Sol Art Blog

The More things change the more it remains the same!

artblog — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:03:37 +0000

This week is the Bloomsbury Art Fair in Central London. A few weeks ago we attended Art Basel, not as a participant, but as a visitor. Art Basel is considered the foremost art fair in the world. It was very impressive. Approx 300 galleries from around the world. “What price is that piece?” I heard a lady ask of one of the prominent American galleries, “Seven Million Dollars” was the the reply in a drawl American accent. A huge amount of photography was included. Limited editions of five, with an average price of $75,000- ‘What about Abstraction?’ I thought! ‘What about getting away from Realism, which the modern movement is all about’. The response was plain to see in the supporting text to pieces “The artist strives to get back to the Essence” etc. Full circle it had come again - now back to representation: ” All a bit suspect to my mind!!

Having said that there was some excellent work from the Modern masters: Picasso / Miro / Modigliani / Chagall. Some very powerful stuff. I kept being drawn back to marvel at the pieces. Plenty of Abstract Expressionism too. I particularly Liked the work by Rauschenberg more so the Beuys and Warhol (Robert Hughes the Great Art Critic would be happy with that observation).

Still I don’t see any harm in our artists today going back to the Styles of the early abstracts as a lot of their painting language was very effective. Intellectualism and video in the name of progress is all very well but not at the cost of the singular image. Human emotion and feeling haven’t changed, so why should artists have to conform to newer and newer terms to keep up with the desire for the ‘New’ when perfectly adequate language is available from which to communicate.

Sean Nós What a Night!!

artblog — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:28:56 +0000

A great night was had for our Sean Nós exhibition opening. There were many Bloomsday revellers in attendance & Minister Jimmy Deenihan officially opened the show, while we had traditional Irish music playing. The show which features work by John Behan/ Aidan Harte/ Liam O’Neill/ JB Vallely/ Rikki Van Den Berg/ Eamonn O’Doherty/ Lorcan Vallely & Philip Ryan will run until July 12th.

Joyce’s Bloomsday Celebrated at Sol Art with Major Exhibit

artblog — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:27:18 +0000

This Thursday, June 16th, ‘Sean Nós’ our exhibition with some of Irelands most acclaimed artists opens at 5.30 in the Gallery. Jimmy Deenihan the new Minister for Arts will officially open the event, which will feature traditional live Irish music. It promises to be a very special evening & we hope you will join us.

Dublin Sketchers return!

artblog — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:29:47 +0000

We are delighted to welcome back the Dublin Sketchers, they return with a new exhibition which will be showing in the Athena Room from Friday 3rd June at 6pm & will run to the 13th.
Sol Art is also excited about our Art Fair schedule with both the Bloomsbury Art Fair in London & the Affordable Art Fair New York confirmed for 2011.

Gerard McGourty Exhibition

artblog — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:34:30 +0000

Our Gerard McGourty exhibition is now in full swing & it’s great to see such a strong collection of his work together in one space. Its runs till the 29th May so get down & see it!!! We have very exciting news via art fairs to announce in the next week so we will keep you posted on that. And coming up in our Athena Room upstairs: TRILOGY: An exhibition of new work by Dublin Artists Natalie Byrne, Jessica Perkins, Fiona Bean Uí Chadhla. Opening Saturday 28th May, 5pm. Exhibition continues until 2nd June. Daily viewing times 12-530pm.

Rimi Yang Exhibit

artblog — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:59:45 +0000

A great night was had for the opening of our Rimi Yang exhibition on Thursday 5th May. Rimi was joined by fellow artist Diane Dwyer as both had flown in from the States for the show, this show continues on until May 17th. We now look forward to Gerard McGourty whose solo exhibition will run from May 19th till May 31st.

An Exciting May at Sol Art

artblog — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:29:46 +0000

May looks to be a busy month with 2 major solo exhibitions in the gallery on Dawson St. Rimi Yang the wonderful Korean painter holds her first solo exhibition in Ireland on May 5th. 25 paintings of varying sizes are currently crossing the Atlantic & it promises to be a wonderful show. Gerard McGourty a painter with a talent & style all of his own, holds a major solo show in the gallery that will kick start a European tour of his work that shall take in both Berlin & London in 2011. We are eager to bring Rimi Yang to an Irish audience & excited to begin McGourty’s European odyssey. Busy month indeed…..

Spring 2011

artblog — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:09:11 +0000

2010 was certainly an exciting year, moving into our new premises in Dawson St. It has been a great move and we had close on 10,000 visitors for the year, with many sales and many new clients. We also increased the number of Art Fairs we participated in as well as staging our own Art Fairs around the country. In the local Art Fairs we discovered a lot of new talent. Art collector extraordinaire, Charles Saatchi once commented, that it wasn`t the ownership of a “Monet” that most interested him in collecting art, he had several. But discovering the next “Monet”, that’s what really interested him.
This year we had several discoveries, most notably Aidan Harte with his wonderful undulating sculpture and Philip Ryan with some very moving as well as challenging paintings.

March saw Sol Art participating in the Affordable Art Fair in London, the only Irish Gallery chosen, and we are also hoping to showcase in Art London and The Berlin Art Forum, later in the year. I feel it is important now to bring our artists further afield and open them up to new markets. When artists sell internationally it creates added value to their work, which of course is beneficial, both for the artist and the client who invests in the work.

But in the long run, the real investment in art is in the increase in quality of appreciation, whether sensuous, emotional or intellectual.

Best wishes

Martin Davis (gallery owner)

Going Forward (again!!) with Improbable Portrait’s

artblog — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:45:14 +0000

Beacuse of the snow we had to cancel our Jimmy Lawlor exhibition “Going Forward”, it will now take place this Thursday 9th of December in the gallery from 630 to 9PM.

“The Improbable Portrait” an exhibition by James Gilna opens in our Athena Room this Friday with a preview night from 630PM. The exhibition will run until December 23rd.

“Going Forward”

artblog — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:43:16 +0000

Off to Rds for the Art & Antiques fair this weekend Nov26th/27th/28th: we have two stands so will be dividing them into a stand for the more traditional fine art style & a stand for our cutting edge contemporaries (with Aidan Harte’s brilliant sculptures floating (as if in Purgatory) between both).

Our Paul Costelloe show was a big success, a great night was had and people seemed to love his raw fashion drawings as well as the watercolours which shows like a map of Paul’s journeys around the globe.

Declan Marry opens a show in our Athena Room tommorow night (Nov 26th) at 6Pm with almost 60 pieces on view. And then next week we are gearing up for Jimmy Lawlor’s exhibition “Going Forward” opening in the Gallery on Friday 3rd December 630 to 9Pm. Having previewed some of the pieces it promises to be a very topical show in this Newly Christened “Age of Irish Austerity”…. Anyway Van loaded off 2 RDS: Cheers!!