lucent – a touring exhibition curated by David Quinn • lucent is presented in partnership with Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre who initiated it as part of a national tour.

Wexford Arts Centre in partnership with Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre are pleased to present lucent, a group exhibition of small works curated by artist David Quinn, involving twelve international artists – Charles Brady (Ire), Niamh Clarke (NI), Vincent Hawkins (UK), Hiroyuki Hamada (JN), Tjibbe Hooghiemstra (NL), Jamie Mills (UK), Janet Mullarney (Ire), Helen O’Leary (Ire), David Quinn (Ire), Seamus Quinn (Ire), Sean Sullivan (US) and John Van Oers (BE). The exhibition will run in the lower and upper galleries of Wexford Arts Centre from Saturday 15 June to Wednesday 31 July,, 2024.

“Although I have curated quite a few exhibitions, I am first and foremost an artist and not a curator. This exhibition is a very personal project. The work I have included is by artists whose work and progress I am always keen to see. I think there is a lot of truth in Robert Motherwell’s quote ‘every intelligent painter carries the whole culture of modern painting in his head. It is his real subject, of which everything he paints is both a homage and critique.’ To a greater or lesser extent, the artists in this exhibition have been inspirational to me or sometimes it is just as Emerson said ‘in every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts‘.

One of the common threads through the work of these artists for me is a sensitivity for materials and for the quality of line. Most of the artists here also blur the distinction between painting and sculpture. Their sculptures can be quite painterly and there is a subtle tactile element even to the works on paper. The other thing that interests me is that it is often hard to pin down exactly what the works are about (if that is what one is inclined to do). There is an inherent ambiguity in lots of the work, a vague open-endedness.  Also, the scale that these artists often work on is intimate and personal. The works are memorable rather than monumental, suggestive rather than didactic, playful rather than strict. Where there is order it is often subverted and generally an air of gentle irreverence. Ultimately though the thing that draws these works together for me is that they are made with the attentiveness and care that comes from a labour of love.”

– David Quinn, 2023

lucent is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon as part of the 2023 – Strategic Funding – Touring – Arts Centres Grant, and initiated and developed by Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. The tour of lucent began in Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre and ran from 9 July to 9 September 2023. It then travelled to Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda from February to April of this year and will run in Wexford Arts Centre from Saturday 15 June to Wednesday 31 July, 2024.