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about the art
Kevin Mooney’s parents were part of the mass exodus from Ireland in the 1950s, returning decades later. This background of emigration, and his early experiences as a UK born Irish person growing up in Ireland, has informed his painting practice. As a child, he was partly excluded from a “real” Irish identity as a result of this family history. This allowed him to develop an “outsider” understanding of Irishness. Rooted in mythology and a semi-fictitious Irish art history, his practice is culturally specific. A key influence has been part of the last generation to experience a living oral tradition. This has been crucial in developing his work, which can be read as the abstraction of Irish folklore as seen through a contemporary lens. His paintings, sometimes made with rough heavy canvas, or with surfaces bearing layers of varnish, play with the notion of history. Contemporary vocabularies of paint find their way onto the canvas alongside a prehistoric symbolism and a medieval flatness, creating a compression of time.
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about the artist
Kevin graduated from NCAD with an MFA in 2012.
EXHIBITIONS 2018 Apparition -Sternview Gallery, Cork - solo exhibition EVA International (Contemporary Art biennial) Limerick- group exhibition with work selected by curator Inti Guerrero. 2017 The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart - Mayfield Arts Centre, Cork - co-curation of group exhibition and organisation of a concurrent series of artists' talks. 2016 Twilight Head Cult - Context Art Fair, New York at Ormston House, Limerick, solo show 2015 What Is and What Might Be - Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda - selected group show 2014 Wave - Pallas Projects - solo show Dog Island Tales - Talbot Gallery - solo show 2012 Making Familiar - Temple Bar Gallery - selected group show Horizon Sprawl - Ormston House - selected group show, 2010 Video Killed the Radio Star - RHA, Ireland - selected group show Dog Island Tales - Nag Gallery - solo show Timeline - Queen Street Gallery Belfast - solo show 2009 Timeline - Mermaid Arts Centre - solo show |
