Opening Reception Thursday 24 January, 6 – 8 pm

Kerlin Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of new work by Guggi.

Guggi began his career as a musician with the cult band Virgin Prunes, widely celebrated for their performative spectaculars on the European underground, before concentrating full time on painting from the mid 1980’s. Since then his work has consistently revolved around depictions of the common everyday objects most notably with his signature motifs of bowls and other vessels portrayed with a deceptive simplicity that heightens their stillness and meditative presence.

In this new exhibition Guggi expands his practice into several mediums including sculpture and digital prints. A series of fiberglass and clay resin, hand painted sculptures form the central spine of the exhibition while around them the artist injects a change of pace in his paintings with a combination of obscure text and contrasting painterly styles. The digital print series represent a fascinating collage of the artist’s various life long obsessions with language, titles, and typesetting and include amongst other things, photo imagery from the heyday of ‘the Prunes’.

Guggi has exhibited widely since the 1990’s. Most notably he has had solo shows in Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (1990, 1993, 2009); Osborne Samuel Gallery, London (2004); Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York (2001); Solomon Gallery, Dublin (2000, 2002, 2005); Yoshii Gallery, New York, (2010); Freies Museum, Berlin (2011), Be Palermitano Gallery, Buenos Aires (2012). Guggi has participated in a number of two person shows with Sybille Ungers including Ric Urmel Gallery, Gent, (1991) and Gallerie Schurr, Stuttgart (1990). Select group shows are National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (2008); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2004); Cape Town, South Africa (2004) and the National Municipal Gallery, Iceland (1995). Guggi’s work is held in the public collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Château La Coste, Le Puy Sainte Réparade, France and Akureyi Municipal Art Gallery, Iceland and collected by both private and corporate collections in Ireland and abroad.