This group exhibition exploring drawing includes new and site-specific work by Felicity Clear, Marleen Kappe, Romy Muijrers, Kiera O’Toole, Marisa Rappard and Mary-Ruth Walsh and is curated by Dutch artist and curator Arno Kramer.

Drawing is a speculative and exploratory process, and many contemporary artists are testing what the parameters of a drawing can be. Charcoal, pencil and ink have been supplemented with materials such as wire, tape, wood and steel. Artists are experimenting with materials such as smoke, water, light and air, and methods of presentation such as installation and film.

This exhibition captures a moment in contemporary drawing practices, it invites the viewer to viscerally engage with drawing through an expanded field which opens up new possibilities. Several of the works are site specific and constructed on site over time and in relation to the physical building, all are experimental and explorative, while holding an authenticity and sensitivity to the core of drawing practice.

This approach to drawing lies at the heart of the practice of each artist selected for Beyond Drawing – three artists from Ireland and three from The Netherlands – by curator Arno Kramer. The first iteration of Beyond Drawing, featuring work by these six artists, was presented at Ballina Arts Centre in 2020.

Based on diagrams of wind speed and direction called hodographs, Felicity Clear’s large scale, site specific Hodograph drawing is made from elastic and paper tape, where light and shadow become part of the spatial drawing to skew perspectives and challenge perception.

In her work, Marleen Kappe explores the borders between drawing and installation presenting partially abstract worlds referring to artificial urban landscapes. Her mixed media work Drifting Fragments comprises architectural elements which start as two-dimensional drawings on the wall and transform into three-dimensional shapes on the floor.

Romy Muijrers drawings are about time, each line drawn or erased in their making becomes part of the work. Then by modelling and bending, she transforms paper into a three-dimensional space, creating a sort of stage set that the viewer can explore.

Kiera O’Toole’s recent weaved drawings comprise hand cut strips of layered graphite, varnish and acrylic on paper, woven into objects which are site specific, in that they attempt to create a ‘holding space’ where the viewer’s awareness of their felt bodily experience in the presence of the drawing unfolds, as the drawing affects the viewer.

Marisa Rappard’s large-scale drawing Body by Proxy, combines abstract and figurative elements, an overlapping montage of shadow figures, silhouettes, body parts and architectural perspectives reflecting the alienating effect of technology and the endless stream of information technology brings.

Mary-Ruth Walsh’s framed and wall-mounted drawings of plastic packaging, accompanied by the corresponding found plastic packaging placed on a shelf or plinth, acquire an architectural quality and highlight the artists’s interest in the relationship between art and architecture, permanence and impermanence.

The exhibition at Uillinn will be accompanied by discussions and other events exploring this expanded field of drawing.

A publication designed by Oonagh Young, featuring an essay by writer and curator Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, alongside installation documentation of the works in the galleries at Uillinn, will be available in the autumn.