Host is an exhibition of work by 8 contemporary artists, 4 from Dublin and 4 from Belfast, curated by Moran Been-Noon. The show is made up of 29 artworks which all explore the sentiment ‘Host’ in a variety of interesting ways, including identity, location and heritage. The exhibition is running for one week at The Dean Art Studios in Dublin before moving to Belfast to exhibit for a further week later this month at Vault Artist Studios.
Tim Millen is a visual artist based in Belfast. His work in the exhibition explores the physical notion of a host, a living organism. Presented as a series of 3 paintings, these works show the relationship between humans and nature.
Alana Barton is a figurative painter based in Belfast. She presents a pair of paintings in this exhibition which play with the notion of ourselves as being hosts. Her vibrant style of hyper-realistic work married with surreal and abstract settings explore childhood relationships and their existence between reality and imagination.
Monika Crowley is a visual artist based in Dublin. Her artistic practice explores notions of change and identity, and in this exhibition she references the ultimate physical host – a mother. She presents a series of 4 works which show the repetition and emotional labour of motherhood. Each canvas represents an amount of time and each are filled with a repeated pattern of mundane symbols indicating the amount of repetition within that timeframe.
Daniel Henson is a visual artist based in Dublin. His abstract and gestural paintings, with use of heavy impasto, evoke an emotional response in the viewer. Borne from an examination of his own identity and sense of foreignness, these works explore the notions of belonging and hosting.
Margot Galvin is a visual artist based in Dublin. Her work explores the notion of belonging, examining both self and space. She presents a series of abstract works in this exhibition, which highlight inhospitable landscapes and the thought of those who have no place to identify as their own.
Mary O’Connor is a visual artist based in Dublin. Her signature style of abstract and geometric work are inspired by her surroundings. In this exhibition, Mary presents a series of small works on board compiled in stacks, reminiscent of the carpet stacks she witnessed in Asia. These stacks were produced during lockdown and were a way of storing works, but ultimately became works of sculpture themselves. The stacks are accompanied by a video which shows the individual pieces being displayed on a wall.
Esther O’Kelly is a visual artist based in Belfast and a founding member of Vault Artist Studios. Her colourful and abstract work is inspired by the landscape and its history and culture. Her series of round works on canvas and board in this exhibition bring forth a collective sense of the Irish landscape, of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Jonathan Brennan is a visual artist originally from Dublin who is now based in Belfast. His artistic practice includes painting, printmaking, photography and video. In this exhibition, he presents a series of found photographs of Vault Artist Studios, which showcase the history of the building – the location of his current studio and host for this exhibition later this month.
‘Host’ is running from 2 – 9 October at The Dean Art Studios in Dublin and from 15 – 23 October at Vault Artists Studios in Belfast.
To see more of the artists visit their websites and Instagrams: