Past Residents

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Ireland

Past Resident
2024: Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Arts Council of Ireland
2014: Arts Council of Ireland

Artist

Sonia Shiel

Sonia Shiel’s paintings take the shape of terrains, portals, pageants, and props. Her exhibitions have a multi-dimensional quality that transcends their material form, creating dynamic opportunities for performance where the audience often becomes entwined in a shared folie à deux. In these otherworldly realms, humans, animals, plants, gods, and ‘artists’ coexist non-hierarchically with cosmological and enchanted phenomena. Drawing inspiration from art history, theater, mythology, and literary fiction, Shiel delves into our capacity for self-determination, love, autonomy, and courage.

Sonia Shiel has exhibited work at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art; Kunstverein Aughrim; and Void Art Centre, all in Ireland, among others.

One irregularly shaped painting hangs on a white wall. It has botanical qualities, with a dark green vertical section splitting in two, and bordering a burst of yellow. Inside the yellow section are spiraling spurts of seed-like red and orange, and fringed with a green frill.
Sonia Shiel, Dirty-Wow-Sun / The bud, 2024, oil on canvas, and wooden lapel frame, 31 × 23 in. (78.74 × 58.42 cm)
Two paintings which appear to be free standing are at either end of a large brightly-lit white gallery space. On the left, at the far end of the room one of the large paintings stands in two pieces each the mirror image of the other, the joining middle section is hinged open. Its irregular shape is characteristic of a butterfly, and is pink and green. The imagery includes golden reptilian scales, and white wing-shaped clouds, four triangular teeth, foliage, and branches. On both sides the clouds form crescent shapes and arms with gloved hands emerge wearing elaborate yellow sleeves with yellow and black yarn tassels. One arm holds a fan. In the foreground, the second painting occupies half the frame. This circular-shaped work displays elements of a shell. Slabs of blue and green animal print border the same motif in a white and blue crescent hinge, with translucent tones, wherever they merge.
Sonia Shiel, Medusa In Pieces / Installation Shot, 2023, oil on canvas, on wood, dimensions variable
One painting appears to be free standing in the centre of a wide brightly-lit white gallery space. It stands in two pieces each the mirror image of the other, the joining middle section is hinged open with two further sections closed over, creating a slight gap, like two saloon doors flapping. Its irregular shape is characteristic of a butterfly, and is pink, green, with vertical shafts of blue. The imagery includes golden tails, that curl like coils of hair, and white fan-shaped wedge-like flowers, leafy foliage, and branches. On the top two golden claws reach to meet each other over the middle and form an arch. In the foreground, brightly colored fabric sleeves and gloves, in pink and yellow, with yellow and black yarn tassels, sits in a pile like a discarded animal skin.
Sonia Shiel, Medusa In Pieces / Act 2 Break Fall, 2023, oil on canvas, on wood, with fabric sleeves on stool in foreground, 390 × 350 in. (990.6 × 889 cm)
One painting, in three rounded parts, with two capsule shaped lapels, is attached to a set of large swing doors, dividing a sun-lit room. The painting has geometric and symmetrical values, with red, blue and white motifs, and two yellow horizontal lines. Small bone-shaped fragments, made of clay, appear attached to the surface of the painting like four ribbons, and together form a double-helix-like shape. At each end the final bone is shaped into a foot and at the centre the final bone is shaped like a hand. The painting is interrupted by a large natural granite rock, over which the two hinged sections meet. On the rock appears to be a stick of incense, burning within a pile of leaves, also made with clay. On the floor a circular groove is embedded into the concrete and extends in a half semi-circle from the centre of the painting, towards the bottom left frame of the image.
Sonia Shiel, Supernatural Bureau / The bones, 2023, oil on canvas, on wood, attached to revolving door structure. With natural granite rock and insence, 82 × 203 in. (208.28 × 515.62 cm)
A figure is seated under a spotlight, in a large red velvet chair within a blackened room. The figure’s legs, in black, are crossed with one bent knee perched on the seat. The figure is wrapped in a deep saffron yellow silk cape, with yellow yarn tassels fading into black towards the ground. Pink ruffled fabric forms a flower on the figure’s lap, and the figure wears a blue glove which holds a microphone, while the other hand falls over the figure’s knee in a gold and black glittered glove.
Sonia Shiel, Pulse Event - an event of the heart, 2023, video documentary and performance, 5:39 min

Residents from Ireland

Aileen Murphy

Painting
Ireland
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin
2023

Celina Muldoon

live performance, moving image and installation
Ireland
Arts Council of Ireland
2023

Aideen Barry

Ireland
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin
2023
Canada

Past Resident
2024: Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec

Artist

Antonietta Grassi

Antonietta Grassi’s paintings recontextualize the history of abstract art, emphasizing the vital role of female labor in technological advancements. By referencing textiles, technology, and women’s contributions to early computer systems, her work draws a parallel between the loom and the origins of computer programming. Though rooted in modernist painting traditions, Grassi’s art reflects the contemporary condition of living in an overly digitized, dematerialized world, while seeking to reconnect with a more embodied and spiritual experience.

Antonietta Grassi has exhibited work at Canadian Pavilion, Expo Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Canada; and Katonah Museum, New York, among others.

Antonietta Grassi, Compiler 3.0, 2022, oil and ink on linen, 60 × 61 in. (152.4 × 154.94 cm)
Antonietta Grassi, Pink Power Push, 2023, oil and ink on linen, 55 × 55 in. (139.7 × 139.7 cm)
Antonietta Grassi, Zip no.2, 2022, acrylic oil and ink on linen, 55
Antonietta Grassi, Chromatopia, 2023, oil and ink on linen, 84 × 82 in. (213.36 × 208.28 cm)
Antonietta Grassi, Zip Stack Flow, exhibition view , 2022, mixed media

Residents from Canada

Alice Wang

United States, Canada
Canada Council for the Arts, Capsule Shanghai
Studio #213

Stanley Wany

Ase (pronounced “ah-sheh”; also spelled ashe) Yoruba words often have multiple meanings: Ase is generally defined as “the power to make things happen” and also refers to the spiritual life force that flows through things, much like the Chinese concept of chi. Deepening the exploration of my relationship with my ancestors, Ase, a drawing that measures almost two meters high by three meters long. For this piece, charcoal, a medium with archaic roots, is used to evoke powerful waves crowned by troubled sky. Towards the bottom of the drawings, the waves melt into abstraction, dripping onto the white surface of the paper. The title Ase, referring to Yoruba culture, embodies my ongoing relationship with my ancestors, those who perished in the sea as well as those with whom known ties have been cut by the transatlantic slavetrade. When creating this work, I also reflected on what it meant to be Black in the Americas and how my identity had been defined by the dominant society. I turned to the writings of Stuart Hall, Franz Fanon as well as of Edouard Glissant, whose concept of “creolisation” serves as a focal point in my practice going forward.
Canada
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Studio #222

Kara Springer

A hanging wall work consisting of deep purple prints of high resolutions scans of clay hanging over a poplar wood rod mounted on the wall.
Canada, Barbados
Canada Council for the Arts
Studio #305