Review : Ann Dunphy Exhibition

To visit the Joan Clancy Gallery in Helvick is always a pleasure and even on a dull cloudy, misty day in July, there is a poetry and the mystique of art and music in the place.

The gallery is hosting an Ann Dunphy solo show that is significantly different from this young artist's previous Dungarvan and Waterford Crystal Gallery solo shows.

Dunphy has spent some fruitful and experimental years overseas and has returned with a mix of cultural influences in ideas, images and choice of colours.

Work from Siam and elsewhere shows a similarity of experience and many of these mixed media on canvas and board reflect a transitional aspect as the artist seeks out a newer direction and wider experience.

Within some of these images you can discern birds, crows and cattle slowly and strangely emerging from a seeming muddle of muddy colours and too many drips and daubs for the liking. But as you move away from these paintings you can enjoy the revelation of familiar Irish images in multi-cultural settings.

While I didn't like the graphic art of printed text within some images I enjoyed the obvious images of fishing boats in a much stranger landscape. There is an original quality to work such as Muddy Water and the two largest canvases are a joy to experience - Across The Field with its pale vital blues and Beneath the Trees with its lively yellows.

Opening July 30th this Gallery will host a Cultural Legacy Exhibition influenced by the famous Clancy Brothers and this should be a huge attraction to an amazing landscape.
LIAM MURPHY