Past Exhibitions...

Il y a quotidian - There is everyday
Works by Eimear Twomey

January 21st - February 6th
Opening reception Thursday January 21st 7 - 9 pm

Il y a quotidian - There is everyday is the first solo exhibition by Galway based artist Eimear Twomey. The exhibition featuring, video sound and text explores society's tendency toward the spectacle. Television and the media brings together lives and identities which were formerly secret or discrete. Influenced by the hyperreality of mass culture, the parameters of the represented and the roles of the actor and the spectator do not clearly begin or end.

Eimear Twomey graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Galway and Mayo Institute of Technology in 2009. She is part of the Knee-Jerk collective and recently exhibited at Rosa Parks Gallery.

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 a voluntarily led, artist-run gallery that is known for promoting challenging and experimental works that would not be seen in commercial galleries or conventional institutions. 126 is supported by the Arts Council, the Galway City Council and its membership.

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Just Works
IVAN TWOHIG - SAMUEL SEGER - PATRICK WAGNER

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KEN FANDELL 
Between Me and Galway Bay

November 6th - 28th, 2009
Opening reception: Friday, November 6th, 6 to 8pm (in conjunction with the TULCA opening at the Fairgreen, 6-8pm)
After-party at Bar No. 8

Open everyday of Tulca, 1 to 6pm
Regular gallery hours: Thursday - Saturday, 1 to 6pm

126, supported by TULCA Visual Arts Festival 2009, is pleased to present new work by Ken Fandell.   This is his first solo project in Ireland and in Europe.   Fandell often approaches site-specific pieces for sites that he is removed from.   Between Me and Galway Bay is a varied investigation of contemporary mythologising, commodifying and romanticising of Ireland, done from a distance of more than 3,500 miles.

The creation of this site-specific body of work continues Fandell's engagement with the effects of considering the quotidian alongside the romantic grandeur of time and space. Fandell was asked to create a small body of new work to respond to the Galway region, an area he has visited many times.   As the focus of this exhibition Fandell 'stitches' together photographs into a long scroll that dominates the length of the gallery.   Other works include video and sound-based pieces.   Fandell's tongue-in-cheek approach uses points of reference such as Frank A. Fahey's song Galway Bay , Robert J. Flaherty's film Man of Aran and a Chicago pub called 'Galway Bay' near Fandell's residence.   Through this installation Fandell scrutinises issues of distance, repetition, commodification and absurdity through an oscillation between the poetic and the crass, the romantic and the banal.

Ken Fandell (USA, b. 1971) has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Defining Moments in Photography, 1967-2007 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, (Chicago, IL); In Words: The Art of Language at The University of Delaware (Newark, DE); Antennae at the Houston Center for Photography (Houston, TX). His work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art, New York and is currently hanging in the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. He has received awards from Artadia and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. He lives and works in Chicago.

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 a voluntarily led, artist-run gallery that is known for promoting challenging and experimental works that would not be seen in commercial galleries or conventional institutions. 126 is supported by the Arts Council, the Galway City Council and its membership.

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126 with Monster Truck Gallery and Studios present:

form-reform-transform
Works by Sarah Dunne

Curated by Sharon Phelan

October 15th – 31st 2009
Opening reception Thursday October 15th 7 – 9 p.m.

“Space is always an open space, we are those who close it.” - Giancarlo Toniutti

form-reform-transform is the first solo exhibition of works by Irish artist Sarah Dunne. With a background in music, Sarah’s practice has been continuously questioning the relationship of sound to the object and the spatial experience of sound. While art and music have closely coincided for centuries, the boundaries between these fields are becoming increasingly ambiguous. In exploring the architectonic possibilities of sound in space, Sarah’s installations and drawings give voice to an acoustic presence, challenging sculptural, architectural and perceptual definitions of space.

Sarah Dunne is a visual artist and musician based in Dublin. She completed her BA at Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork in 2006 and her MA at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton in 2007. She is currently undertaking a PhD in the sculpture department at the National College of Art and Design and is a researcher with the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCam).

126 is Galway’s and the west of Ireland’s first artist-led exhibition space. 126 was established in 2006 by local artists in their own living room as a response to the urgent need for more non-commercial gallery spaces in Galway and is currently located in the city centre.

www.monstertruck.ie



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Monster Truck Gallery & Studios with 126 present:

CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY I'M NOT COMPLETELY NAKED
A group exhibition of recent undergraduates from Galway and Limerick

October 1st - October 13th

Opening reception Thursday October 1st 7pm

As part of a curatorial exchange for the month of October, Monster Truck Gallery & Studios with 126, Galway's artist-run gallery, are proud to present a selection of young artists from GMIT Cluain Mhuire and Limerick School of Art and Design's 2009 undergraduates. This exhibition is a chance to showcase emerging talent from art colleges in the west and an opportunity to sample their Degree shows in Dublin. The artists deal with a variety of distinctive themes through a range of media, demonstrating an aptitude to their practice that is individual and assured. Works Include: installation, sculpture, works on paper, video, painting and photography. The artists featured are: Alan Bulfin, Mary Trait, Grainne McHale, Niamh O'Beirne, Grainne Kelly, Emma Grice.

This show is part of a curatorial exchange between 126 and Monster Truck. Both are artist-run organisations who share similar goals that encourage experimentation in their approach to producing exhibitions and aim to provide emerging artists with a platform. To coincide with this event Sharon Phelan (one of Monster Truck’s 7 curators) will be working with the artist Sarah Dunne who will be exhibiting at 126 from the 15th to the 31st of October.

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126 in conjunction with Pallas Contemporary Projects presents:

Skip Roll Bump Scratch
New work from Peter O'Kennedy.

Opening on the 23rd of September at 7pm.
After party in Bar No.8.

Show runs til October 10th.
Will be open til 9pm on Culture Night, Friday, September 25th.

The exhibition features video, photography and mechanical sculpture, including a new kinetic installation consisting of two mobilised record players both playing the same record. As the record players move around the gallery encountering various obstacles including the gallery walls, each other, and the legs of anyone attending, they create a constantly refreshing cut-up soundwork sourced from their needles skipping across the vinyl and composed by their choreographer, chance. It is fitting that amongst the collection of records that will be playing simultaneously on different days for the duration of the exhibition is an interview with Merce Cunningham and John Cage, collaborators and pioneers in their engagements with chance in choreography and music respectively.

O'Kennedy is a Dublin-based artist who's work to date predominantly sets up or records combinations of movement and chance. In Skip Roll Bump Scratch O'Kennedy continues his grappling with tensions resulting from struggle, striving and purposefulness in the face of a seemingly absurd and random world.

Peter O'Kennedy graduated with a Masters in Visual Arts Practice from IADT, Dublin, in 2008. His most recent solo exhibitions include Situation at Pallas Contemporary Projects, February 2009, and Tracking Beacon NY 12508, at 92, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, in 2008. He exhibited Lost Luggage, a kinetic installation for Fringe Festival, Georges Dock, Dublin, Ireland, 2007 and Jonny Axelsson performing Akrodha, a performance and video screening at The Baroque Chapel, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland, 2006.

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.

www.pallasprojects.org

www.126.ie



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126 with Blankspace Gallery (Oakland, California) present:

MYTHOLOGIES
The work of 7 emerging contemporary San Francisco Bay area artists.

August 20th – September 19th 2009

Opening reception Thursday August 20th 7 – 9 pm
After-party at Bar No. 8

126, Galway's artist-run gallery, is proud to present seven San Francisco Bay area artists for this exchange exhibition with Blankspace Gallery (Oakland, CA). Each exhibiting artist created works that deal with personal, historical and modern mythologies, some which are quintessentially American, others more universal. Works include video, installation, sculpture, works on paper, painting and ceramics. The artists featured are: Gina Tuzzi, Samara Halperin, Brian Caraway, Lena Reynoso, Crystal Morey, Sam Lopes and Renée Gertler

126 is proud to present a group exhibition curated by Blankspace in Galway Ireland. Blankspace has worked with 126 for over a year to produce exchange opportunities for local artists from both regions. After an all Ireland call for work responding to the theme of 'How Do You Know?' the artist-run gallery 126 curated a diverse range of works and practices currently on show in the Bay Area. Both galleries share similar missions and goals when it comes to producing exhibitions; 126 and Blankspace are both artist-run exhibition spaces that promote strong conceptual approaches and experimentation in art making.

Similarly to Ireland, over the last 5-7 years a diverse and internationally significant visual arts scene has emerged in Oakland, CA. It is in this development that 126 and Blankspace play significant roles in the development of visual arts in their respective cities. Blankspace is an artist-run contemporary art gallery in Oakland, California with a focus on exhibiting emerging artists in a wide range of media. Blankspace seeks to foster solid relationships with artists, collectors, curators, non-profit spaces and other contemporary art galleries to expand the Bay Area arts community.

www.blankspacegallery.com

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 in the city-centre.

www.126.ie


Image: Gina Tuzzi

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126 with Blankspace Gallery (Oakland, California) present:

HOW DO YOU KNOW?
The work of 16 emerging contemporary Irish artists.

Opens First Friday August 7th 7-10pm
Exhibition shows through August 30, 2009.

After an all Ireland call for work responding to the theme of 'How Do You Know?' the artist-run gallery 126 curated a diverse range of works and practices to be highlighted in the Bay Area.

Approaches range from the medical and methodical to those of chance and humour. The show features a range of media from painting and collage to video and installation. Artists showing are: Vera Klute, Paul Murnaghan, Padraig Robinson, Christopher Banahan, Jackie Nickerson, Emma Houlihan, Adelle Hickey, Bernie Masterson, Emmet Kierans, Fiona Chambers, John Jones, Theresa Nanigian, Paul Hickey, Helena O’Connor, Tanya O’Keefe and James Hayes.

Blankspace is proud to present a group exhibition curated by 126 in Galway Ireland. Blankspace has worked with 126 for over a year to produce exchange opportunities for local artists from both regions. Bay Area artists will be exhibiting work in Galway, Ireland opening August 19th. Both galleries share similar missions and goals when it comes to producing exhibitions; 126 and Blankspace are both artist-run exhibition spaces that promote strong conceptual approaches and experimentation in art making.

Similarly to Oakland, over the last 5-7 years a diverse and internationally significant visual arts scene has emerged in Ireland. It is in this development that 126 and Blankspace play significant roles in the development of visual arts in their respective cities.

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 in the city-centre.

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

Blankspace is an artist-run contemporary art gallery in Oakland, California with a focus on exhibiting emerging artists in a wide range of media. Blankspace seeks to foster solid relationships with artists, collectors, curators, non-profit spaces and other contemporary art galleries to expand the Bay Area arts community.

www.blankspacegallery.com

blankspace
6608 san pablo ave
oakland, ca 94608
510-547-6608

NEW hours: thurs- sun 12-6pm, first friday 7-10pm


Image: Fiona Chambers

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126 presents:

IT’S ABOUT TIME
Works by HANK WILLIS THOMAS

July 15th through August 15th, 2009
Opening reception: Wednesday July 15th, 7pm.

126 is pleased to present It’s About Time, Hank Willis Thomas’s first solo exhibition in Europe.  The exhibition follows his solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery (New York) this spring and the publication of his first monograph Pitch Blackness by The Aperture Foundation last fall.  Employing visual language and materials commonly used in mass-media Thomas presents a range of works from the last eight years in this mini-retrospective.  Works range from vinyl and cardboard cutouts to video and manipulated photo-based works.  Together they trace African-American history through visual culture in an attempt to dissect, reinterpret, and re-imagine iconic moments from the “black past” and to investigate the complexity of race in the United States in the 21st century.  Thomas appropriates imagery and language from a variety of sources including posters announcing slaves for sale, as well as books, magazines, and advertisements.  GI Joe, Air Jordan and Johnny Walker are points of reference that appear in the work. The show features an installation inspired by the portrayal of African-American women in advertising and large-scale reproductions of contemporary ads juxtaposed with strikingly similar examples from the past, both of which explore expressions of cultural exploitation by media.  Also included are the collaborative videos Winter in America made with Kambui Olujimi about a tragic murder in Philadelphia, and Along the Way a video mosaic about the city of Oakland created by the public arts group Cause Collective of which Thomas is a member.

Hank Willis Thomas has exhibited his work at venues such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.  He was included in the recent exhibition, “After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy”, at the High Museum, Atlanta, GA; in Frequency at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 2005; and in the 2006 California Biennial at The Orange County Museum of Art.  His work is featured in several public collections including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the International Center of Photography in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.  His photographs have been published in numerous books and publications including: Reflections in Black: A History of African American Photographers (W.W. Norton 2000), 25 under 25: American Photographers (Power House Books 2003) and Black: A celebration of a Culture (Hylas Publishing 2004). 

hankwillisthomas.com

126 is a voluntarily led, artist-run gallery that promotes challenging and experimental works that would not be seen in commercial galleries or conventional institutions. 126 is supported by the Arts council, the Galway city council and our membership.

Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 1-6 or by appointment.

126, Artist-run gallery
Queen St., Galway
Ireland
www.126.ie




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126 with the Galway Film Fleadhpresents:

TWILIGHT AVENGER
Video works by KELLY RICHARDSON

July 7th through July 12th, 2009

Opening reception: Wednesday July 8th, 8pm
There will be a one-on-one artist talk between Richardson and Galway based director and writer Katherine Waugh, Wednesday July 8th at 126 from 7-8pm

Kelly Richardson will be showing two video works, Twilight Avenger and Wagons Roll, in a dual screen installation at 126’s new city centre gallery.

Kelly Richardson’s primary interest is in exploring simultaneity, affect and the use of cinematic language to create part real /part imagined landscapes, offering visual metaphors for modern ‘reality’, a wavering hybrid of fact and fiction. With an interest in creating contemplative spaces loaded with double meanings, the work explores notions of simultaneity as a way of summating feelings associate with the hugely complicated world we have created for ourselves; magnificent and equally dreadful. Richardson questions our place in the world, with allusions to political, cultural, societal and environmental issues and points to something greater than ourselves.

Kelly Richardson was born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada in 1972. She studied fine art at the Ontario College of Art & Design (AOCAD with honours) and media studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (MFA studies). Her works have been exhibited internationally at various venues including the Sundance Film Festival, USA (2009), Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Quebec (2009), Busan Biennale, Korea (2008), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, USA (2008), Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal, Canada (2007), Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, UK (2005), Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2004), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2002-2003) and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2002). Her work was recently acquired by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, New York), Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (Montréal, Canada) and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington DC, USA). She was long listed for Canada’s pre-eminent prize for contemporary art, the Sobeys Art Award two years running (2008 and 2009) and will be the featured artist for this years Americans for the Arts National Arts Award held in New York City. She lives and works in the United Kingdom.

www.kellyrichardson.net

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126 presents for the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover:

Sports Bar
An installation by Frank Koolen

Curated by Maaike Gouwenberg

Opening reception: Thursday May 28th, 8pm.
After-party at Bar No. 8

Show runs through June 27th, 2009

"Sports Bar is a place of leisure.
A place where you can relax and hang out with your friends.
Some time ago they tried to close it down.
Soon they lost interest and probably forgot about it.
Now we are just waiting for the next wave."

Sports Bar is the first solo show in Ireland of Dutch artist Frank Koolen. Additional to the show at 126, films by Frank Koolen will be on show at the Volvo Ocean Race village across the street from 126. You are very welcome to come over to the sports bar to see some ambitious sportsmen working out and to have a drink with the peculiar guests.

The work of Frank Koolen can be described as an ongoing search for the ideal combination between the beauty of discovery and the happiness of recognition. A moment in which the everyday and the magical seem to collide, creating unexpected logic.

Frank Koolen is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After finishing a studies in Fine Arts at the Utrech School of Arts he attended de Ateliers in Amsterdam. At the moment he is a resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Solo shows by Frank Koolen are: The Tropical Years at W139, Amsterdam (2009), Tourist Trophy at Ruang Mes 56 Gallery, Yogyakarta (2007), and The Story of The and The at Stadsgalerij, Heerlen. Some of the group shows he participated in are: Locations at Museum de Paviljoens in Almere (2008), Drawing Typologies at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2007), and Curacion Geometrica at the Reliance Gallery in London (2007).

www.frankkoolen.com

Maaike Gouwenberg is an independent curator based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

126 is a voluntarily led, artist-run gallery that promotes challenging and experimental works that would not be seen in commercial galleries or conventional institutions.

Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 1-6 or by appointment.

126, Artist-run gallery
Queen St., Galway
Ireland
www.126.ie

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



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For our grand re-opening 126 presents:

Dog Skipping Pegasus
by Fergus Byrne

7-9pm Saturday May 9th, 2009
To be opened by Galway City Arts Officer James C. Harold
The show runs to May 23rd, 2009

This is a show of recent work by Fergus Byrne. The opening will be marked by a performance, Dog Skipping Pegasus, a spoken word piece while skipping. This repetitive action aims to have a hypnotic effect. The combination of this and a spoken text sees the artist layering previous performance activities to create an intensity of action. The text was written by the artist and has been learned by heart. Words thus become physical shapes, part of a larger structure of sounds rhythmically linked, their vocal shapes and extension of the body’s physical action.

The text is rhythmically descriptive of obligation to endure and the aspiration to transcend this, resulting in the notion of a winged dog. The gesture of the skipping produces drawings, which will be shown in the gallery.

Additionally, this is 126's grand re-opening at our new city centre location. Opening reception from 7-9pm. An after-party will held at Bar No. 8 on the docks.

126 is a voluntarily led, artist-run gallery that promotes challenging and experimental works that would not be seen in commercial galleries or conventional institutions.

Gallery hours are Wed - Sat, 1 to 6pm or by appointment.

126, Artist-run gallery
Queen St., Galway
Ireland
www.126.ie

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



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126 with Pallas Contemporary Projects present a joint collaboration project:

Unsolicited Fabrications: Shareware Sculptures
Stephanie Syjuco

Opening reception: 6pm – 8pm Friday, 1st May 2009
Exhibition continues: 2nd – 30th May

Pallas Contemporary Projects is proud to present Unsolicited Fabrications: Shareware Sculptures, a unique installation by Stephanie Syjuco. Her first solo exhibition in Ireland displays a collection of strange hybrid of forms via many different authors, a unique opportunity to encounter artworks that were never meant to be physically realized.

Syjuco’s installation of hand-made sculptures is based on a shared database of “artworks” created by users of SketchUp, a 3-D modelling software made by Google. Designed as a simple and easy-to-use free version of CAD software, SketchUp has garnered a growing following of amateur designers who use it to model virtually everything from common household items to fantasy architectural designs. These digital designs can be uploaded to a freely accessible database to share with other SketchUp users in their own projects, many of which are created by non-artists. Based on these models, Syjuco produces a physical representation and in essence become the “unsolicited” fabricator of the sculpture. (While the original designer of the work will be attributed, their permission will not be requested to execute the work, since the design was in essence considered shareware). Issues of authorship, collaboration and production brings into question who the real “artist” is in the equation. Is this work a collaboration, a knock-off, or perhaps even a fabricated favor, and does the shared platform for this content give permission to make it really happen?

Stephanie Syjuco is a visual artist whose recent work uses the tactics of bootlegging, reappropriation, and fictional fabrications to address issues of cultural biography, labour, and economic globalization. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, her objects mistranslate and misappropriate iconic symbols, creating frictions between high ideals and everyday materials. This has included re-creating several 1950s Modernist furniture pieces by French designer Charlotte Perriand using cast-off material and rubbish in Beijing, China; starting a global collaborative project with crochet crafters to counterfeit high-end consumer goods; photographing models of Stonehenge made from cheap Asian imported food products; and searching for fragments of the Berlin Wall in her immediate surroundings in an attempt to revisit the historical moment of “the end of History.”

Born in the Philippines, Syjuco received her MFA from Stanford University and BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been included in exhibitions at PS1, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The New Museum, SFMOMA, The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, and the California Biennial. In 2007 she led counterfeiting workshops at art spaces in Istanbul, Beijing, and Manila, and in December 2008 had a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, that explored the legacy of Modernism and the Third World. She has taught at Stanford University, The California College of the Arts, and Carnegie Mellon University. She lives and works in San Francisco.

This exhibition is a joint collaboration project with 126 Galway. 126 is Galway's and the west of Ireland’s first artist-led exhibition space. As a unique development PCP will be bringing Peter O’Kennedy to exhibit in 126 in 2009.

http://www.stephaniesyjuco.com
http://www.stephaniesyjuco.wordpress.com

Pallas Contemporary Projects
111 Grangegorman Road Lower, Dublin 7, Ireland
Opening Hours: Thurs - Sat, 12 - 6 pm

http://www.pallasprojects.org/

Pallas is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.
126 is supported by the Arts Council, the Galway City Council and our membership.

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126 for Live@8 presents

Let Us Play

Featuring the work of: Cory Arcangel and Paper Rad,  Sam Fuller, Tom Dale,  César Velasco Broca,  Carmen Hasselbusch, Tim Smith, Wholphin, Jon Sasaki, Advanced Beauty Sound Sculpture Collection, Tom Scholefield, Robert Hodgin, Fernando Sarmienta,  Kutiman, Paul Robertson and the Crawford College Performance Society.

Curated by Dave Callan.

8pm Wednesday March 25th Bar No. 8, The Docks, Galway.

Live@8 is a regularly programmed free evening of screenings, live art and music.



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126 Presents:

The Catalyst Members' Show
Our 2nd Annual Members' Show swap with the Belfast artist-run gallery, Catalyst Arts

February 5th — 28th

Opening reception: Thursday, February 5th at 7pm.

A selection of works from Allotments , the Catalyst Arts Members' Show.  

126 was set up on the model of Catalyst Arts. The galleries have a shared ethos of providing space and opportunities for artists at various stages of their careers, experimentation and a strong commitment to their membership bases.   These Annual Members Shows provide a prime opportunity for early career artists to exhibit alongside more established artists. The richness and diversity of practice in the membership is best reflected in the open submission policy.   The exhibitions this year will run simultaneously in both galleries.

Features the work of: Cian Donnelly, Jane O' Sullivan, Martin Carter, Neal Johnson, Zoë Murdoch, Aileen Lambert, Fionnuala Doran, Jaromir Svozilik, Caragh O'Donnell, Piia Rossi, Peter Richards, Ben Craig, Sinéad Bhreatthnach-Cashell, Lucas Dillon, Hannah Casey, Miguel Martin, Hannah Casey, Sisley, Sinead Ferry, Paddy Gould, Cathrine Devlin, James Hepburn, Andy Brown, Mic Fortune, Amy Russell, and Sally Houston.

www.catalystarts.org.uk




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126 Presents:

The 2nd Annual 126 Members' Show

Opening reception: this Thursday, 8th of January, 2009 at 8pm.

As part of our commitment to encouraging and supporting the greater Galway visual arts community, 126 is proud to host its second annual members' show. 126 is grateful for the financial and moral support of its membership, so once a year we open the gallery to them as a sign of thanks.

By taking this unique democratic approach, this show highlights the diverse strengths and approaches of 126's membership, which varies from students, to unrepresented emerging and local artists to those established at an international level.

We have an open membership available to anyone who supports our aims and ethos. Please visit our website www.126.ie for more information on becoming a member today.

The show runs through January 29th and will travel to Catalyst Arts in Belfast for February.

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126 Presents:

I've Become a Magpie

New work by Cian McConn
Featuring collaborations with Vivienne Griffin and Kay Merryweather.
Curated by Mary Nally

November 27th – December 13th , 2008
Thurs – Sat, 12-5pm or by appointment.
Opening reception: Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 7pm

"We inhabit a universe with which we are out of key, man is
bewildered, troubled and obscurely threatened…"

– Martin Esslin, 'Theater of the Absurd'

McConn has spent two years living and working in New York City. This exhibition is a commentary on his experiences of America in uncertain times. His inspirations come from the environment which surrounds him, whether that is working in an office or a restaurant. His work addresses his own struggle to find not just a job but a place to be, a place to call home even if its just for a while.

By using combined media – video, collage, photography, performance – an assemblage of ideas is created. The work embraces a low-tech approach and creates simple, poetic pieces, in an attempt to communicate how vulnerable we are to the ploys of a fickle world.

Using humour, elements of romanticism and borrowing from schools of thought such as the Theater of the Absurd and The Situationist International, Cian McConn to comes to terms with an urban environment in which everyone is seemingly vying for attention through fashion, the media and desire.

I've Become a Magpie also opens up the creative process to involve other artists in a collaborative role. For this exhibition McConn will show a piece from a series of photographs he is currently working on with New York based Irish artist Vivienne Griffin and work from an ongoing video series with free lance musician and performer Kay Merryweather.

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126 for the Tulca season of visual art presents:

Blackflash

New work by Mark Cullen

Nov 1st - 22nd
Opening reception: Thursday, Nov 6th, 7pm.
After party @ Bar No. 8 with DJ Whitelightning, 9:30 til close.

Blackflash: A disorientating condition when an occurrence from a fictional past intercedes in the mind of the present, perceived as a real event, or as a continuum of happening.

An instance of remembering an experience that may or may not have happened when one has 'blacked out', lost consciousness, or when one has disconnected from ones own subjectivity, through the result of an immersive experience in an alternate reality, an hallucination, or such as a through a 'letting go' engagement with fiction, with music or with ones daydreams.

An uncomfortable 'snap back' effect may be experienced as one returns to a pre-blackflash state.

Mark Cullen explores cosmologies, playfully engaging our senses, he jolts our position in relation to our surroundings and our imagination. Making use of cinematic and theatrical devices, Cullen directs installations that draw on conventions of the carnivale to engage the viewer in a participatory encounter. He is interested in implicating the viewer within arts ability to stretch logic, time, material and experiential possibilities, and to entice the viewer into a consideration of a cosmological experience.

The stars, the heavens, the planet, atomic material; how they are represented in popular science and science fiction, and how in turn it is subjectivised in our imaginations is a launch pad for this work. Questions of humankind's evolution interpenetrates science fictive subjectivities.

Mark Cullen was born in Dublin in 1972. Works include MAIM XI for Irish Museum Modern Art, Temporary Portable Reservoirs at The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin and Siege House, London, Cosmic Annihilator, an installation at Pallas Heights and Open EV+A (curated by Dan Cameron 2005) Limerick City Gallery. Recent works include STAR P*WER at Flicker, The Burren College Gallery, Star Gazing at 52° North at Synaesthesia Sat, Workhouse Birr Arts Festival. In 2005 he completed a Masters in Visual Arts Practices at DLIADT and was an award winner at EV+A 2005. In 2007 he attended a residency at El Levante in Rosario, Argentina. Cullen was curator of Darklight Digital Film Festival from 1999-2004.

In 1995 with Brian Duggan he was the co-founding partner of Pallas Studios, Dublin. Pallas through their various guises and programmes have been key exponents of experimental art practice in Dublin. He is also a director of Pallas Contemporary Projects a new space for experimental art in Dublin.

www.pallasprojects.org
www.pallasheights.org
www.pallasstudios.org

www.tulca.ie



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126 for Artisit?[3] presents:

Kevin Gaffney

October 2nd - 18th

Opening reception 7pm October 2nd, 2008
with a sound based performance by Pseudo Nippon at 8pm

Artisit? is a creative project that began in 2006 with the aim of creating a platform for artists emerging from college to display their work that would in turn help to bridge the gap that often exists between art education and professional practice. Through a series of art events, exhibitions and parties, Artisit? will showcase the work of these artists from around the world with various locations and venues around Galway city playing host to a range of site specific artwork, installations, video, photography, drawing, print, performance and interventions from cutting edge graduates of the finest national and international art schools.

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126 presents:

Duty Dance

Performances by Dan Monks, Sinead McCann and Naomi Sex
Opening reception – 7pm Saturday September 27th 2008

For this collaborative weeklong project, the artists will use the behaviour traits of feral pigeons, bowerbirds and washing machines as reference points to explore our relationship with the urban system of governed spaces and the power structures that exist within them. Working in a similar manner as Thursday’s workshop, the artists’ week long investigation will consist of the development of micro-performances, the continuous structural modification of the gallery (so as to delineate performance areas and viewing points; this will entail the building of walls, corridors, and platforms), and the collection of audio recordings. Additionally, the entire process will operate under an open doors policy and will culminate in a performance on 7pm, Saturday September 27th 2008.

And...

A Performance Workshop

ALL AFTERNOON – Thursday September 25th 2008. Opening reception at 7pm. Limited spaces, please RSVP: contactg126@gmail.com

Dan Monks, Sinead McCann and Naomi Sex have been invited by 126 to use the gallery space as a centre for performance workshops. The artists will provide a one-off professional training workshop, as well as develop a series of micro-performances with third-level students at GMIT and the Burren College of Art. Envisioned as a collaboration, this project will explore themes of family structure, home, and power structures.

The two-day workshop will begin through simple exercises designed to stimulate the audience, regardless of prior experiences with performance. Various performative strategies will be delivered through participatory manoeuvres. Imaginative prop construction will be encouraged. A series of small-micro performances will be developed, culminating in an exhibition that evening at 7pm, Thursday September 25th 2008.

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126 with Galway Culture Night 2008 presents:

Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue
A performance and temporary installation by Dan Monks

Friday September 19th 2008, 7-11pm
Spanish Arch, Galway City Museum

126 is pleased to make possible an unique evening of performance and temporary installation. Glasgow-based performance artist Dan Monks will intervene on the streets of Galway. He will be using only the streets, the company of pigeons, a shopping trolley and a lot of cardboard.

Dan Monks will be traversing Galway with a shopping trolley, gathering cardboard from the outside of shops, from the backstreets, from bins, etc. Dan and his makeshift materials will converge with audience members at Spanish Arch from 7-11pm and over the course of the night the cardboard will be built into a miniature 'city'.

Additionally, Dan will be feeding the local birds in and around the 'city' and supplying sound-based excursions for the enjoyment of the passers-by, the birds, and himself.

Dan Monks was borne in 1981 in Dublin and raised in the suburbs. In 2005 he moved to Glasgow to attend the Master of Fine Art program at the Glasgow School of Art. Negotiation, collaboration and utterance are three words he keeps returning to in relation to his work. He lives and operates, most often, in Glasgow.

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G126 presents:

Accumulations

New work by Niall de Buitléar

August 21st – September 13th 2008

Opening reception: 7pm Thursday August 21st

Accumulations is an exhibition of sculpture and drawing that have been produced through the labour intensive accumulation of simple elements. The sense of growth of the work over a period of time is essential

The sculptures use pre-processed materials; the artist is interested in their transformative potential. Central to the sculpture are the relationships that are formed between the found material, the processes of construction, and the resulting forms. The sculptures are essentially abstract but are intended to be suggestive of various structures such as cells, fungi, landscapes or cityscapes, and standing figures. Large drawings are composed of simple, geometric elements; Freehand drawings lead to a distortion, away from the geometric towards the organic.

Niall de Buitléar was born in Dublin in 1983 where he currently lives. After graduating from D.I.T. with a BA in fine art in 2006 he was awarded the year-long graduate residency at Flaxart Studios in Belfast. His work has recently been shown at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, the Lab in Dublin, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Queen Street Studios in Belfast, and at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. This summer he undertook residencies at Ard Bia Berlin and Limerick City Gallery of Art.

www.nialldebuitlear.com

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G126 and the Galway Arts Festival present:

DADALENIN

by Rainer Ganahl

July 14th – August 16th 2008
Opening Reception: 7pm Thursday July 17th

Rainer Ganahl is a Swiss artist based in New York. His work encompasses grand narratives and Google searches, EBAY and embroidery, explores how the incidental and banal are inextricable from the political. He has recently shown at the Istanbul, Venice and Moscow Biennials. G126 is delighted to make possible his first appearance in Ireland.

DADALENIN is an ongoing project that asserts that V. I. Lenin was a founding member of the Dadaist movement; That Lenin was a regular at the Cabaret Voltaire when in Zurich in 1916; That he operated in disguise and most other Dadaists weren't aware of it; That Lenin even wrote poems for Tristan Tzara, had a secret relationship with him and participated in a diverse range of early Dadaist advances. In the latest Irish installment of this project Ganahl has included James Joyce as a collaborator. Joyce was also present in Zurich at the same time as Lenin and the Dadaists. Ganahl uses DADALENIN to prove these assertions by connecting historical events, artifacts, images, readings, internet searches, even other artworks and historical figures. Making serious points through a comedic methodology, DADALENIN addresses the lost causes of the 20th century's problematic history.

G126 is a democratically run, artist-led gallery and project space in Galway, which promotes experimental artworks that wouldn't be shown in conventional institutions such as commercial galleries.

G126
Unit 11, Ballybane Ind Est
Tuam Rd. Galway Ireland

Open everyday of the Arts Festival 12- 5.
Regular gallery hours are Thursday to Saturday 12-5

www.ganahl.info
www.ganahl.info/g126.html

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G126 Presents:

Closer to Paradise

An exhibition by Moxie artists:
Hannah Doyle and Michael Murphy

June 5th - July 5thOpening reception: Thursday June 5th, 7pm

Closer to Paradise features new installation work by Hannah Doyle and Michael Murphy. Both are members of Moxie Dublin, an art collective that was founded in 2006 which serves as a platform for emerging artists.

Michael Murphy's work is characterised by a transformation of everyday materials into sculptural works through a laborious process of fabrication. Moxie co-founder Hannah Doyle creates fantasy worlds in miniature, combining multi-layered islands of vibrant colour with children's toys and grandma's kitsch.

Hannah Doyle and Michael Murphy have worked together on a number of collaborative installations including Open Systems, as part of a group show in the Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, and Better on the shelf than in the wrong cupboard for The Lab, Dublin

G126 is the only democratically run artist-led gallery in the west of Ireland. A not-for-profit organization, G126 offers an alternative to museums and commercial galleries.

www.g126.eu
www.moxiedublin.com
www.hannahdoyle.net




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G126 with Pallas Contemporary Projects present:

Head or Tail
Contemporary video works from Thailand

Opening reception: Thursday May 29th, 7pm
Runs through May 31st

FEATURES: Nawapol, Santipab Inkong namg, Nontawa, Suchada Sirithanawuddhi, Nitipong Thinthubthai, Jakrawal, Sathit Satarasart, Suthirat Supaparinya, Patomporn Tesprateep, Olarn Netrangsri, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Olarn Netrangsri, Shane Bunnak, Kraisak Chunahawan.

Head or Tail was first exhibited in Dublin in Pallas Contemporary Projects in 2007, organised by PCP and Project 304. This the second exclusive screening of the exhibition in Ireland of new video by young Thai artists, and a new exciting linking between Pallas [Dublin] and G126 [Galway] and Project 304 [Bangkok].

"Head or Tail" or "Hua rua Goy" is the term that Thais use to describe the uncertainty of the situation or simply to gambling with the future. Of course, one will be a winner and one will walk away a loser. With the South East Asian political style, one never know the future from the past or past from the present. Lives go on no matter who or what will be declaring the "Leader" of this exotic Oriental paradise.

This collection of media and video works has been created by generation that has been immune by the changes both subtle and dramatic. The new technologies are their friends and information is their "teachers" those flashing on the monitors or on the dials of their mobile phones. There is a great deal the yearning for the past and their definition of the "past" ranges from a few hours ago to yesterday those to them, sounded like a fairy tales.

G126, Ballybane Ind Est, Tuam Rd, Galway, Ireland
Gallery hours: Thursday - Saturday, 12 - 5 pm

www.g126.eu
www.pallasprojects.org
www.project304.org

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