Visual Art: Collocate: An exhibition of work by Eoin O’Malley, Paul Bokslag and Orla Callaghan at Riverbank Arts Centre

Collocate: To set or place together, especially side by side

An exhibition of work by Eoin O’Malley, Paul Bokslag and Orla Callaghan
Tuesday 7th – Saturday 25th August 2018

Artists Eoin O’Malley and Orla Callaghan have worked together for years at the KARE Lawlor Centre in Baltinglass. They first met Paul Bokslag at Eoin’s 2016 solo exhibition at the Riverbank Arts Centre through the Arts and Disability Ireland Connect Mentoring scheme. Over a period of a year they met a number of times to support the development of Eoin’s professional practice. During these sessions the three developed a strong interest in each other’s work and after the mentorship was completed the wish grew to continue the connection and work towards a small three-person exhibition. During July of this year Eoin, Orla and Paul experimented with a variety of printing techniques at KCAT Arts Centre in Callan.

Eoin O’Malley received an Arts and Disability Connect Training award in 2017, and a Mentoring award in 2016. These awards facilitated him to train with Paul Bokslag and develop a tailor made training programme for Eoin to learn printmaking techniques.

This is the first time that they show work together. For this exhibition all three have worked using paper as a medium, but through very different approaches. For Eoin paper is the surface on which he develops his gestural layered drawings using brush and inks. Paul Bokslag works with a scalpel to create papercuts that explore positive and negative space. Orla Callaghan has reworked old photographic prints from the darkroom, to build collages that place older elements in new constellations.

At the artists talk Orla, Eoin and Paul will look at their arts practices and creative processes and demonstrate some of the media they use in their work. Visitors will be invited to try out some of the techniques discussed.

Official Launch by Dominic Thorpe Saturday 11 August at 6pm
Artists Talk Saturday 25th August 2pm

Arts and Disability Connect is supported by the Arts Council/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon and managed by Arts and Disability Ireland.