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24/9/2007

Paul Nugent

Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin

Vigil

Vigil, an exhibition of new paintings by Dublin-based artist Paul Nugent, opens on September 26th in Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin 2. Vigil continues to Saturday 27 October. The exhibition will be accompanied by a gallery discussion, “The Promiscuous Diversity of Contemporary Painting”, with London-based critic J J Charlesworth , in conversation with Robert Armstrong , Artist and Head of Painting in the National College of Art and Design on Thursday 4 October at 6:30pm.

Vigil is a series of monochromatic paintings. Each explores technical peculiarities of photography as Nugent floats detailed studies on blurred architectural backdrops. The references to early photography tend to the paradoxical. The immediate moment of the photograph is challenged by his use of the negative plate as subject, alluding to the gap in time between the taking of a photograph and the printing of the final image. By painting the subject, Nugent extends the timeline of the image and the period of realisation. In this way he moves beyond lenticular vision and adds his own thoughts and experience of the time and place. This subtlety reflects Freudian theory where the photographic positive and negative indicates the conscious and the subconscious.

Vigil occupies a place between the exploration of the limitations of photography through painting and early photographic experiment, where photographers appropriated painterly forms and devices such as the division of imagery through architectural elements. Nugent overthrows the intellectual knowledge of what is depicted and replaces it with an intuitive gaze of wakeful potentialities. His reversal of darkness and light create multiple narratives rather than clear linear representation expected of a photograph; dark becomes light, and transparency adopts a somber solidity.

There is a sculptural and brooding quality to Nugent’s painting. His practice offers an intense post-Romantic and semi-allegorical portrait of time. The repetition of the subject becomes meditative, and reflects his approach to painting. In addition, Nugent’s careful selection of location expresses the still energy of actual and potential forces. In Vigil, the Chapelle et Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière is a charged environment that transcends time, inhabited only by the presence of memories and specters from its past. By engaging with the subject, so heavily imbued with a history that stretches from pre-Revolutionary France to contemporary psychological theory and practice, the viewer understands that they are passing through in the same way as past generations; instilling and developing their own myths of the place with their time delimited by human mortality.

PAUL NUGENT (b. 1964) is a Dublin based artist. He studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. His exhibitions include: Other Visions: Representation in Contemporary Irish Painting and Photography Purdy Hicks Gallery,London (2006); New Territories, ARCO Madrid Spain curated by Enrique Juncosa Director IMMA (2005); Views from an Island: Contemporary Art from Ireland, Shanghai Gallery of Modern Art and the Millennium Monument Museum, Beijing China (2004); Comharsana Beal Doris (Neighbours) The Rooms, The Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada (2005); Re-Imagining Ireland, University of Virginia USA (2003); Eurojet Futures, RHA (2002); En Visage, Irish Museum of Modern Art (2002; Perspective 2000, Ormeau Baths Gallery (2000); Works from the Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art (1999), A Collection in the Making, Irish Museum of Modern Art (1998); We Paint II, Rubicon Gallery (1996), and Academy without Walls, RHA (1995). Paul was Artist in Residence at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2004) and has been awarded a three year bursary by The Arts Council of Ireland (2006 – 2008). Paul Nugent is represented by the Barbara Behan Gallery London and the Third Space Gallery in Belfast.

Press Contact: Noel Kelly - Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
t. + 353 1 671 0073 e. nkelly@templebargallery.com

Preview: Tuesday 25th September, 6pm - 8pm

Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
5 - 9 Temple Bar Dublin 2
Gallery Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am - 6pm
Thursday: 11am - 7pm

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