Artist John Kennedy's exhibition Edgelands opens at South Tipperary Arts Centre

Edgelands by John Kennedy has opened at South Tipperary Arts Centre and it will continue until Saturday, February 19.

This new body of work comes as the result of John’s Artist in Residence Award with STAC and has been supported by Tipperary Arts Office. 

Kennedy’s work is primarily concerned with isolation, abandonment, and remoteness, while exploring the physical properties of paint and other less traditional materials. Edgelands focuses on expanses of land that exist in the margins.

Rough and ready in the functionalism of their edifices, they are unappreciated by the average landscape lover. There is a silence, and distance, in the paintings, just outside of range of overhearing what is going on, which evokes a feeling of being outside looking in.

John lives and works in Clonmel. He has a BA in Fine Art from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design and post grad, he lived and worked in Cork for a number of years. He moved back to Clonmel, his home place, in the early 2000s. He didn’t paint for a number of years but picked up the brushes again about ten years ago. He has recently completed the Turps Correspondence Course in Painting through Turps School in London.

Meanwhile, opening on February 25 at STAC and continuing until April 2 will be The Sculptural Imagination of Seanie Barron, co curated with Michele Horrigan. 

There is something joyful, magical, and relatable about Seanie Barron’s work; both in the way he creates and in the resulting objects. His work might easily seem to fall under the label ‘folk art’, yet on further inspection, it becomes apparent that his work is instead borne out of an understanding of nature and often-humorous interpretations of the environment around him. He roams around his native Askeaton in Co. Limerick, looking for the right branch left in a field or underneath a bush, to then shape into a walking stick.

These often take on surreal forms referencing seahorses, weasels, fists, foxes, or swimmers. Many double as whistles, or incorporate found objects such as coins, bullets, or animal bones. By channeling all from the overlooked to the exotic, Barron has spent years working on a form of art that, though may come from an untrained hand, is as relevant as any didactic form of creativity.

A new publication of Seanie’s work, published by ACA PUBLIC will be launched during the exhibition.

Pictured below is John Kennedy's painting Union Dusk