With headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, IMPACTICA was established in 2012 by Founder and Chief Curator Brendan Jamison. It delivers international curated exhibitions to public art galleries and museums in Europe and America. Not-for-profit organisation. Contact: impactica@gmail.com
ARDS ARTS CENTRE, NEWTOWNARDS, N. IRELAND
Thursday 28 March to Friday 26 April 2013
Curated by Brendan Jamison, GLOW is a solo exhibition of 20 paintings and drawings by emerging artist Ciaran Magill. Often seduced by the glow of light in an eerie night-scene, the artist combines themes of the spooky landscape with notions of neo-romantic beauty. Scenes of desolation from Northern Ireland are fused with landscapes from America and Japan.
Magill’s painting process of multiple layering effects creates an edgy surface tension portraying a sense of foreboding. The works capture an alluring intrigue into a lonely world of danger and beauty.
Marking and scoring into the surface of the canvas with experimental mark-making techniques, the artist heightens the sense of depth, atmosphere and tension. With an innovative fresh aesthetic, Magill pushes the boundaries of the landscape genre, venturing towards a psychological dreamscape.
The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm.
ARTIST CIARAN MAGILL CONTEMPLATING THE DIPTYCH 'FLASH' (2012) oil on linen, 75 x 180 cms
CIARAN MAGILL BIOGRAPHY
Born 1978 in Newry, Northern Ireland, Ciaran Magill studied Fashion at Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication in London before returning to the Belfast School of Art & Design in 2006 to complete a BA (Hons) degree in Fine and Applied Arts. His paintings and drawings are held in many private, public and corporate collections, most notably DIAGEO, the world's leading premium drinks business. He was also the recipient of the 2009 DIAGEO Northern Ireland 'Emerging Artist Award' and also won an award in 2011 from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Magill has been represented by his art agent/curator Brendan Jamison since 2007. Recent international group exhibitions include the Sal Art Gallery at Long Island University (New York) John Erickson Museum of Art (Florida) and Raccolte Frugone Museum, Genoa (Italy). In Northern Ireland he has shown in many group exhibitions at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Golden Thread Gallery, Catalyst Arts, ArtTank and Naughton Gallery at Queen's University Belfast.
FLASH (2012) Ciaran Magill, diptych, oil on linen, 80 x 180 cms
CLOTHESLINE AT MIDNIGHT (2011) Ciaran Magill, pastel on card, 83 x 57 cms
EERIE DUSK (2011) Ciaran Magill, pastel on card, 83 x 57 cms
ICE LAKE (2012) Ciaran Magill, drawing, 40 x 57 cms
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BELFAST WATERFRONT HALL
WEDNESDAY 9 JANUARY TO FRIDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2013
WATERFRONTHALL ART GALLERY: 10 to 31 JANUARY 2013
Curated by Brendan Jamison, GLOW is a solo exhibition of 30 paintings and drawings by emerging artist Ciaran Magill. Often seduced by the glow of light in an eerie night-scene, the artist combines themes of the spooky landscape with notions of neo-romantic beauty. Scenes of desolation from Northern Ireland are fused with landscapes from America and Japan.
Magill’s painting process of multiple layering effects creates an edgy surface tension portraying a sense of foreboding. The works capture an alluring intrigue into a lonely world of danger and beauty.
Marking and scoring into the surface of the canvas with experimental mark-making techniques, the artist heightens the sense of depth, atmosphere and tension. With an innovative fresh aesthetic, Magill pushes the boundaries of the landscape genre, venturing towards a psychological dreamscape.
The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
ARTIST CIARAN MAGILL IN-BETWEEN THE PAINTINGS 'HALLUCINATION' AND 'MAD SUMMER'
THE CURVING WALL OF THE WATERFRONT HALL REVEALING 15 OF THE 30 PIECES ON SHOW IN THE GLOW EXHIBITION
ARTIST CIARAN MAGILL FINISHING THE PAINTING 'CAVITY' (2012) oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cms
HALLUCINATION (2012) Ciaran Magill, oil on linen, 90 x 120 cms
TWO HUTS (2012) Ciaran Magill, oil on linen, 120 x 90 cms
The provocative exhibition isn't for the faint of heart, but is well-worth challenging your preconceptions
Admittance to Warning! This is Contemporary Art at the Crescent Art Centre is ‘strictly limited to over 18s only’. Determined to avoid ‘safe’ art, the Warning Art curator Brendan Jamison has collected works dealing with sexuality, gender and mortality from controversial national and international artists.
....Other pieces on display take a more positive approach to sexuality. Ciaran Magill’s nudes are beautiful and approachable, with his portrait of a transsexual caught on the liminal edge of gender identity. There is something tender in the painting of two male nudes in a room. The soft greys and yellow undertones they are drawn in give the captured moment a soft, pre-dawn feel.
Not everything in the Warning Art Gallery is particularly to this critic’s personal tastes. There is nothing in the exhibition that is easy to pass with only a cursory look. Clearly, from the red stickers marking a lot of the art as sold, other visitors to the gallery agree. It seems that Jamison was right about there being a market for edgier works.
Warning! This is Contemporary Art is at the Crescent Art Centre until June 15.
WARNING! This is Contemporary Art, Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, until June 15 2012
An
x-rated art exhibition is challenging the boundaries of the Northern Irish
contemporary art scene.
WARNING! This is Contemporary Art, which takes
place in the Crescent Arts Centre, contains a
series of sexually explicit and psychologically dark works focusing on
alternative representations of the human body and its functions.
Ciaran
Magill, Coming Closer (2012). Pastel on paper.
The group exhibition features work by 26
artists from Europe and America, including Tracey Emin, Julian Opie, André
Stitt and Ciaran Magill. It is curated by Brendan
Jamison.
One highlight of the exhibition is André Stitt’s paintings. Stitt, who
also delivered the exhibition’s opening talk, created the Prog Rock series of
abstract paintings while listening to loud music with obscene lyrics, while his
giant Black Mountain High is a response to the city of Belfast.
Warning Art aims to challenge the conservative Northern Irish art
establishment, which tends to focus on attractive and representational art.
Modelling itself on the contemporary art
scenes of London, New York and Berlin, the gallery will put on a series of
exhibitions that explore 21st century life and offer edgier contemporary artists
a chance to display their work in Northern Ireland, rather than waiting to be
taking up by galleries in England or further afield.
Monday to Saturday 10.30am-5.30pm (Fridays
until 8pm). Over-18s only. Entry free.
BERLIN (2010) Ciaran Magill, oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cms
Visitors to the sculpture studio often become absorbed by the paintings hanging on the walls, the works being regularly rotated from my ever-expanding art collection. Collecting art is a pure passion and some of Northern Ireland’s emerging artists are making works of a strong international standard. The artist who often draws the most intrigue is Ciaran Magill (born in 1978, lives in Kilkeel) A graduate of the University of Ulster in 2009 and recipient of the DIAGEO N.I. award for ‘Emerging Artist of the Year.” Described by renowned painter Neil Shawcross as ‘a genius’ back when he studied under him on the foundation course in 1998, Magill is a painter who has mastered the art of spooky landscapes through edgy layering effects, strong depth and an accomplished use of line. Desolate and haunting, they exude an hypnotic charm. Over the past two years he has exhibited internationally in New York and Italy, while closer to home, he has shown in many significant group exhibitions at Golden Thread, Ormeau Baths Gallery, ArtTank, Catalyst Arts and the Naughton Gallery.
Of the 19 works I have already collected from this artist, two thirds are of his magnificent landscapes, the others are explorations of the male nude, with influence drawn from Egon Schiele, Hernan Bas and Tracey Emin. Magill’s new figurative works will be displayed in a group exhibition titled ‘Warning! This is Contemporary Art’ which opens on Friday May 25 in Belfast. Also that month, the artist’s second solo exhibition at Down Arts Centre titled ‘Spooky Hypnotic’ will open on Friday May 11 and is highly anticipated.
ECHO (2010) Ciaran Magill, oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cms
EERIE TWILIGHT (2010) Ciaran Magill, drawing on card, 25 x 30 cms
The best new talent from the
Belfast School of Art & Design.
By Judith Robinson
Ciaran Magill
Fine Art
Working on landscape
pieces, Ciaran has infused his canvases with colour and detail to produce a
vibrant collection. Using photographs of the landscape, both around him and
overseas, he has been able to recreate scenes, adding a few twists and really
emphasising colour."
'I paint what I would like to see in a landscape
- bursting with colour and texture. Each painting is layered several times to
achieve an edgy effect.' This edgy aspect is interesting in Ciaran's work. 'I
wanted to create a feeling of eeriness in my paintings to show that whilst the
landscape is beautiful, it can also be a very lonely place.'
ECHO (2010) Ciaran Magill, oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cms 
EERIE TWILIGHT (2010) Ciaran Magill, drawing on card, 25 x 30 cms 
