Bravura

BRAVURA 2024
Curated by Mary Gallagher

17th October – 3rd November 2024
Dr. Billy Colfer Gallery, Wexford Arts Centre

Exhibition Opening: Thursday 17 October at 6pm
Opening Speaker: Audrey Whitty, Director – National Library of Ireland

All welcome to attend.

This craft exhibition, curated by Mary Gallagher, will feature ceramics by Alison Kay, Frances Lambe and Antonio Lopez; work in wood by Roger Bennett, David Cousley, Hugh Cummins and Eric Philips, glass by Scott Benefield, tapestries by Muriel Beckett and Anne Harte and work in metal by Jane Murtagh.

I’n the Blue Egg Gallery, which I ran for 11 years, each October brought Bravura, a group show of work by Irish and international makers, to coincide with the Opera Festival. The exhibition title was very apt in its reference to the skill and style of the participating makers and in its connection to music. Bravura, like all the exhibitions in the Blue Egg, was not about representing lofty themes; instead it was about showing beautiful work by skilled makers.

Nothing has changed. In this venue which is new to me, the Billy Colfer Gallery in Wexford Arts Centre, Bravura 2024 presents the work of ten Irish based makers using everyday materials like clay, wool and wood. But look at what they, and their fellow makers, do with those materials through their skill, vision and dedication – they make magic.

I can only show a small selection of work here in this space but be assured that there are many more makers in Ireland whose work will bring you joy. I am sorry that you will have to seek them out, as visibility, or rather lack of it, is still an issue with craft in Ireland. Craft is the subject of very little media attention and craft exhibitions are rarely reviewed. It is just not part of Irish visual arts culture. This exhibition is a small contribution to bringing craft out of the shadows and into the light and I am grateful to Catherine Bowe and Wexford Arts Centre for giving me access to this fine gallery. I hope you enjoy this small taste of what Irish craft has to offer and that it will encourage you to look further to find more delights.‘

Mary Gallagher, Curator
Autumn 2024

Bravura 2024 will run in the Dr. Billy Colfer Gallery from Friday 18th October to Sunday 3rd November. The opening hours are Monday to Saturday from 10am-5pm, and Sundays and Back Holiday Monday (28th October) from 10am-4pm. For further information on Bravura please contact catherine@wexfordartscentre.ie.

Muriel Beckett

Muriel Beckett studied woven textiles at the School of Art in Dun Laoghaire and at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, followed by post graduate study at The Frederika Wetterhoff Textile College in Finland funded by a scholarship from The Irish Export Board. On her return to Ireland Muriel set up studio and began taking on commissions for rugs and tapestries, initially at Marlay Craft Courtyard and then at her home studio in Co. Wicklow. Muriel is a member of Visual Artists Ireland, Contemporary Tapestry Artists Ireland, Portfolio selection @ The Design & Craft Council Ireland, the Timelines Tapestry group, The Wicklow Craft Foundation and Made in Wicklow.

Over a long well established career Muriel has won many awards, most recently one of the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland “Craft Heroes” in 2021/2022. She has exhibited widely and has completed numerous commissions, both private and corporate.

Her work has featured in exhibtions by the Contemporary Tapestry Artists in Dingle, Dublin, Roscommon and Cappoquin, a group show at the O’Connell Gallery Clonakilty, Made in Ireland at the NDCG Kilkenny, Farmleigh Dublin and the F.E. McWilliam Gallery Banbridge the DCCI touring exhibition, Irish Craft Heroes. In 2023 her work featured in Made in Wicklow, an exhibition at Powerscourt to mark the establishment of the Wicklow Craft Network, Made in Wicklow.

Scott Benefield

Scott Benefield is an artist, educator and writer who received his MFA from Ohio State University in 1990, following a year spent in Sweden on a Fulbright-Hays grant. He has been a Fellow at the Creative Glass Center of America and an artist-in-residence at the Toledo Museum of Art, North Lands Creative Glass, Vrij Glas (Netherlands), Pittsburgh Glass Center, the Corning Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Museum of Glass. He was the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) award in 2013 and was awarded the Rosemary James Memorial Bursary in 2015 by the Arts Council of Ireland. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Museum of American Glass, the Museum of Glass (Tacoma), the National Glass Centre (UK), and the Sir Elton John Collection.

Roger Bennett

Roger Bennett is an Irish woodturner who makes distinctive coloured bowls and vessels. These are gracefully shaped and are inlaid with silver dots arranged in constellation-like clusters or formal geometric patterns.

Examples of his work feature in many public and private collections, including those of the National Museum of Ireland, the Ulster Museum, the OPW, and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

A former teacher, Roger has a degree in English and French from Trinity College Dublin. He is a graduate of the Crafts Council of Ireland’s Craft and Design Business Development Course. Originally from County Laois, he lives and works in Dublin.

David Cousley

David Cousley makes furniture and sculptural work from his workshop in Co. Monaghan. Born in Belfast, he graduated with a BA Hons degree in Fine Art from the University of Ulster in 1991.
Much of his work is materials led, with wood sourced from wind fallen and storm damaged trees informing the work. The path from field to finished piece has become important to the nature of his work and to his process of working.
Increasingly, he is looking for forms within solid wood and carving directly into large sections. In each piece, the direct, playful and unpredictable nature of this way of working are juxtaposed with quieter, more traditional cabinetmaking techniques.
He is interested in exploring a simplicity of line and form in his work, and the flow and tension between these hard lines and edges, and the soft tactile forms that connect them.

Hugh Cummins

Hugh was born in Dun Laoghaire and after a number of years working and studying in London returned in 2001.

In parallel to working in the public service in London Hugh honed his making skills through courses at the Chelsea College of Art workshops, a summer school at John Makepeace’s Furniture school and a cabinet making course at the London College of Furniture.

Hugh works three dimensionally with wood. At the core of his sculptural expressions are the sequencing of thin slices or rare and exotic woods. His finished pieces embody a lightness and movement of form. The inherent beauty of individual wood species – the grain, texture and pattern, are integral to his sculptural forms. Hugh celebrates the extraordinary variety of woods from all parts of the world by highlighting and contrasting their qualities – the whiteness of Sycamore, Holly or Maple layered together with the darker, more highly figured, Walnut, Wenge or Zebrano.

Hugh’s work has been selected for exhibition by the Design and Crafts Council Ireland, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Royal Ulster Academy (for their annual open submissions), Sculpture in Context at the Botanic Gardens in Dublin, the Royal Dublin Society Craft Awards and Made in Ireland. The Office of Public Works has secured some of Hugh’s work for the State’s Art Collection. Hugh is represented in Dublin by the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Great Denmark Street where he had a solo exhibition, Explorations in Wood, in 2017.

Anne Harte

Anne Harte was born in Kilkenny. She attended the Crawford School of Art, Cork, completing Foundation Year. She then studied Fashion and Textiles at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, graduating in 1982. Anne then went to Scotland to study for a Postgraduate Diploma in Tapestry at Edinburgh College of Art.

She graduated in 1985 and then worked as a Technical Assistant, in the Constructed Textiles Department, at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee. Moving to Glasgow in 1988, she worked as a freelance artist facilitating many school and community based tapestry projects for the Strathclyde Region.

After living in Scotland for 6 years, she moved to Hong Kong in 1991, where she continued to teach tapestry and art to a broad spectrum of the community in schools, museums and art institutions while maintaining her artistic practice and participating in local and international exhibitions.

She returned to Ireland in 2005 and opened Textile Works studio in Co. Kilkenny. She is a member of Contemporary Tapestry Artists, Ireland.

Alison Kay

Alison Kay was born in 1953 and studied at Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design (now IADT). She set up a Ceramic studio in Sandycove and also taught part time Adult Education classes with the VEC in Dun Laoghaire for 10 years. In 2004 she set up a new studio at her home in Shankill, Co. Dublin where she works as a full time ceramic artist.

Alison’s work is in many private and public collections including the National Museum of Ireland, the OPW, the Consulate General of Shanghai and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council. Awards include the Hallward Gallery award for Ceramics in 2008, the Ceramics Ireland Pioneering award in 2012 and the Royal Ulster Academy Medal for Sculpture in 2016. Alison has been an invited artist to the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition and also a regular exhibitor. She has also been a regular exhibitor at the Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition. Her work was shown at the Irish Pavilion in Shanghai, China in 2010 and was selected for inclusion at Ceramics Art London in 2013. She was one of twelve Irish artists to show at Collect, London with the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland in 2022 and one of 23 Irish artists to show work at Collect, London in 2024.

Other exhibitions included Vase: Function Reviewed at the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, 2016, curated by Brian Kennedy, Crossroads at the J. Cacciola Gallery New Jersey, USA. 2017, Somewhere In Between at SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin, 209, Conjuring Form, Doneraile House, Cork, 2021, and Made In Ireland, at the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, 2021, Farmleigh Gallery, 2022 and F.E McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge 2022.

Frances Lambe

Frances Lambe studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She taught art at second level for several years. In 1996 she became a founder member of Bridge Street Studios in Dundalk, County Louth and began making sculptural ceramics. Since 2011 she has worked in a studio at her home in County Louth.

Her work has been shown in national and international exhibitions. Her solo show Microcosmos was exhibited at the Millennium Court Arts Centre Portadown, Northern Ireland in 2009. This show toured to the Basement Gallery Dundalk and the National Design and Craft Gallery Kilkenny in 2010.

Frances’s work has been exhibited widely in prestigious galleries in Ireland Europe and the USA. In 2011 she completed a residency in Fuping in China along with a number of Irish ceramic artists. In 2021 she was selected as one of the Fifty Craft Heroes to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Design and Crafts Council Ireland. Frances is the recipient of the following awards: Sculpture in Context, Piece Prize, Peter Brennan Pioneering Award, CCoI Bursary, Mullan Prize for Sculpture RUA Ulster Museum

Lambe’s work is included in private and public collections including the National Museum of Ireland, Hunt Museum, Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland, Office of Public Works, National Museum of Northern Ireland and the Mater Hospital Dublin.

Antonio Julio Lopez Castro

Antonio Julio López Castro

Antonio is an artist and ceramicist living and working at the foothills of the Ballyhoura mountains in north Co. Cork. Coming from a previous fine art background, he studied ceramics at the Design and Crafts Council Ireland Ceramic Skills course in Thomastown, Kilkenny.

Working with porcelain and stoneware, he produces a range of wheel-thrown tableware, bespoke porcelain pendant lights, and one-off ceramic interior pieces and ceramic artworks. He has been the recipient of a DCCI Future Makers award and is part of the DCCI Portfolio program. His work has been exhibited widely and is included in the National Museum of Ireland’s collection.

Jane Murtagh

Jane graduated from IADT in 1979 where she specialised in metalwork and drawing. After graduating Jane went on to undertake further training and masterclasses in lost wax casting at Foundry de Groeve Belgium, silversmithing at The Dublin Silver Company, the patination and etching of non-ferrous metals at West Dean College U.K. and drawing from music at Central St. Martins London. In 2017 Jane was the RDS Craft Awards Silversmithing & Metalwork category award winner and in 2021/22 she was included in DCCI’s Portfolio Group.

Jane has been awarded residencies from the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co. Monaghan and Cill Rialaig Co Kerry. She has received support from the Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI), the Arts Council and Clare County Council Arts office. Jane is a member of Visual Artist Ireland, the Design Crafts Council Ireland and The Irish Artists Blacksmiths Association.

Jane’s work is in the collections of the Department of Justice and Limerick, Louth and Clare County Councils, as well as those of private clients in the UK, USA and Ireland.

Eric Phillips

Designer/maker in wood, Eric Phillips originates from Southern California where he trained as a carpenter. Moving to Paris in 1991, where he lived for twenty-five years, he co-founded and developed the Design and Build company, Morning Fox, which focused on interior architecture and bespoke furniture. Facilitated by Eric’s training in CAD software, Rhinoceros, projects included collaborations with architects such as Renzo Piano, Didier Faustino, William Matthews and Elliott Laffitte.

Moving to Inistioge in Co Kilkenny in 2016, Eric became a member of DCCI (Design and Crafts Council Ireland) and developed a furniture collection and wooden watercraft inspired by the local landscape and became a member of the craft group Made in Kilkenny in 2018. Materials are sourced from suppliers of wood from locally felled trees, along with FSC certified sustainable timber suppliers.

In both 2018 and 2021 Eric Phillips was chosen for inclusion in the wider selection of the Design and Craft Council Ireland’s Portfolio. In 2020, he exhibited watercraft and furniture in the group exhibition, ‘6’, at Kilfane Glebe House Studio which was reviewed by Dr Catherine Marshall for the Visual Artists of Ireland magazine. Also in 2020, Eric was shortlisted in the competition “Covid Commission” sponsored by the DCCI and The National Museum of Ireland and received a special mention from the jury. In 2023, he was awarded the inaugural “David Shaw Smith Legacy Award” sponsored by the DCCI, for his accomplishments in craft. This was followed with an article in the Irish Times written by Deirdre McQuillan and published in March of 2024.

Image Credits:
Top Left: Roger Bennett, Coloured Sycamore (inlaid with silver), 26 x 8cm.
Top Right: Antonio Julio Lopez Castro, Water Dropper, stoneware, 7.5 x 8.5cm.
Bottom Left: Eric Phillips, Dresser Table
Bottom Right: Hugh Cummins, Boxes,

Footer