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Alan Phelan: Fragile Absolutes
When: Friday 11th December 2009 -> Sunday 17th January 2010
Where: Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Canton, Cardiff, CF5 1QE
Fragile Absolutes is a selection of new and recent works by Irish artist Alan Phelan inspired by his ongoing engagement with political history, cultural theory, popular culture and masculinity.
Preview Night: Thursday 10 December 6-8pm
He traverses a number of sources and time periods: from current affairs, popular fiction and boy racers to nationalist heroes, world war, economics, psychoanalysis and globalisation. In doing so, he sets up a complex mix of literal and metaphorical references, simultaneously providing background information on many of his subjects, yet leaving them open to conflicting modes of interpretation.
Phelan is also exhibiting work in the Caffi Bar. Mars Piece, 2007 is an ink-jet print that spans the length of the wall opposite the Bar. The photo of what looks like a naked woman with her arm outstretched was among several taken on Mars and sent back to Earth by NASA ’s explorer Spirit, causing a great deal of debate online as to whether it indicated that there was life on the red planet.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated monograph produced by IMMA, Dublin, with essays by Seán Kissane, Curator, IMMA; Dušan Bjelic, Professor of Criminology at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, USA; Medb Ruane, writer and journalist; and Tony White, novelist and Leverhulme Trust Writer in Residence at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London.
The exhibition is a collaborative project between Chapter; IMMA, Dublin who commissioned and exhibited several of Phelan’s works; and Limerick City Gallery of Art.
Born in Dublin in 1968, Alan Phelan studied at Dublin City University and Rochester Institute of Technology, New York. He has exhibited widely including Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; SKUC, Ljubljana; Feinkost, Berlin, and SKC, Belgrade. In Ireland he has exhibited at Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin; MCAC, Portadown; Limerick City Gallery of Art, and Solstice Arts Centre, Navan. He was editor/curator for Printed Project, issue 5, launched at the 51st Venice Biennale, and has curated exhibitions at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and Rochester, New York. Phelan was shortlisted for the AIB Art Prize in 2007.
Gallery Talk:
Alan Phelan in conversation with Tony White on Sat 12 Dec at 2pm.
All are welcome to attend.
Free
Gallery Open:
Tue-Sat 10-8pm;
Sun 2-8pm;
Tue 29 & Wed 30 Dec: 1-5pm.
Closed:
Fri 25 - Mon 28
Sun 31 Dec
Fri 1 Jan
Closed Mondays in January.