Mystery Ewer features new work by artists Mark Swords & Jane Fogarty. Referencing the trans-disciplinary nature of contemporary practice through the work of these two artists, Mystery Ewer explores the boundaries of perceived genre. Throughout history exchange and dialogue have existed between distinct media, more recently the notion of media specificity has become a non-issue. Today’s “sculpture” derives much of its source material from painting, and “painting” from sculpture.

Jane Fogarty’s work derives from the artist’s interest in the history of painting. Fogarty’s sculptural work focuses attention on exploring those spaces that sit between sculpture and painting. Mark Swords’ paintings are well known for their ongoing dialogue with the spaces within and surrounding them, the paintings often moving out of their frames inhabiting the exhibition space. This exhibition takes its title from Adrian Saxe’s 1989 work “Untitled, Mystery Ewer”. Saxe, a member of the 1960’s Funk Art Movement (1) (along with Robert Arneson at UC Davis), explored the limits to, and integrity of clay as a sculptural medium in response to the dominance of painting’s Abstract Expressionist notion of medium specificity (2). The works featured in Mystery Ewer contain an amusing cross-referencing of genres and materials, exchanging the frame of painting and sculpture across works as each artist explores the fluidity and range of contemporary practice today.

This exhibition is curated by Hilary Murray, assisted by Isobel Foley and Katy Gaffney. Mark Swords is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin.

1. http://centralpt.com/upload/417/10001_FunkArtLessonssm.pdf

2. http://sites.uci.edu/form/files/2015/01/Greenberg-Clement-Avant-Garde-and-Kitsch-copy.pdf