Niamh O'Malley: Vignette

This is Niamh O'Malley's first solo exhibition with Green On Red Gallery and heralds her return to Ireland from New York where she participated in the prestigious International Studio Programme at PS1, MoMa.

O'Malley's practice involves an investigation of structures for the perception and appraisal of visual qualities in nature as landscape. In particular, her most recent visual works address the positioning of the viewer as he/she employs particular modes of appreciation. O'Malley has stated about her work, the dene, 'vignette' "it can be read as a slowly moving painting producing a visual tension between the still, painted landscape and the real-time filmic space." She explores the disparity between representational devices such as painting and video and the understanding they propose.

In the dene,'vignette' the image is constructed through the precise alignment of a projected image and its painted counterpart. The work began as a video shot in New York City's Central Park. The stillness of the generic scene of grass, trees and lamppost is interrupted by passing pedestrians and traffic. The video slowly fades to reveal the painting behind the projection.

In reviewing O'Malley's PS1 exhibition, critic Tim Maul wrote: "as the two silent pictures dissolve in and out of each other, an odd effect is produced, a shifting between the rendered and the real. There is something mildly irrational about the hold this work has over those who encounter it. Perhaps some secret pictorial rule was broken allowing this fragment of cinema to operate in the space of a painting.

Most recently O'Malley has exhibited in European Space, Riga, Latvia, Visa for Thirteen, PS1, New York, No particular place to go, Apt Gallery, London, and EV+A, Limerick. She will participate in a residency at Biz Art, Shanghai in 2005.

The artist will give a talk on her work in the gallery on Thursday 14th October at 7pm. Please contact the gallery to reserve seating.

Should you require further information please contact Jerome O'Drisceoil, Caoimhe Kilfeather or Jennifer Phelan at Green On Red Gallery, 26-28 Lombard Street East, Dublin 2. The next exhibition at Green On Red Gallery is Gerard Byrne's most recent work entitled Hommes à Femmes, 11 November - 23 December, 2004