The line “one touch of nature makes the whole world kin” is taken from Ulysses’ famous speech in William Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida. It is often used to refer to fellow feeling and comradeship in the face of calamitous events.

Viewable in gallery by appointment • viewable online here.

Continuing with Bernadette Kiely’s theme of mapping the changing landscape and the passage of time, the exhibition includes paintings depicting flooding on the River Nore and on the Suir, and works referencing wildfires, a theme she first explored in the late ’90s. The exhibition also includes a series of small paintings made in response to her nightly walks around the deserted streets of Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny where she lives. Here the presence of absence is palpable.

Bernadette recently re-launched her website, which is now available at www.bernadettekiely.ie.

Bernadette Kiely graduated from the College of Art & Design, Waterford IT with First Class Honours in Graphic Design Communications and worked for two years in graphic design in London and architecture in New York before attending the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London. Her large-scale paintings and drawings have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Solstice Arts Centre, Navan; Source Arts Centre, Thurles; Luan Gallery, Athlone; Ballina Arts Centre, Mayo; the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny; Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise; The Model, Sligo; Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown; as well as the Royal Academy, Royal Hibernian Academy and Royal Ulster Academy’s annual exhibitions. Kiely was elected to the membership of Aosdána in 2007 and she has completed residencies at the RHA School, Dublin; Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Mayo; Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Monaghan; and Cill Rialaig Artists’ Retreat, Kerry. Her work is held in public and private collections in Ireland, the UK, Europe, USA and Korea.