22 Nov 2008

I've Become a Magpie








126 presents:

I've Become a Magpie

New work by Cian McConn

Featuring collaborations with Vivienne Griffin and Kay Merryweather.
Curated by Mary Nally

November 27th – December 13th , 2008
Thurs – Sat, 12-5pm or by appointment.
Opening reception: Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 7pm

"We inhabit a universe with which we are out of key, man is
bewildered, troubled and obscurely threatened…"


– Martin Esslin, 'Theater of the Absurd'


McConn has spent two years living and working in New York City. This exhibition is a commentary on his experiences of America in uncertain times. His inspirations come from the environment which surrounds him, whether that is working in an office or a restaurant. His work addresses his own struggle to find not just a job but a place to be, a place to call home even if its just for a while.

By using combined media – video, collage, photography, performance – an assemblage of ideas is created. The work embraces a low-tech approach and creates simple, poetic pieces, in an attempt to communicate how vulnerable we are to the ploys of a fickle world.

Using humour, elements of romanticism and borrowing from schools of thought such as the Theater of the Absurd and The Situationist International, Cian McConn to comes to terms with an urban environment in which everyone is seemingly vying for attention through fashion, the media and desire.

I've Become a Magpie also opens up the creative process to involve other artists in a collaborative role. For this exhibition McConn will show a piece from a series of photographs he is currently working
on with New York based Irish artist Vivienne Griffin and work from an ongoing video series with free lance musician and performer Kay Merryweather.

126 is an artist-run project and gallery space in Galway, which promotes experimental and risk-taking artworks that wouldn't normally be shown in museums or commercial galleries. 126 is democratically organised and has an active membership of over 100.

126, Artist-run gallery
Unit 11o, Ballybane Ind Est,
Tuam Rd, Galway
Ireland
+353 (0)91 761626
www.126.ie

Thurs – Sat, 12-5pm or by appointment.

Supported by The Arts Council of Ireland

22 Oct 2008

BLACKFLASH




All photos courtesy of Dave Ruffles




126, for the Tulca season of visual art, presents:
Blackflash new work by Mark Cullen

Nov 1st - 22nd
Opening reception: Thursday, Nov 6th, 7pm.
After party @ Bar No. 8 with DJ Whitelightning, 9:30 til close.


Blackflash:
A disorientating condition when an occurrence from a fictional past intercedes in the mind of the present, perceived as a real event, or as a continuum of happening.

An instance of remembering an experience that may or may not have happened when one has 'blacked out', lost consciousness, or when one has disconnected from ones own subjectivity, through the result of an immersive experience in an alternate reality, an hallucination, or such as a through a 'letting go' engagement with fiction, with music or with ones daydreams.

An uncomfortable 'snap back' effect may be experienced as one returns to a pre-blackflash state.


Mark Cullen explores cosmologies, playfully engaging our senses, he jolts our position in relation to our surroundings and our imagination. Making use of cinematic and theatrical devices, Cullen directs installations that draw on conventions of the carnivale to engage the viewer in a participatory encounter. He is interested in implicating the viewer within arts ability to stretch logic, time, material and experiential possibilities, and to entice the viewer into a consideration of a cosmological experience.

The stars, the heavens, the planet, atomic material; how they are represented in popular science and science fiction, and how in turn it is subjectivised in our imaginations is a launch pad for this work. Questions of humankind's evolution interpenetrates science fictive subjectivities.

Mark Cullen was born in Dublin in 1972. Works include MAIM XI for Irish Museum Modern Art, Temporary Portable Reservoirs at The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin and Siege House, London, Cosmic Annihilator, an installation at Pallas Heights and Open EV+A (curated by Dan Cameron 2005) Limerick City Gallery. Recent works include STAR P*WER at Flicker, The Burren College Gallery, Star Gazing at 52° North at Synaesthesia Sat, Workhouse Birr Arts Festival. In 2005 he completed a Masters in Visual Arts Practices at DLIADT and was an award winner at EV+A 2005. In 2007 he attended a residency at El Levante in Rosario, Argentina. Cullen was curator of Darklight Digital Film Festival from 1999-2004.

In 1995 with Brian Duggan he was the co-founding partner of Pallas Studios, Dublin. Pallas through their various guises and programmes have been key exponents of experimental art practice in Dublin. He is also a director of Pallas Contemporary Projects a new space for experimental art in Dublin.

www.pallasprojects.org
www.pallasheights.org
www.pallasstudios.org

www.tulca.ie

126
Unit 11, Ballybane Ind Est
Tuam Rd. Galway Ireland

Gallery hours are Thursday to Saturday 12-5

8 Oct 2008

Kevin Gaffney for Artisit? [3]




Pseudo Nippon


126 Presents:

Kevin Gaffney
for Artisit?[3]

October 2nd - 18th

Opening reception 7pm October 2nd, 2008
with a sound based performance by Pseudo Nippon at 8pm

Artisit? is a creative project that began in 2006 with the aim of creating a platform for artists emerging from college to display their work that would in turn help to bridge the gap that often exists between art education and professional practice. Through a series of art events, exhibitions and parties, Artisit? will showcase the work of these artists from around the world with various locations and venues around Galway city playing host to a range of site specific artwork, installations, video, photography, drawing, print, performance and interventions from cutting edge graduates of the finest national and international art schools.

Gallery open Thursday through Saturday, 12 - 5pm.

22 Sept 2008

Duty Dance & workshop




Duty Dance

Performances by Dan Monks, Sinead McCann and Naomi Sex
Opening reception – 7pm Saturday September 27th 2008

For this collaborative weeklong project, the artists will use the behaviour traits of feral pigeons, bowerbirds and washing machines as reference points to explore our relationship with the urban system of governed spaces and the power structures that exist within them. Working in a similar manner as Thursday’s workshop, the artists’ week long investigation will consist of the development of micro-performances, the continuous structural modification of the gallery (so as to delineate performance areas and viewing points; this will entail the building of walls, corridors, and platforms), and the collection of audio recordings. Additionally, the entire process will operate under an open doors policy and will culminate in a performance on 7pm, Saturday September 27th 2008.

And...

Performance Workshop

ALL AFTERNOON – Thursday September 25th 2008. Opening reception at 7pm. Limited spaces, please RSVP: contactg126@gmail.com

Dan Monks, Sinead McCann and Naomi Sex have been invited by 126 to use the gallery space as a centre for performance workshops. The artists will provide a one-off professional training workshop, as well as develop a series of micro-performances with third-level students at GMIT and the Burren College of Art. Envisioned as a collaboration, this project will explore themes of family structure, home, and power structures.

The two-day workshop will begin through simple exercises designed to stimulate the audience, regardless of prior experiences with performance. Various performative strategies will be delivered through participatory manoeuvres. Imaginative prop construction will be encouraged. A series of small-micro performances will be developed, culminating in an exhibition that evening at 7pm, Thursday September 25th 2008.

17 Sept 2008

Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue



126 with Galway Culture Night 2008 presents:

Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue
A performance and temporary installation by Dan Monks

Friday September 19th 2008, 7-11pm
Spanish Arch, Galway City Museum

126 is pleased to make possible an unique evening of performance and temporary installation. Glasgow-based performance artist Dan Monks will intervene on the streets of Galway. He will be using only the streets, the company of pigeons, a shopping trolley and a lot of cardboard.

Dan Monks will be traversing Galway with a shopping trolley, gathering cardboard from the outside of shops, from the backstreets, from bins, etc. Dan and his makeshift materials will converge with audience members at Spanish Arch from 7-11pm and over the course of the night the cardboard will be built into a miniature 'city'.

Additionally, Dan will be feeding the local birds in and around the 'city' and supplying sound-based excursions for the enjoyment of the passers-by, the birds, and himself.

Dan Monks was borne in 1981 in Dublin and raised in the suburbs. In 2005 he moved to Glasgow to attend the Master of Fine Art program at the Glasgow School of Art. Negotiation, collaboration and utterance are three words he keeps returning to in relation to his work. He lives and operates, most often, in Glasgow.

G126 is an artist-led project and gallery space in Galway, which promotes experimental artworks that wouldn't be shown in conventional institutions such as commercial galleries.

www.galwayculturenight.com
www.g126.eu

18 Aug 2008

Accumulations






G126 presents:

"Accumulations"

new work by Niall de Buitléar

August 21st – September 13th 2008

OPENING RECEPTION: 7pm Thursday August 21st

Accumulations is an exhibition of sculpture and drawing that have been produced through the labour intensive accumulation of simple elements. The sense of growth of the work over a period of time is essential

The sculptures use pre-processed materials; the artist is interested
in their transformative potential. Central to the sculpture are the
relationships that are formed between the found material, the
processes of construction, and the resulting forms. The sculptures are
essentially abstract but are intended to be suggestive of various
structures such as cells, fungi, landscapes or cityscapes, and
standing figures. Large drawings are composed of simple, geometric
elements; Freehand drawings lead to a distortion, away from the
geometric towards the organic.

Niall de Buitléar was born in Dublin in 1983 where he currently lives.
After graduating from D.I.T. with a BA in fine art in 2006 he was
awarded the year-long graduate residency at Flaxart Studios in
Belfast. His work has recently been shown at the Lewis Glucksman
Gallery, the Lab in Dublin, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Queen
Street Studios in Belfast, and at the Contemporary Art Centre in
Vilnius. This summer he undertook residencies at Ard Bia Berlin and
Limerick City Gallery of Art.

www.nialldebuitlear.com

G126 is a democratically run, artist-led gallery and project space in Galway, which promotes experimental artworks that wouldn't be shown in conventional institutions such as commercial galleries.

G126
Unit 11, Ballybane Ind Est
Tuam Rd. Galway Ireland

Gallery hours are Thursday to Saturday 12-5

www.g126.eu

17 Aug 2008

Voted most fashionable

126 exhibiting artist Rainer Ganahl is featured in this months Elle magazine:

15 Aug 2008

Tuam Arts Festival


Martin Rochford


Aoife Cassidy


Dave Callan


Lucy Jones


Linda Monks


Jim Ricks


Sharon O'Grady

Bored?
Tuam Arts Festival

Tuam shopping centre
Saturday 9th - 25th of August 2008

G126 Board members were invited by Visual Arts Co-Ordinator Joanne Hynes to exhibit at this years Tuam Arts Festival.

Aoife Cassidy: Installation Artist of Sorts A small installation of bits and pieces, including works on paper from a series called 'The Lonely Hearts Club' and video.

Dave Callan: Don't Panic We're All Doomed II"A mixed media installation of fear. paranoia, cheap chinese (made)labour and preparations for the imminent end of the world.

Jim Ricks: His work is combustive, rambunctious politically driven, found-objectbased multimedia work intended to disrupt the mainstream narrative.

Linda Monks: My work thus far has been an investigation of the self. I'm fascinated by Narcissistic Personality Disorder; the grandiose sense of self-importance.

Lucy Jones: The attack of the killer tomatoes! In Medieval times it was said that tomatoes were deadly poisonous.

Martin Rochford: Control My work is often influenced be the complexity of human interaction. Why do people put themselves in difficult situations?

Sharon O'Grady:
An artist and curator based in galway. She paints things on occasion.

Tuam Arts Festival site

8 Aug 2008

The Irish Artist-Led Archive




G126 presents:
The Irish Artist-Led Archive

The 'Irish Artist-led Archive - Sustainable Activism and the Embrace of Flux' is a curated archival project and touring exhibition that seeks to publicly present the rich history of Irish artist-led cultural Initiatives that have taken place over the past 30 years. The project forms an on-going investigation into artist-led initiatives in Ireland and aims to decipher the kind of cultural conditions that led to their birth, their economic independence (or lack of), their organizational structures and how all of these factors effected their activities and life spans.

The project uses a variety of live archiving strategies to initiate dialogue and debate into artsit-led culture. Methods in collecting information include live presentations, roundtable discussions, performance art works and word of mouth. Through the process of dialogue and exchange artist-led groups will have the freedom to continually develop and be involved in an evolving representation of their activities, rather than presenting a fixed definition of themselves within a permanent archive.

Over the course of 2007 and 2008 the project will be involved in many live events across Ireland and the archive and concurrent exhibition will tour to various art centres and spaces in Ireland. It is envisioned that this archive will be infinitely malleable and continue to evolve and change form according to the environment it finds itself in. As a traveling "housing of information" this archive will attempt to initiate and inform interest in artist-led culture in localized contexts by providing a national and international context for such activities.

The ALA website will continue grow to form an online resource and directory of artist-led culture in Ireland.
We are currently seeking out any information/memories of any artist-run collectives, co-operatives, projects, galleries, publications, project spaces from approx 1970 -present, from both North and South of the border. Even if you were not part of such initiatives but have some memories of them we would be pleased to hear from you . Likewise if you have any writings or relevant information that you feel could contribute to the project or would like to take part in, or initiate an event please contact: info@theartistledarchive.com

www.theartistledarchive.com

G126 will be hosting the ALA for the next few months. The archive is being housed in our office and is available to view by appointment or during regular gallery hours. Th-Sat, 12 - 5pm

13 Jul 2008

D A D A L E N I N






Above photos by Dave Ruffles



G126 and the Galway Arts Festival present:

DADALENIN
by RAINER GANAHL
July 14th – August 16th 2008

Opening Reception: 7pm Thursday July 17th

Rainer Ganahl is a Swiss artist based in New York. His work encompasses grand narratives and Google searches, EBAY and embroidery, explores how the incidental and banal are inextricable from the political. He has recently shown at the Istanbul, Venice and Moscow Biennials. G126 is delighted to make possible his first appearance in Ireland.

DADALENIN is an ongoing project that asserts that V. I. Lenin was a founding member of the Dadaist movement; That Lenin was a regular at the Cabaret Voltaire when in Zurich in 1916; That he operated in disguise and most other Dadaists weren't aware of it; That Lenin even wrote poems for Tristan Tzara, had a secret relationship with him and participated in a diverse range of early Dadaist advances. In the latest Irish installment of this project Ganahl has included James Joyce as a collaborator. Joyce was also present in Zurich at the same time as Lenin and the Dadaists. Ganahl uses DADALENIN to prove these assertions by connecting historical events, artifacts, images, readings, internet searches, even other artworks and historical figures. Making serious points through a comedic methodology, DADALENIN addresses the lost causes of the 20th century's problematic history.

G126 is a democratically run, artist-led gallery and project space in Galway, which promotes experimental artworks that wouldn't be shown in conventional institutions such as commercial galleries.

G126
Unit 11, Ballybane Ind Est
Tuam Rd. Galway Ireland

Open everyday of the Arts Festival 12- 5.
Regular gallery hours are Thursday to Saturday 12-5

www.ganahl.info

www.ganahl.info/g126.html

10 Jul 2008

G126 Raffle at the G Hotel


L to R: Mayor Conneely and G126 Board member Aoife Cassidy


L to R: G126 Board members Jim Ricks and Aoife Cassidy, Mayor Conneely and Blaise Drummond.

And the winner is... Sharon O'Grady!!!

Congratulations!

Special thanks to Blaise Drummond, Galway City Mayor Padraig Conneely and the G Hotel.






Join G126 at the G Hotel on Saturday the 26th of July for the raffle of a painting by Galway-based artist Blaise Drummond, which will be drawn by Galway City Mayor Padraig Conneely.

Blaise Drummond has kindly donated a painting for this raffle, 'Island No. 6'. His work has been exhibited widely across Europe and America. His work sits in the IMMA collection, Ireland's museum for modern and contemporary art and in many important collections around the world.

Drummond's paintings, whether seen as a series or in isolation, explore the tenuous relationship between nature and culture. His works attempt to excavate hope of an abiding natural world, amidst the debris of civilization's relentless progress.

Tickets cost 20 euro and are available at the Galway Arts Centre and G126.

For further information please see the G126 Blog that also contains an image of the painting for raffle, 'Island No.6' OIL AND GLOSS ON BOARD 91.5 X 91.5CM.

G126 office number 091 761626, our regular hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday 12 - 5pm. Additionally, we will be open everyday of the Arts Festival 12-5pm.

G126
Unit 11
Ballybane Industrial Estate
Galway

contactg126@gmail.com
www.g126.eu
www.g126.blogspot.com

25 Jun 2008

other men's flowers

G126 co-founder Ben Geoghegan at the Hugh Lane:



26 June - 5 October 2008

Curated by Michael Dempsey
Head of Exhibitions

Behind the proclaimed ‘tabula rasa’ of modernism, where Avant Garde artists of the early 20th Century denied the past and viewed themselves as the original inventors of radical new ways of seeing the world, there lies a more complex truth. Before clearing the way for their theories to emerge these artists had in fact looked intensely at the art of the past through national and private collections and absorbed their lessons well.

Art critic Robert Hughes elucidates how artists by looking at great works of Art extract either lessons of relevance for their own work or by wrestling with the tradition, they ingest it, and transform it into something of their own making.

The art of the past has always been a resource for artists. Advancing the ‘new’ and establishing a position in the long history of art requires an intimate knowledge with that tradition.

‘other men's flowers’ includes early drawings and paintings by Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff from the Tate collection and some works from our Francis Bacon Archive that have never been publicly viewed before. Also included are works by Jeff Wall and Patrick Graham that reference art history and new works by Ben Geoghegan and Brian Fay dealing directly with the Hugh Lane collection.

www.hughlane.ie

30 May 2008

Closer to Paradise


Photo: Kelly O'Connor


Photo: Dave Ruffles


Photo: Kelly O'Connor


Photo: Kelly O'Connor


Photo: Dave Ruffles



G126 Presents:

Closer to Paradise


An exhibition by Moxie artists:
Hannah Doyle and Michael Murphy

June 5th - July 5th

Opening reception: Thursday June 5th, 7pm

Closer to Paradise features new installation work by Hannah Doyle and Michael Murphy. Both are members of Moxie Dublin, an art collective that was founded in 2006 which serves as a platform for emerging artists.

Michael Murphy's work is characterised by a transformation of everyday materials into sculptural works through a laborious process of fabrication. Moxie co-founder Hannah Doyle creates fantasy worlds in miniature, combining multi-layered islands of vibrant colour with children's toys and grandma's kitsch.

Hannah Doyle and Michael Murphy have worked together on a number of collaborative installations including Open Systems, as part of a group show in the Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, and Better on the shelf than in the wrong cupboard for The Lab, Dublin

G126 is the only democratically run artist-led gallery in the west of Ireland. A not-for-profit organization, G126 offers an alternative to museums and commercial galleries.


www.g126.eu

www.moxiedublin.com
www.hannahdoyle.net


G126, Ballybane Ind Est, Tuam Rd, Galway, Ireland
+353 (0)91 761626
Gallery hours: Thursday - Saturday, 12 - 5 pm