This show marks the first major solo exhibition by visual artist Naomi Sex. All this Surface and Silence aims to reflect on the ideas and work that have framed her practice throughout the past decade. It connects to a long running body of research concerning the perceived vocational life style choice of the artist – what that supposedly represents and how it contradicts the subtle, social politics of the reputation-based economy within the contemporary art world.

These concerns are manifested in pre-existing works including performance and sound pieces in conjunction with a newly commissioned text piece produced specifically for the RHA. The exhibition attempts to playfully – yet critically – express the tension and pressures to perform not only as an artist, but also as an individual navigating the post-Catholic reign on Irish society. The show uses various materials and guises to articulate these ideas: including a pitch from a used-car salesman, a track from an unknown, Irish hip hop artist and a note to God.

Naomi Sex is a Dublin-based visual artist. Based on an extensive period of research over the last decade she has developed a new strand of practice, which uses performance with a minimal use of material to produce understated theatrical gallery-based situations to articulate her ideas.

In 2013 Sex was awarded The Arts Council of Ireland’s Visual Art Project Award and The Dublin City Council’s Incubation Space Award for The Synchronised Lecture Series, a performative event that was presented simultaneously in nine key Irish 3rd-level educational institutions. The following year she was selected for The Artist in Residency Program at The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), where she presented performance work at The Project Space and curated the 6IX Degrees event. In 2016 she produced a touring performance, Cheek by Jowl, which was awarded The Arts Council Visual Arts Touring and Dissemination Award and the Fingal County Council Artist’s Support Scheme. The performance toured to Limerick City Gallery, Crawford Art Gallery and completed the tour at IMMA. Naomi Sex has lectured for many years in the Fine Art Department at The Dublin School of Creative Arts (DIT). She is former chair of the board of directors of Black Church Print Studio and was a member of the board of directors of Visual Artists Ireland (VAI) from 2015-2017.

Her solo exhibition at the RHA is kindly supported by the 2017 Fingal County Council Artist’s Support Scheme.