I am delighted to share with you “White Engenders Black” which is on view at Farmleigh Gallery in Dublin, Ireland from 14 November 2023 to 18 February 2024.

This exhibition was designed and curated by Mark St. John Ellis from nagGallery. Mark curates beautiful exhibitions that pay tribute to the simple, the quiet, the understated and this exhibition is no exception. When he invited me to be a part of this show I was elated and I am humbled to be exhibiting with such talented colleagues.

The artists:

Kristina Huxley

Roseanne Lynch

Kohei Nakata

Katherine West

Yasha Butler

“White Engenders Black” is on display in the two large rooms that make up Farmleigh Gallery.

Here is a thoughtful description of the exhibition by Mark St. John Ellis:

“The 2023 nagGallery/nagOffsite installation in Farmleigh Gallery incorporates some of the previously explored themes under the exhibition title ‘White Engenders Black’. The title was taken from a piece of text ’Personal Reflections on Ashes’ by Tanikawa Shuntaro.

In Gallery One the ‘Sensitive’ paintings of Kristina Huxley slowly and constantly change in front of the viewers eyes. The paintings are made using heat sensitive pigments that visually change when exposed to warm temperatures brought about by a heating system on a timer. When heat interacts with their surfaces, the paintings change from black to a white abstract form and when the surfaces cool the paintings return to their original colour.

Complimenting the idea of movement in form, the sculptures presented are by Katharine West who is an artist working primarily in clay. Central to her work are phenomena associated with nature: landscape, seascape and the human body, elements of which combine in the sensual abstract forms she creates.

The photographs of Roseanne Lynch are concerned with creating a space and by capturing aspects of that image and then abstracting it. Consequently the combined viewing experience is an existing architectural space and a minimal monochrome abstract work. Not expecting to be defined in exact terms it is an exploration of simplified beauty, a gradation of tone as displayed by the piece in this exhibition.

In Gallery two the sculptural vessels of Yasha Butler continue the ambience of sensuality within the installation by the forms simple and flowing structures that adhere to the concepts and philosophies of the Japanese Shibui which pursue the, understated, simplicity and quietness. To compliment this atmosphere are two black paintings by Kohei Nakata, which when observed under scrutiny, show a graphite colour under the surface thus demonstrating the nagGallery/nagOffsite philosophy of a reduced object that through a time based process has more to offer than the initial and immediate visual experience.”

Location: Farmleigh Gallery,
Farmleigh House and Estate,
White’s Road,
Phoenix Park,
Dublin,
D15 TD50

Dates: 14 November 2023 – 18 February 2024

Photography by Mark St. John Ellis and Yasha Butler