RHA Ashford Gallery – Hennessy Programme

Helena Gorey presents a body of new work for the RHA Ashford Gallery in an exhibition titled Proscenium. The title is a reference to the theatrical structure ‘proscenium arch’ space that functions as a frame for a performance from which the audience can observe the events taking place on stage.

In this way, Gorey’s abstract colour eld paintings invite the viewer to her perception of the surround- ing landscape. The paintings are a representation of an ongoing dialogue between the artist and the natural world. Her senses, feelings and thoughts are all developed by being immersed and rooted in her native town-land in Kilkenny. How the light plays on the new spring grass, the misty blue of the distant mountains or the delicate colour of small wild flowers, the essences of the landscape of Ireland have become distilled by Gorey as she translates this onto the canvas. Gorey works with paint sensitively and intuitively and by using the language of colour develops brush strokes, drips, blots and craggy edges. These openings and imperfections rely on the unpredictability of the ow of paint and sometimes reveal a layered history beneath the surface.

ASHFORD IN CONVERSATION SERIES: Helena Gorey with Catherine Marshall

5.30pm, Wednesday 7 March – RHA Friends Room