Curated by Margarita Cappock 

Other Ground is an exhibition of new painting work by artist Pascal Ungerer. Pascal’s painting practice explores the relationship, and sometimes conflict, between the built and the natural world. His work looks at liminal topographies and structures that lie on the margins of human habitation. He often examines the interstitial spaces and edgelands situated at the intersection of the urban and rural. His painting practice is grounded in an archaeology of the recent past and he says he ‘sees it as a means of uncovering hidden layers of meaning within the everyday.’

Most of his paintings are fictional landscapes and structures that are loosely based on locations he has photographed in the past. He then amalgamates these images or ideas into a metaphorical environment to reflect upon wider socio-geographic issues, such as ecological degradation, alterity, peripherality, speculative future landscapes and The Anthropocene.

His work often focus’s on infrastructure and habitats that are ambiguous, amorphic or obsolete and he says he see’s these structures and places as being an architecture of the periphery and an allegorical reference for time, change and history.

Many of these painting explore imagined future landscapes inspired by ethereal topographies that oscillate between progress and decline within the arena of the everyday.

Pascal Ungerer is a visual artist from West Cork. He specialises in contemporary landscape oil painting and his practice primarily explores spatial cultures with a focus on peripheral landscapes.

In 2016 he graduated from The MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork with a BFA (Hons). In 2018 he completed a scholarship funded MFA on the prestigious MFA programme at Goldsmiths University London.

He has exhibited my work throughout Ireland, The UK and mainland Europe. He has shown work at The Saatchi Gallery (London), Roman Road Gallery (London), The Visual Centre for Contemporary Art (Ireland), CICA Museum (South Korea), Blackburn Museum (UK) and The Uillinn West Cork Art Centre where he had his solo show ‘Speculative Artefacts’ in 2023.

In 2023 he was of on of ten shortlisted finalists from across the UK and Ireland for the Robert Walters UK New Artist of The Year Awards. He has won, been shortlisted and long-listed for many other awards including the Alliance Franciase de Cork Exhibition Award, The Jacksons Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The Solo Award, The Alpine Fellowship, The Sunny Art Prize, The ACS Studio Prize and The Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize.

He has received funding awards and bursaries from The Arts Council of Ireland, Cork County Council, Cork City Council, Culture Ireland and Goldsmiths University London.

Dr. Margarita Cappock is an art historian and curator with Dublin City Arts Office. She has developed and delivered major exhibition collaborations with international museums in Europe and Australia. She is a published author and a regular contributor of scholarly articles and essays to international and national exhibition publications and art journals. She has delivered guest lectures, conference papers and contributed as a discussion panellist for a diverse range of audiences in Ireland, UK, Austria, Germany, Italy, the United States, Australia and Japan.