126, Artist-run Gallery

Opening: Friday 27 August 2010, 7.00pm until 10.00pm
E:ventGallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU

Cian McConn, Damien O'Connell, Emmett Kierans, Fionnuala & Aideen Doran, Kevin Gaffney, Laura McMorrow, Linda Monks, Lorraine Walsh, Sercan Sahin, Thomas Carville.

Mainland is guest-curated by Galway-based 126, Artist-run Gallery.

After an all Ireland open call to emerging artists, 126 has put together an exhibition which highlights a diverse and vibrant contemporary arts scene in Ireland.

Working in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, video and photography, 11 artists chosen for inclusion in the exhibition have responsed to the title of the show with a range of interpretations that are critical, personal and humorous. The resulting pieces comment on a term which is loaded in the context of the island of Ireland’s recent and current history, and its relationship with the UK and Europe, as well as taking a more ambiguous and international approach to the idea of place and life on the fringe.

126 presents Outside Relations, a collection of artworks from 3 generations of the one family: June Lally, her father William Elmes and her son Colm Lally. The works included in the show date from about 1950 to present. Considering the changes that have taken place in the history of art as well as the social history of Ireland during this period the idea of the show is to examine what traces of these histories are embodied in the materials used and processes of making undertaken.

The work in Outside Relations explores, through the lens of a rural Galway family of artists, how major paradigm shifts such as 'modernism' manifest themselves outside the discourses of 'insider' urban groupings and institutions. How important are the artists situated outside the main urban centres in terms of their articulation or their negotiation between tradition and contemporary art? Taking place in a gallery situated by Galway Harbour, on the threshold of Europe, Outside Relations attempts to disrupt the traditional Eurocentric narrative found in art history. As one stands in front of the works collected for this show perhaps the question is less about the embodiment of art history but rather the disembodiment of art history.

Colm Lally was born in Galway in 1973. He is currently living and working in London. In 2003 Lally founded artist-run space, E:ventGallery, and continues to work as there as creative director. His mother June Lally was born in Dublin in 1936. After an early exposure to and subsequent life long appreciation and interest in art she eventually pursued this passion graduating with a diploma in art and Design from GMIT in 1997. A well traveled artist and founder member of the collective Solas Art she currently lives and works in Galway. Her father William (1910-1882) lived in Dublin all his life. Although trained as a Merchant seaman, he was a keen draftsman and meticulous object and model maker, taking much of his inspiraion from the boats he worked on and sailed in.

126 was established in 2006 by local artists in their own living room as a response to the need for more non-commercial gallery spaces in Galway and is currently located on Queen Street in the city centre.

126 is supported by the Arts Council, the Galway City Council and its membership.