(Courtyard access beside no 28 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay or behind the Maldron Hotel on Cardiff Lane)
Opening Reception: November 15th, 6-8.30 pm
November 16th – December 13th 2012
Opening Hours: Tues – Fri 11am – 6pm / Sat by appointment
Tom Climent is an artist who generally works in series or groups of paintings. This new group follows on from The Tap Root which was mostly exhibited in Canada & USA.
This is his first solo show in Dublin in five years and is eagerly anticipated.
This new phase in his work tends to focus on the creation of space, investigating the boundaries between abstraction and representation as a means of conveying this, exploring the dematerialised qualities that one does not actually see in reality and using spatial structures as a vehicle to make this quality solid and physical.
The perception of space is a complex phenomenon; we have not simply a mental apprehension of space but an experience of living space. The creation of space through perspective indicates a fixed point of view; a lived space contains a remembrance of past space and a longing for future spaces. The postion of the viewer is always shifting.
Climent’s practice of art to date has been as a painter and one of his interests has been in how art addresses the body in space. For him a painting could become a window connecting an inside with an outside. In his work the devices of perspective and more abstract methods of reduction can create a pictorial surface which allows our bodily world in.
His initial enquiry was focused around spatial constructs and how they might provide a structured space for our existence. Taking a basic structure as an analogy for our place in the world, he started to create very rudimentary spatial structures; a fundamental shape or vessel that could contain a human presence. People organise space so that it meets their needs and supports their social interations. The space buildings create have an important part in how we live our lives. A body is a lived body and as such the spaces it inhabits are lived spaces.
From this original idea Climents paintings have become more intricate and complex in structure. As traces of memories and feelings accumulate and overlap on the canvas, construction and deconstruction become active tools in the creation of his paintings. His work reminds us of how our spatial ability becomes spatial knowledge as we navigate our world and with this knowledge we create a place for ourselves. Our expression of this place inheres in the kinds of structures we create for inhabitation. A building is a container – for ourselves. Is this space then, our most basic root in the world; a footprint of our mode of being here?
Previous solo shows include Between Chance and Rhyme at The Hunt Museum, New Paintings at The Fenton Gallery, Pure at The Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dust at Garter Lane Arts Centre, Hansels House at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery , A Light Enters The Land at BlueLeaf Gallery, Dancing Parade at Triskel Arts Centre and more recently his MA by Research exhibition at The Wandeford Quay Gallery.
His work has also been shown at Art Chicago, Art Toronto & Art Miami over the last few years.
He is a recipient of the Tony O’Malley award and Victor Treacey award.
His work is in the collections of The Central Bank, The National Treasury Management Agency, University College Cork, AIB Bank, The National Self-Portrait Collection, NCB Stockbrokers , The Cork Opera House, Cork City Council , The Office of Public Works, Cork Institute of Technology & Private Collections in Ireland, UK,USA, Spain & Canada