be touched and explored, what remains has a more emphemeral quality, a gesture of the past.

John Jones



For more information;

___http://www.dublincity.ie/Press/PressReleases/PR2009/Press_Releases_July_2009/Pages/Parklife-AvisualartexhibitionthroughoutStAnne'sPark,Raheny.aspx

___ http://www.architecturefoundation.ie/2009/07/21/parklife/

New work for solo show in Aras Inis Gluaire Gallery, Co. Mayo // Sep '09

Untitled Building Series, No.9 (pencil on paper, 2008)

Untitled Building Series, No.5 (pencil on paper, 2008)

Untitled Building Series, No.23 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.27 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.21 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.19 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.20 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.23 (pencil on paper 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.17 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.24 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.25 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.22 (pencil on paper, 2009)

and with each breath taken, no.26 (pencil on paper, 2009)

Untitled Building Series, No.21 (pencil on paper, 2009)

Untitled Building Series, No.24 (pencil on paper, 2009)

Untitled Building Series, No.22 (pencil on paper, 2009)

'The Bell Tower', shown at Rua Red's inaugural Exhibition 'House Warming' // Feb - April '09

HOUSE WARMING

House Warming – a party – is an occasion to invite in friends and new neighbours and warm the house up, before settling in.

This inaugural exhibition for RUA RED, South Dublin's new arts centre, celebrates these spaces by bringing together eight artists whose practice demonstrates different approaches to art making – with many of the artists making new work or developing an existing work specially for this occasion.
The combination of artists working in different media, subject matter, scale and concepts marks a plurality of approaches that exploits the possibilities of these new gallery spaces.

These artists also epitomise the strength and vibrancy of visual arts in Ireland, now being recognised in international circles. We hope that the exhibition, like a good housewarming party, celebrates these gallery spaces as a new home for the arts in Dublin.

Participating Artists:
Jesse Jones, Liam O'Callaghan, Bea McMahon, Sean Lynch,
John Jones, Claire Langon, Beth O'Halloran & Vera Klute.
Curated by Cliodhna Shaffery and Ruiri O'Cuiv.





The Bell Tower (wood, bell & rope, 2009)

Untitled Building Series, No.16 (pencil on paper, 2009)

_http://www.ruared.ie/housewarming.html

'How Do You Know?', Oakland, California // Aug '09

HOW DO YOU KNOW?
The work of 16 emerging contemporary Irish artists.

Opens First Friday August 7th 7-10pm
Exhibition shows through August 30, 2009.

After an all Ireland call for work responding to the theme of 'How Do You Know?' the artist-run gallery 126 curated a diverse range of works and practices to be highlighted in the Bay Area.

Approaches range from the medical and methodical to those of chance and humour. The show features a range of media from painting and collage to video and installation. Artists showing are: Vera Klute, Paul Murnaghan, Padraig Robinson, Christopher Banahan, Jackie Nickerson, Emma Houlihan, Adelle Hickey, Bernie Masterson, Emmet Kierans, Fiona Chambers, John Jones, Theresa Nanigan, Paul Hickey, Helena O’Connor, Tanya O’Keefe and James Hayes.

Blankspace is proud to present a group exhibition curated by 126 in Galway Ireland. Blankspace has worked with 126 for over a year to produce exchange opportunities for local artists from both regions. Bay Area artists will be exhibiting work in Galway, Ireland opening August 19th. Both galleries share similar missions and goals when it comes to producing exhibitions; 126 and Blankspace are both artist-run exhibition spaces that promote strong conceptual approaches and experimentation in art making.


Untitled Building Series, No.1 (pencil on paper, 2008)

Untitled Building Series, No.12 (pencil on paper, 2008)


_http://blankspacegallery.com/

'Summer Exhibition 2009', Rua Red Gallery // July-Aug '09

and with each breath taken, no.1 (pencil on paper, 2008)

and with each breath taken, no.3 (pencil on paper, 2008)

and with each breath taken, no.12 (pencil on paper, 2008)

http://www.ruared.ie

'RHA 179th Annual Exhibition' // May-July '09

Untitled Building Series, No.18 (pencil on paper, 2009)

Untitled Building Series, No.19 (pencil on paper, 2009)

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- VI International Biennial of Drawing Pilsen 2008, Czech Republic, Museum of West Bohemia.
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* Winner of the Prize of the Union of Visual Artists

Untitled Bombing Series No.8 (pencil on paper, 2008)

Untitled Bombing Series No.3 (pencil on paper, 2008)

Untitled Bombing Series No.5 (pencil on paper, 2008)

Untitled Bombing Series No.1 (pencil on paper, 2008)

For more information please visit:

http://bienale-plzen.cz/en/archive/biennial-2008/

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- SOME MORE DRAWINGS

and with each breath taken, no.9 (pencil on paper, 2008)

and with each breath taken, no.5 (pencil on paper, 2008)

and with each breath taken, no.2 (pencil on paper, 2008)

and with each breath taken, no.4 (pencil on paper, 2008)

and with each breath taken, no.6 (pencil on paper, 2008)


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- 'And the Dead Tree Gives No Shelter', Group Exhibition, Jan '08 Artists; James Gormley, Ruth Lyons, Carl Giffney & John Jones







Untitled, wood & pencil on paper, 2008


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- 'Degree Show', National College of Art & Design, 2007
















Mixed Media; video installation, wood & fabric, 2007