A new breed
Billy Leahy looks at an impressive showcase of young talent at the RHA's Recent Graduates 2005 exhibition
Oversized teddy bear rabbits, mean-spirited robots and Swiss chalet housing; the Royal Hibernian Academy's Recent Graduates 2005 exhibition has them all. This, the third year of the exhibition, focuses on painting and drawing, following on nicely from last year's photography- and projection-based show. Despite the different emphasis in medium, once again the Ashford Gallery, and curator Mark St John Ellis, has succeeded in presenting an impressive showcase of the youngest generation of artists.
This year, there is a strong element of humour and playfulness in the exhibition, exemplified in Atsushi Kaga. The Tokyo-born artist, who describes his work as existing on and incorporating the margins of worlds at once arcane and everyday, brings a light-hearted touch to the exhibition with three works from what can be described as his 'bunny series'.
The first work, 'Here I am', presents a straight-up portrait of Kaga's protagonist and hero – a seemingly contented, super-sized teddy-bear rabbit, standing to attention in front of a plain black background to gain our attention. The following two paintings appear to touch on a subtle religious theme (as does the aforementioned title), with 'Bunny with Lamb' and 'Bunny with Crown' suggesting a parody of religious iconography. It has been said that one of Kaga's aims is to make the viewer smile, but at the same time there seems to be a darker and less innocent side to the almost cuddly and naïve images.
One of the most striking pieces in the show is the collection of 100 small-scale yellow and white images painted in acrylic on mdf by Mandy Russell, which is titled 'Tractors and Ladders'. The paintings are based on the artist's personal experience as she incorporates imagery specific to her native North East Donegal. In some works Russell alludes to farming symbols or Sectarian motifs, while other simply contain ladders; something that creates a boardgame feel as broad issues such as death, love and betrayal are dealt with. Several of the paintings are left monochrome to great effect, creating an overall balance that is perhaps the key to the instillation's success.
Another artist exhibiting a selection of paintings is Swiss-born Nadja Haefeli, who displays oil on paper works of typical, picture-postcard Alpine chalets. The 16 works take the desirability of the idyllic as a definite theme and hold a persuasive aesthetic appeal when hung side-by-side. The understated nature of Haefeli's paintings appears also in Kate Warner's two oil on board works, where she presents delicate scenes the emit a softness and uncomplicated sense of solitude.
Leda Scully's two oil on canvas pieces, collectively titled 'Portrait', are arresting works that stand out from the rest of the exhibition. Scully creates a very definite image, which on closer inspection plays with undefined boundaries and a certain ambiguity of form and line. Also highly eye-catching is Jonathan Mayhew's series of cartoon drawings that instantly suck the viewer in to his world. The bright colours and strong sense of humour, which crosses from the dark to the playful to the outright absurd with accomplished ease, make the drawings immediately charming.
The works are Mayhew's attempt to express his ideas about the world around him, touching on pop culture and fictional scenarios that detail life's unpredictability and, at times, misfortunes. Also locating himself in a personal fictional world is Eoin McHugh, who states that he is "interested in the structuring of language involved in the interpretation of ambiguity in an artwork; in the space between the image, the object and the idea". This concept is explored through the drawing process, with McHugh staging narratives and scenes laden with visual metaphors and symbolic associations.
Recent Graduates 2005 is a surprisingly mature and professionally executed exhibition that offers the viewer the perfect opportunity to view art that is fresh and has yet to be consumed by commercial galleries. Most of the works are also for sale at reasonable prices, so it provides the non-plush art-lover a chance to enter the market, whilst supporting the younger generation of Irish-based artists that continue to blossom healthily in the currently fertile environment.
?More Runs until 27 October. www.royalhibernianacademy. com