Opening Reception Thursday 8 August at 6pm • Group Show Curated by Eamonn Maxwell

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain | Gerard Byrne | Amanda Coogan | John Gerrard | Nevan Lahart | Sean Lynch

COEXIST is an exhibition that explores an often hidden practice in contemporary art making, namely the role of the studio development as expressed by works on paper. This exhibition will endeavour to unveil the processes involved in the production of works for exhibitions and related projects, much of which is never intended for public consumption. The artists in the exhibition were selected as they are best known for other mediums; namely performance, film and sculpture – and have never, or very seldom, shown these kind of paper based works.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain uses collage and composite imagery to construct digital films which explore the physical layers of what the human eye expects to see. For COEXIST Ní Bhriain is exhibiting a series of collages and preparatory drawings made for a new two-part work shot on location at the former, now abandoned, Cork airport terminal building.

Gerard Byrne works in lens-based media: film, video and photography. His practice is informed by historical situations and the restaging of interactions that are both real and constructed. In this exhibition Byrne is showing a series of images which depict the conditions of his research methodology as he prepares for major projects.

Working at the forefront of live, durational performance, Amanda Coogan’s practice is driven by endurance, repetition and ceremonies always undertaken by the artist herself (though sometimes in collaboration with others). Two sets of instructions, one from Coogan to her co-performers and one from a director to Coogan, form her contribution to COEXIST.

John Gerrard’s practice uses technology, in particular three dimensional simulations to make a form of sculptural photography, which exists in a space beyond filmmaking, often focused on isolated industrial architectural structures. He is represented in COEXIST by a series of pages from his sketchbooks, showing his working methodologies for several concurrent major projects.

Nevan Lahart’s art practice aims to engage in creative collaboration in ways that may be seen as either humorous or deeply subversive, with that humour often acting as the central tenet of his work. For COEXIST Lehart is exhibiting several works that have been the source material for a variety of recent exhibitions and projects.

Sean Lynch’s artworks investigate and reflect upon the methods, understandings and representations involved in dealing with contents of history, recently spotlighting idiosyncratic moments of the past. In preparation for major solo exhibitions at Hugh Lane and Modern Art Oxford, COEXIST features a large contact sheet from his studio demonstrating his research practice for those exhibitions.