Event
Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust present two exhibitions this year’s Galway Arts Festival. On Paper an exhibition by Kathleen Furey and The Night Scene Series by Levi Hanes opened at the University Hospital Galway (UHG) on Thursday 18 July. The exhibitions are part of the Galway Arts Festival programme and are on display in the Foyer, Arts Corridor and First Floor of UHG.
Kathleen Furey is from Galway and is a founder member of Artspace Studios. She studied painting at the Limerick School of Art and Design, graduating in 1984. Her work responds to her experiences and surroundings. It explores narrative and image relationships and deals with loss, memory and moments of realisation. She works with a variety of media including gouache, acrylic, crayon, graphite and printmaking inks on board and paper. Her work has been exhibited both at home and abroad and is included in public and private collections. Kathleen states: “This exhibition explores the way in which text and image combine to produce narrative and reflects on how information comes to us through marks on a surface, how we see traces of people who lived before us and how we interpret their stories and histories.” Words and images derived from historical documents, text-books, children’s drawings, school copies, fragments of conversation, are combined with printmaking and watercolour processes to produce mixed-media works on paper. Kathleen’s exhibiton was launched by Caitriona Clear, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, NUI, Galway.
Levi Hanes was born in the United States in 1977. He completed his MFA at the Glasgow School of Art in 2008. Hanes currently lives and works between Galway and Glasgow, Scotland. The Night Scene Series is part of an ongoing project exploring light and abstraction through digital photography and painting. The exhibited paintings are from images taken during walks, drives and flights to and from Ireland. The subject is partly the night landscapes defined by artificial light and quiet contemplation as well as the flattening of the images through digital photography and the implication of depth through oil painting. Levi’s exhibition was launched by Paul Fahy, Artistic Director, Galway Arts Festival.
GUH Arts Director Margaret Flannery states; “We are delighted to again work with Galway Arts Festival in programming visual arts for UHG. There are patients here in our hospital unable to attend the various, exciting events taking place throughout the city but a little bit of the festival comes to them each year; and for that we are very grateful.”
Galway University Hospitals Arts Trusts supports the healing process and enhances the well being of patients, staff and visitors in University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital through the integration of the arts into these health care environments. The work of the trust is founded on the belief that access to the arts promotes positive health. One of the objectives is to increase levels of access and participation in the arts thus enriching the hospital community and making art more accessible to a wide variety of people. Involvement with the arts can have a lasting and transforming effect on many aspects of people’s lives. The arts can act as a tool by which we engage with the world, view ourselves and provoke thought.
For further information regarding the hospital arts programme and the work of Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust contact Margaret Flannery, Arts Director at 091 544979.
