Inspiration & Legacy: A Group Exhibition

Inspiration and Legacy is a captivating group exhibition that examines the profound influence and enduring legacy of life in north inner city Dublin on the work of eight artists. Dublin’s north inner city is the vibrant, multicultural, cosmopolitan, diverse, inclusive, and at times challenging centre of the city. It can be described as the beating heart of Dublin. Since the 18th century with the development of exclusive Georgian terraces and squares, to the tenements of the late 19th and early 20th century, to its 21st century revival, the north inner city is Dublin’s centre of international culture. 

Home to a rich tapestry of cultural icons, from literary legends like Bram Stoker and Brendan Behan to acclaimed musician Luke Kelly and actor Barry Keoghan, the north inner city has nurtured creativity and innovation for generations, contributing to its vibrant cultural heritage. Bringing together this collection of works is an opportunity to celebrate the creatives that have chosen Dublin’s north inner city to work, live and embrace its ever-changing landscape. 

This exhibition introduces multi-platform artworks; animation, collage, contemporary painting, photography, and music revealing a narrative of raw emotion, decay and neglect interspersed with the complexities of urban life, identity, hope and light.  Inspiration and Legacy celebrates the transformative power of art as a unifying force that brings diverse communities together, fosters social cohesion, and challenges perspectives. Art uplifts, provokes, soothes, entertains, and educates and with this exhibition we are hoping to challenge preconceived notions and cement community spirit. 

This exhibition has been curated and produced by Kris McGuirk in partnership with the Five Lamps Arts Festival 2024.  

Featuring artists: John Aboud, Aidan Bradley, Joe Coveney & John O´Connell, Lucia de Nile, Trina Mahon, Joe Moran, Carole Nelson and Peter Pearson

Inspiration & Legacy: A Group Exhibition

🗓️  April 15th – 26th, 2024
⏰  10 am – 4 pm (Monday to Friday)
📍Central Bank of Ireland

Artists

John Aboud

John is a long-time resident of north inner city Dublin where he has lived and worked for nearly 40 years. Presented in this exhibition are two of John’s vessel figures, “The Priest” and “The Demon” which form part of a larger series of work. His ceramics are mostly figurative in format; vessels, masks and sculptures capturing the abstract complexity of the human form often drawing on influences from Indian and African art, exploring themes such as identity, culture, and the human experience. His work is a celebration of form, materials, textures and cultural narratives, enriching the conversation between tradition and contemporary artistic expression.  John spent twenty years excavating, recording, and analysing the largest assemblage of megalithic art in Europe at the Neolithic World Heritage Site of Knowth dating from around 3200BC. His drawings have been published in the Excavations at Knowth series, by George Eogan MRIA and Elizabeth Shee Twohig MRIA, a complete catalogue of the 390 recorded carved stones. He has run several businesses over his career including interior design and restoration along with a studio providing bespoke fixture and fitting for historical properties. His work has been exhibited widely including The Project Arts Centre, Wexford Arts Festival, The Cobalt Café Gallery and 11 North Great Georges Street to name a few.  He holds a BA in sculpture from National College of Art & Design, Dublin and continues to live in the north inner city with his husband John.

Aidan Bradley

Aidan is an Irish contemporary painter who based his studio in Mountjoy Square for more than two decades. His landscape and architectural works are mainly in oils but he also has interest in the area of printmaking. He draws his inspiration from the historical features of Dublin, be it a Georgian streetscape or capturing the variety and richness of doorcases, the classical colonnade of a Church, a red bricked Edwardian Terrace, or the contrasting raw landscape of rural Ireland, particularly shoreline cottages in Achill Island and the Cork coastline. Aidan’s skill with oils, creating a fluid impasto palette defines his distinctive loose style with a lightness of touch, propagating his response to these formal structures and their respective elements. His keen eye picks out arresting angles. Solid forms emerge from deep shadows and light using a subtle change of tone. He deconstructs architectural forms into abstract elements intensifying his themes of decay and neglect. He has exhibited with the RHA, Oireachtas and Iontas and lives in Dublin.

Joe Coveney & John O’Connell

With over forty years’ experience working as creatives in Dublin’s north inner city, Studio 9 was set up by the two award winning artists Joe Coveney and John O’Connell in 2017. They work for a wide range of clients both in Ireland and internationally, creating branded content and short form animations. Driven by a passion for storytelling and a curiosity for new techniques, they find unique ways to engage audiences and bring stories to life. Having started out by combining stop-motion and 2d animation they now focus exclusively on stop-motion. Featured in this exhibition is their film: “Introducing Bovina Creamcracker Buttermilk”. This animation follows Liam, who is a lonely farmer living an isolated life in the countryside. Liam dreams of being a beautiful drag queen, and as he goes about his daily chores, he slips into moments of fantasy and transforms into the beautiful Bovina. In these moments Bovina is supported by the farm animals who become her backing singers and dancers. When the neighbours catch glimpses of the local farmer prancing around the fields, they become increasingly curious. Liam would simply be mortified if they thought they knew anything about his fantasy, so he mostly tries to keep to himself. When the neighbours figure out what’s going on however, they do something that’s truly amazing – they organise a talent show in the local hall and invite Liam to perform as Bovina!  Joe holds MA’s in sculpture and product design along with a BA in fine art painting. John holds a MA in sculpture and a BA in fine art painting and animation from Ballyfermot College of Further Education. Joe & John are happily married, and they live and work in Dublin 1. 

Lucia de Nile
Lucia is originally from Basilicata, in the south of Italy. She moved to Ireland in 2003 and has lived and worked in East Wall for almost twenty years. Lucia studied photography in Griffith College and has worked as a freelance editorial, commercial and fashion photographer. This exhibition presents three photographs from her series “The puppet that lost her strings”, a collaborative piece with stylist Jen O’Brien that explores the themes of love, loss, and the existential questions when the foundations of our lives are cut away, presenting us with the darkly comic reality of life and fragility of human existence. Also presented are two of Lucia’s collage works where she deconstructs the female body. She challenges conventional notions of femininity and sexuality, dismantling the female form to reveal layers of complexity prompting viewers to reconsider their understanding of female identity in an ever-evolving societal landscape. She currently divides her time between East Wall in Dublin and Berlin where she continues her collage work and producing electronic music.

Trina Mahon

Trina, originally from Killiney in Dublin spent more the fifteen years living in the heart of the north inner-city community on Parnell Street. She studied fine art painting in Dun Laoghaire and in Parnell Square. Frustrated with the figurative, Trina experimented by adding layers of paper and tape to the canvas before applying a mixture of plaster and paint to create textured surfaces, constantly adding, and removing to allow the works to evolve. Usually working on multiple canvases simultaneously, her work is often transformed into diptychs or triptychs defining her unique style of abstract expressionism. Through organisations such as the Eastern Regional Health Board, Coláiste Íde and Merchants Arch, Trina taught art to disadvantaged groups such as ‘Kids in Care’, the long term unemployed, people on remand and graffiti artists, providing them with a creative outlet and a sense of empowerment. Over the course of Trina’s career, she has collaborated with award winning photographer Conor Horgan and Oscar nominated film director Jim Sheridan amongst others, designing sets and backdrops. She has also enjoyed success as a theatre set designer and an interior designer. Trina currently lives in Andalucia, Spain.

Joe Moran

Joe is distinguished multimedia artist originally from the vibrant streets of north inner-city Dublin. His love of art was triggered by a news article about the abstract expressionist American painter Jackson Pollock. Joe’s first artwork was a crucifix made from welded steel washers which he donated to the local church. A lifelong member of the Temple Bar Studios where he worked for more than thirty years. His work is influenced by Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, and Mark Rothko amongst others. Joe is an interdisciplinary artist working in bronze, steel, wood, contemporary painting, and poetry to name a few. Presented in this exhibition are a series of bronze sculptures, each framed with a bowler hat offering the viewer to take an otherworldly journey exploring relationship dynamics, religion, the environment, and our preconceptions of importance, challenging our everyday experiences and actions and the consequences for wider society. He has exhibited widely including in shows in France, USA, Canada, Belgium, China and Ireland. His work is featured in collections including The Hunt Museum in Limerick, Fujita Vente in Tokyo, Museum Art in Hungary and the Board of Works in Dublin. His public art works can be seen in Hungary, France, Japan, USA, Germany, China, Russia, Canada and of course in Ireland. Joe continues to work and live in East Wall, Dublin.

Carole Nelson

Carole is a London born musician, composer and teacher who has been working from her studio in North Great George’s Street for more than twenty years. An accomplished jazz pianist, saxophonist, lyricist, and arranger, she has composed and performed extensively in a wide variety of artistic fields. Her work draws on all sources and aspects of music: jazz, free improvisation, world music, contemporary pop and dance, classical and traditional Irish music.  Her current project, the Carole Nelson Trio, was formed in 2015 and the group have recorded three highly acclaimed contemporary jazz albums of her lyrical and contemplative compositions. One Day in Winter (2017) follows the course of one day as experienced from her south Carlow home between the Blackstairs Mountains and the River Barrow featured in this exhibition. Since 2020 Carole has been a member of the 8-women art collective Na Cailleacha and has had work exhibited in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Wexford, Waterford, Clonmel and other arts centres and galleries. She collaborates with experimental filmmaker Barbara Freeman with their last film, Ithaca winning best experimental film at the Berlin Womens’ Film Festival 2024. She teaches and mentors in saxophone, jazz piano and voice and is currently living in Co Carlow.

Peter Pearson
Peter is a renowned artist, historian, and conservationist. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, he embarked on his artistic journey with a scholarship-funded solo exhibition in Venice in 1978, showcasing his early talent. His paintings, characterized by their evocative portrayal of cityscapes and landscapes, reflect his deep connection to Ireland’s history and natural beauty. Peter is passionate about old buildings with Dublin’s north inner city being a focus of a body of his work. To him, the artefacts of old buildings are an important testament to our past, as well as almost incidentally providing inspiration for his wonderful paintings. Many of his paintings depict changing cityscapes and dilapidated yet beautiful buildings, whilst incorporating contemporary elements into his work. The result is moody, atmospheric, often romantic. Through his work, Peter invites audiences to appreciate and protect the beauty of Ireland’s architectural legacy for generations to come and is a testament to the importance of preserving cultural heritage. An accomplished author, Peter has penned several acclaimed books detailing Ireland’s architectural heritage, including “Dun Laoghaire: Kingstown” and “The Heart of Dublin”. He has exhibited widely including in shows in Venice, Rome, London, Caen, Dublin and throughout Ireland. His work is featured in collections including Irish Life, ESB, Chester Beatty Library, Guinness Ireland, Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire & Rathdown County Council, The Merrion Hotel and An Taisce. He has been involved in some key campaigns throughout his life, including the regeneration of Temple Bar. Peter currently resides in Shankill, Co Dublin.