We are please to announce Kevin Mooney's participation at Eva International, Limerick City.
Kevin Mooney's paintings are rooted in folklore, mythology and a semi-fictitious Irish art history. His solo shows include: Seeing Things, ArtBox Projects, Dublin (2017); Twilight Head Cult, Ormston House, Limerick (2016); and Wave, Pallas Projects, Dublin (2014). Selected group exhibitions include What is and What Might Be, Highlanes Gallery Drogheda (2015); Making Familiar, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (2012); and Video Killed the Radio Star, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2010).
Mooney's work explores the dialectics involved in the idea of homeland as integral to one's memory of place. These memories are not fixed, however, but remain as an intangible essence. His parents emigrated from Ireland in the 1950s, and as child he was partly excluded from a 'real' Irish identity, meaning his understanding of Irishness is partly from an 'outsider' perspective. With painterly techniques encompassing prehistoric, medieval and contemporary periods, his work maps, retraces, and re-imagines cultural history, and is an interplay between loss and renewal. His series of paintings Psychic SpectreLand (2017-18) reimagines a 'lost' part of Irish art history - a history that didn't happen. The figuration in the work comprises the abstraction of prehistoric symbolism and medieval flatness while also including more contemporary painting techniques. Landscape appears to be animated by a spirit, generating the imagery of surrealist nature, which is both pre-modern and apocalyptically post-industrial.
About Eva International
EVA International is Ireland's Biennial of Contemporary Art. Every two years EVA International works with guest curators to create a 12-week programme of exhibitions and events that engage with the people and city of Limerick, Ireland. Since its foundation in 1977, EVA International has worked with some of the world's leading artists and curators, bringing outstanding exhibitions and international audiences to the west coast of Ireland. Artists' projects are selected through an international open and invited call for proposals and exhibitions take place in both gallery and non-gallery spaces.
EVA International (previously known as e v+ a, Exhibition of Visual Art) was founded by Limerick-based artists and academics in January 1977. The aim of the original committee was to show the work of contemporary visual artists and "provide the public with an opportunity to visit and experience an exhibition not normally available in the region and [...] stimulate an awareness of the visual arts here" [taken from the Introduction to EVA 1977 catalogue].
Initially the exhibition took place annually and artworks were selected from an open call for submissions by a panel of acclaimed Irish artists and arts professionals. In 1979 Sandy Nairne was appointed as the first international guest curator of the exhibition and this model has continued since then. Through working with international guest curators, EVA International aims to introduce them to Irish art and artists, while simultaneously introducing Irish audiences to international art and artists.