Residents ready for some snowless scenery can turn to Lorica Artworks, the downtown gallery that will present “Ireland in Real Time.”
“Ireland in Real Time” is a five week long art exhibition created by a diverse group of contemporary artists from Ireland and New England, and it will open Friday, March 8, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
“Focusing on places and things Irish, the paintings showcase a confluence of interests and interpretations that are as varied as the artists themselves. On view are pieces that render in a literal sense, what one might see in an Irish landscape today. Others, while sharing the same inspiration, offer an unexpected translation, challenging the idea of a collective effort,” according to owner Mia Guerrera.
Landscape paintings by Mary Christie, Nella Lush, Jay Mulligan and Hugh O’Neill illustrate this diversity. Northern Irish artist Mary Christie’s paintings are undeniably rural Ireland. But Guerra says representations, “dominated by wildly imagined color and rhythmical brush strokes, seamlessly marry tradition with modern expression.”
She describes her other artists in this way: Nella Lush, from North Andover, paints Ireland in the abstract, intuitively allowing her pieces to evolve into pure distillations of shape, form and color. Quincy native Jay Mulligan presents glimpsed everyday narratives in a realistic palette saturated by pure and brilliant color. Expat Hugh O’Neill achieves authenticity and sincerity in his paintings while imbuing them with a lyricism reminiscent of European landscape masters of the 1900s.
Perhaps in a category all her own, Irish artist Kelly Hood, chronicles daily temporal images, pairing her two loves, art and animals, according to Guerrera. Painting monochromatic pieces using, oil, flint, zinc flakes and Italian marble dust, she exacts photo-realistic vignettes.
“Ireland in Real Time” also includes works by John Caggiano, Pat Cowley, Doreen Drennan, Gavin Fitzsimmons, John Patrick Flynn, Andre´ Lucero, Arthur O’Callaghan, Cathal O’Malley, Dennis Poirier, Valorie Rohver and Lorin Willey.
The exhibition will run from March 8 through April 13, at Lorica Artworks, 96 Main St. in Andover. For more information, contact Mia Guerrera at 978-470-1829 or mguerrera@loricaartworks.com and also at loricaartworks.com.
