Official opening Saturday 10 February

Each year GOMA aims to highlight the wealth of talent graduating annually in Ireland by awarding selected graduates with an exhibition. This year, two artists have been chosen for the award: Maia De Faveri of SETU Waterford and Caroline Bowles of MTU Crawford College.

Caroline Bowles, a recent graduate of MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, is a recipient of the GOMA Exhibition Award and will showcase her work a GOMA Gallery in 2024

Caroline is a visual artist working in the areas of drawing and painting. She was born in Wicklow, grew up in Kerry and now lives on the Cork/Waterford border area.

She studied animation in Ballyfermot Senior College, Dublin and Drawing in St. John’s College in Cork, and is a graduate of Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork graduating with a B.A. (Honors) in Fine Art.  She has a background as a trained musician, which is a vital inspiration and stimulus in her art making; Caroline is an All Ireland winning Irish harpist having performed and toured in Australia and played in the National Concert Hall, Dublin. She has also trained as an acupuncturist and practitioner of Chinese Medicine, completing her studies in Dublin and Nanjing, China.

Painting and drawing is an embodied practice for the artist and is informed by over twenty years of meditation and reflection in the Vietnamese Zen Tradition. Her paintings are held in public and private collections in Ireland and Berlin.

My work is mainly figurative and embodied in nature with free-flowing abstracted elements. I use multiple layers of wet and dry drawing and painting media: inks, acrylic paint washes, charcoal and pastel on paper and large canvases, sometimes with audio or video elements.

Excavating my own past learnings of study and travel in Asia, of meditation, calligraphy, Qi Gong, acupuncture practice and music training, I find myself reimaging figurative and abstract postures which express something of movement, fluidity and power and how it is held emotionally in the human frame.

The embodied act of painting, touching in just enough to capture the figure in movement, allowing them to emerge on the canvas until they are barely visible keeps these images gestural, active and authentic. Through painting and drawing I explore visual expressions of the beauty of enacted truth in gesture, movement and the passage of time.

The dramatic colours and emotional expression of Francis Bacon, Sargy Mann and Paula Rego as well as the abstract movement of Judith Godwin and Zao Wou-Ki, all inspire my work.

– Caroline Bowles

Visit Caroline Bowles’ website

Maia De Faveri, a recent graduate of SETU Waterford Visual Arts Department, is a recipient of the GOMA Exhibition Award and will showcase her work a GOMA Gallery in 2024.

Maia is originally from Italy, where she trained in sculpture and mosaic art. She worked for several years as an artist and art teacher in Italy and Mexico. After moving to Ireland and attending the Visual Art course in SETU Waterford, her art took a new direction, focusing on creating spaces for people to explore, interact with, and find moments of meditation.

My installations are like a journey through life, inspired by the simple wonders of existence, creativity, and growth. I find beauty in the mysteries of life’s beginnings and the beautiful chaos of creation.

When I create, I focus on playing, being a bit random, and finding a peaceful flow. I don’t limit myself to the usual tools; instead, I enjoy the challenge of solving problems in my own playful way. Exploring new ways to express myself keeps things exciting.

I especially love working with materials I’ve never used before, especially everyday items designed for something else. It’s like giving these materials a new lease on life, investing time and energy to transform them into something special.

My art is not just about what I see or feel; it’s meant to create a space for others to have their own unique experience. I don’t define that experience; it comes alive through the performances of those who come to see it – how they interact and take it in.

Feel free to explore; don’t worry about breaking anything. You’re invited to interact and have fun with and through my works, just like I do while I create my pieces. The magic happens when you make the space your own

– Maia De Faveri