Past Residents
Past Resident2014: Arts Council of Ireland
Sonia Shiel
Sonia Shiel’s far-fetched works are vested in melodrama, special effect and various traditions of storytelling. They are composed of individual paintings and sculptures, including videos and animated sculptures, that share the central materiality of paint. Set in ungoverned, lawless environments: the wild west; the high seas, the animal kingdom and so on – her protagonists in their various pursuits, are confronted by nature, mortality, the mockery of chance, rules and other obstacles of their own creation. Idyllic scenes of industry, nature and society are underscored with preposterous violence, the inflated caricature of cartoons and the supra-governance of a natural law.
Sonia Shiel was born and lives in Dublin. She has had solo exhibitions at The Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin; The Model, Sligo; Temple Bar Gallery and Studios; Kulturbunker, Frankfurt; Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris and The RHA Gallery I and II, Dublin, among others. Forthcoming Solo Shows include FLOOD, Dublin; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Program Gallery/Foundation for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Volta, New York and the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. Recipient of the Arts Council Project Award, Shiel will participate in the 2014 Art and Law Program at Fordham Law School.
Residents from Ireland
Past Resident2014: The Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Olaf Brzeski
Olaf Brzeski’s practice is rooted in surrealist visions, which he puts into life via film, three-dimensional sculptures and installations. His comments about his own works do not so much mirror his personal interpretation, but narrate fictional stories, illustrated in the artworks or, in fact, made believable through the existence of the latter. This is the way in which Brzeski generates new worlds and their inhabitants.