Towards a Future Floating – An exhibition of work by artists Bernadette Kiely and Amelia Caulfield has been announced in a joint effort alongside participants of the Laois Arthouse Summer Arts Programme.
The exhibition, which was recently launched by Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council, Councillor Barry Walsh, will be held at Laois Arthouse Stradbally from Friday, July 18, to Saturday August 30.
The grand opening will be at 5.30pm, where light refreshments will be served.
Bernadette Kiely
Kilkenny-based artist Bernadette Kiely is a visual artist renowned for her “evocative depictions of the effects of environmental change.”
Known for her “powerful portrayals of the fragility of the natural
world, the effects of flooding on land and human lives, have an
enduring theme in her large-scale painting and drawing practice” for over 20 years.
Her work is described as having “an enduring focus on landscapes in a state of flux. In her paintings and drawings she confronts us with the effects that extreme and more frequent climate events are having on human life.
“While climate change can often feel nebulous, in Bernadette’s work it is brough home in depictions motivated by her own lived experiences next to sister rivers, the Suir and the Nore.
“Images of the human figure in watery landscapes abound, painted in washes which suggest the power and unpredictability of water in flood, making tangible the struggle this presents at a human scale.”
Amelia Caulfield
Dublin-based artist Amelia Caulfield is a multidisciplinary artist, videographer, and arts facilitator with “a passion for creating thoughtful, socially engaged experiences.”
Her practice spans public art, interactive installation, filmmaking, photography, printmaking, and community-led workshops.
Her work “explores how we relate to one another—through systems, communication, and lived experience—and is rooted in a desire to make space for honest expression, meaningful connection, and to give form to private or often-unspoken internal experiences.”
Laois Arts Adult Summer Arts Programme
Bernadette and Amelia led a four-day immersive workshop in preparation for the exhibition.
Bernadette shared her interest in exploring the ever-shifting challenges of living with climate change and making art in the face of an uncertain future, while Amelia who supported the group to explore drawing with charcoal, pouring paint and life drawing.
Participants were encouraged to bring old canvases and other support materials or surfaces which might be upcycled to draw and paint on.
Working on Bernadette’s premise that the future will be overwritten both in art and in life in a process of mending, adapting, altering and making do.
The Adult Summer Arts Programme is an annual Laois Arthouse
initiative supporting professional artists and those with a strong
interest in contemporary fine art practice.
Exhibition opening times
- Tuesday: 1pm – 5pm and 5.30pm – 8pm
- Wednesday: 10am – 1pm 1.30-5pm
- Thursday: 1pm – 5pm and 5.30pm – 8pm
- Friday: 1pm – 4pm (entry through Laois Arthouse)
- Saturday: 10am- 1pm (entry through library)
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