Laura Gannon
24 June - 23 July 2022
Kate MacGarry is pleased to announce Laura Gannon’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.
Gannon’s new film Glass House is a portrait of a modern church on the west coast of Ireland. It depicts the counterpoint of a striking modernist building set in a rural position on the windswept Atlantic coast. The film includes the narration of Phyllis Burke, now 92, who designed the stained-glass window. The church was designed by architect Leo Mansfield and built in Connemara in 1968 by local volunteers and the priest, Father Quinn. It was funded by donations from local people who had migrated to Boston and other American cities. The film looks at the relationship of Ireland to modernity, and the landscape, suggesting how architecture and design were used to create an environment for worship during a time of religious dominance.
New painted works on linen occupy the main space of the gallery. These works feature punctures, apertures and interwoven elements painted in bold, simple inks and acrylic. They oscillate between sculpture and painting. Gannon has stated, “there is an element of what I term psychological data embedded in the work”. Thought and time are implicated through each mark, and each shadow, through reduction and repetition Gannon imbues these sculptural paintings with fragility and sensuality. Gannon’s films mark a parallel to her works on linen with their articulation of temporality, light, space and the act of looking and feeling.
On Sunday 10 July as part of Performance Exchange, Laura Gannon will perform We are Eileen, a collaborative conversation with designer Staf Schmool and sound artist Susan Stenger. The three share a section of their ongoing live research into the life of modernist designer, Eileen Gray and her network of creatives.
Laura Gannon, born 1972 in Galway, lives and works in London. Recent group exhibitions include Making and Momentum: In Conversation with Eileen Gray: curated by Richard Malone, at Mairie de Ville, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France (2021) National Museum of Ireland, Dublin (2021) and Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford, Ireland (2022). In 2021 Gannon took part in Launch Pad residency LaB, in Charente, France. Solo exhibitions include Silver House, VISUAL Carlow, Ireland, (2019); Laura Gannon, Kate MacGarry (2018); Espace Croisé, Centre d'Art Contemporain, France, (2016); Silver House, Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland (2015). Group shows include Andersen's Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark, (2018); Show Window, Kate MacGarry, London, UK (2016); Folly: Art After Architecture, Glucksman, Cork, Ireland (2014); A House of Leaves, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK (2013). A House in Cap-Martin was included in Customary Beauty, Mor-Charpentier, Paris, France (2011); Silver House was screened as part of the Official Selection Milano Design Film Festival (2017).
