I see a role for art to probe architecture, design and planning, to re-evaluate the past, and to begin to construct and re-imagine a possible future.
- Eamon O'Kane
CURATORIAL TEXT
Eamon O'Kane's (b. 1974) artworks are glamorous and spectacular in motif, execution and format. His landscapes, skyscapes and poolscapes seem like sumptuous and harmonious compositions; like worlds you would like to step into. They seem alive and vibrant, as if they are real places, although the traces of, for example, brushstrokes and airbrushing are evident.
The motifs revolve around classic modern exteriors and interiors, iconic architecture and cultivated nature. The images seem appealing and idyllic, but there is always a dispute, an element of distortion, present. There may be an ocean that is not there in reality, houses that have long since been torn down, sky colors that seem correct, but which optically do not exist in this world.
In many ways, O'Kane portrays the conflict and dysfunctionality between man and nature, but also between cultures, between past and present, and how we envision a future. He likes to portray the human-made, but humans shine with their absence, we only see the traces of them. When he creates a graphic series with precise reproductions of different types of trees, they are mirrored around their own vertical axis, and they go from being trees to becoming a Rorschach test - in the end it's still about the human being.
As viewers, we are imperceptibly lifted into a universe where we become fluid between culture and nature, our own point of view and this fascinating universe of images. Through his artistic work, through his paintings, drawings and prints, O'Kane maintains a continuous and fluid dialogue with the present and with history, with art history and with us. Fluid with the times, but also fluid between interior and exterior, realism and fantasy. It is this field of tension and this invitation that makes O'Kane's works so interesting, so relevant, but at the same time so timeless.
Eamon O'Kane was born in 1974 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The artist grew up near the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, with checkpoints and conflicts. At a young age, O'Kane found a particular interest in history and landscapes, which are also a part of his artistic practice. O'Kane has won numerous awards for his works, including the EV+A Biennial Award, the Taylor Art Award and the Fulbright Award. He is widely represented and exhibited on the international art scene, i.a. at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, Germany. O'Kane is also a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts' Department of Contemporary Art (KMD) at the University of Bergen. O'Kane has published 17 art books.
It is a great pleasure and joy for us to present Eamon O'Kane's solo exhibition Fluid Spaces in our gallery. The exhibition shows new paintings in larger and smaller scales as well as screen prints.
Text by Erlend G. Aalbæk Høyersten.
