Liminal Landscapes
Gabhann Dunne, Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe
Opens 19th of September and runs until the 15th of November
"Liminal Landscapes: Reflects the transitional themes navigated by both artists, from ecological shifts to the boundaries of sculpture and writing" is a compelling exhibition featuring the works of Gabhann Dunne and Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe. This exhibition navigates the intricate relationship between human actions and the environment, drawing upon the Burren's ecological narrative and integrating feminist new materialist perspectives. Through Dunne's evocative environmental paintings and Hynan-Ratcliffe's exploratory sculptural and written works, the exhibition fosters a dialogue that spans nature, identity, and the passage of time.
Gabhann Dunne's paintings capture the Burren's transformation, symbolizing the broader impacts of human activity on natural landscapes. His focus on the native Burren Pines reflects a deep reverence for nature's resilience and a critique of historical ecological changes.
Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe's practice intertwines sculpture and writing to explore materiality, feminist concerns, and the sensorial experiences of matter. Her engagement with themes of grief, ritual, and the cyclical nature of life and decay complements Dunne's environmental narrative, presenting a holistic view of our interaction with the natural world.
Liminal Landscapes seamlessly blends Dunne's and Hynan-Ratcliffe's art, creating a multisensory experience that reflects on our environmental footprint and personal connections to the earth. The exhibition underscores the themes of ecological awareness, identity, and temporal shifts through a variety of mediums, inviting visitors to consider their own impact on the world.
Gabhann Dunne Biography
Gabhann Dunne is a Dublin-based painter. His work deals with environment, time and identity. He uses plants, landscapes and narratives about how we treat natural spaces. He has a particular interest in how paint and gesture can immerse us in a work and create empathy for its subject.
Dunne studied Fine Art Painting in the Dublin Institute of Technology and the National College of Art and Design. He is a former winner of the RDS Taylor Art Award (2011) and the Hennessy Craig Scholarship/Whytes Award for Painting at the RHA. Dunne has exhibited widely. His recent shows include: Eight Billion Mystics (Molesworth Gallery, 2023); Parklife (Glucksman Gallery, 2022); The End of the Sure Beginning (Molesworth Gallery, 2021) and Crossing the Salt (West Cork Art Centre, 2021; Farmleigh Gallery, 2019 and Limerick Art Gallery, 2018).
His work is in public and private collections, including UCC Art Collection; Office of Public Works; Axa Collection; Facebook; Deloitte; Mason Hayes Curran; Law Society of Ireland and the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland, National University of Limerick.
Dunne has been a judge on RTE’s Painting the Nation (2016-2017); the Annual 44th Exhibition for Waterford (2021), and DLR Exhibition Selection Panel (2023).
Theo Ryan Ratcliffe Biography/Statement
Theo is a sculptor, writer, and project coordinator based in the West of Ireland. She is a studio member at Spacecraft in Limerick city, and recently became Co. Editor of The Paper an online visual art publication based in Cork. She received a first class BA Honours in Sculpture & Combined Media from Limerick School of Art & Design in 2020 and went on to co-found and co-direct an artist studio and collective in Limerick city Miscreating Sculpture Studios, during this time she began practising as a writer/researcher alongside her sculptural practice.
Theo recently graduated with a first-class honours from the Art Writing MLitt at Glasgow School of Art & Design. She has published work with Circa Art magazine, Bloomers, Visual Artists Ireland Newsheet, and in Map Magazine in Glasgow, UK and has recently presented work at Centre of Contemporary Art Glasgow, Good Press Glasgow, and Flax Art Studios Belfast, amongst other locations both in Scotland and Ireland. Theo has recently been awarded an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland to develop her sculptural/research practice Art and is currently working towards an exhibition of new work to be shown in Glasgow in 2024 at the SaltSpace gallery.
Her practice is currently located at the point of contact between sculpture and writing, engaging with feminist new materialist concerns, exploring language as a liminal site through which to practice material attention and translate the sensorial and enmeshed encounters of body and matter. Currently, her praxis engages with the idea of aftermatter, residues of matter in the aftermath of action, inquiring into our human intra-relation with generations of matter both in intentional and incidental forms.
Through auto-fictional re-weavings her work focuses on material attention to the formation and decomposition of both organic and synthetic matter, proposing contemporary rituals and attunement to matters’ life cycles in domestic life in both urban and rural contexts.
Focusing on moments which explore attunement to physicalisations of time and human tendencies towards the generation and dissolution of matter. Encountering and researching Turloughs amidst other material/environmental state changes and life cycles. Her practice moves from writing, to casting, to papermaking, photographs, video, sculptural durational material work, utilising all of these elements to create installations, exhibitions, publications.
To find out more about her postgraduate research please follow this link: https://gsapostgradshowcase.net/theo-hynan-ratcliffe/