what's on
Segments
Declan Byrne
Solo Exhibition
2 September – 8 October 2021
The University of Atypical is delighted to invite you to join us for Segments, a solo exhibition by Irish artist Declan Byrne. This exhibition features in the Bounce Arts Festival programme running from the 1st – 3rd of October, 2021.
Declan began working as an artist in 2004 and has created a remarkable body of artworks during this time. Declan is a great observer and takes inspiration from a wide variety of everyday objects. He translates the world around him through detailed and clearly articulated compositions, building-up intricate, colourful layers within his work.
Declan practices as a multi-disciplinary artist, utilising found objects within his paintings, sculptures and drawing . In his sculptural work Declan carefully cuts and shapes pieces of dried acrylic paint found in his studio from old painting pallets, before gluing the intricate pieces of layered colour to found objects. The treatment of colour and line found in his sculptures have a remarkable similarity to the aesthetic found in his paintings.
In Declan’s paintings he transforms the world he sees in a detailed way, by breaking down shapes he rebuilds compositions out of multiple sections of colours and gestures.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Declan Byrne is a studio member at KCAT Studios, Kilkenny and a major retrospective of his work took place in Glebe House, Kilfane, Co. Kilkenny in 2021.
Declan Byrne’s artworks have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including shows in Luxembourg, Finland Germany, Australia, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the UK.
His work has also featured in numerous exhibitions on the island of Ireland, including the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Dublin City Council Offices, The Skibbereen Arts Festival and University College Cork.
He has been involved in a number of exchange and engagements projects, including with Project Ability Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland. His work is also in the National Irish Art Collection in Crawford Gallery, Cork.
ABOUT KCAT ARTS CENTER
The KCAT artist studio is the permanent creative home to 14 professional visual artists.
Studio artists are supported by mentors and a facilitator in all aspects of their professional development. There is a strong sense of community and mutual support between artists and mentors, which extends beyond the walls of the studio. Working individually, all share, inspire and motivate each other.
For More Information about KCAT visit their website – kcat.ie
Image: Self Portrait, painting on carved wood, 2010.
Colour photograph of a sculpture by Declan Byrne made of carved wood with colourful square shapes with a self portrait painted on the surface.
Safety protocols:
- We will be gathering your name and contact information at the entrance to the Gallery, which we will keep for 21 days and then delete, in accordance with effective track-and-trace measures.
- Sanitiser units at the entrance and around the venue
- Anyone who can, should wear a face covering when visiting the venue
- We request that people practice social distancing inside of the space
- We will be regularly sanitising all surfaces within the venue
- We will no longer permit the audience/visitors to gather inside of the office space to protect staff
- We will provide single use biodegradable paper cups for refreshments for events
Segments Declan Byrne
Segments
Declan Byrne
Solo Exhibition
2 September – 8 October 2021
The University of Atypical is delighted to invite you to join us for Segments, a solo exhibition by Irish artist Declan Byrne. This exhibition features in the Bounce Arts Festival programme running from the 1st – 3rd of October, 2021.
Declan began working as an artist in 2004 and has created a remarkable body of artworks during this time. Declan is a great observer and takes inspiration from a wide variety of everyday objects. He translates the world around him through detailed and clearly articulated compositions, building-up intricate, colourful layers within his work.
Declan practices as a multi-disciplinary artist, utilising found objects within his paintings, sculptures and drawing . In his sculptural work Declan carefully cuts and shapes pieces of dried acrylic paint found in his studio from old painting pallets, before gluing the intricate pieces of layered colour to found objects. The treatment of colour and line found in his sculptures have a remarkable similarity to the aesthetic found in his paintings.
In Declan’s paintings he transforms the world he sees in a detailed way, by breaking down shapes he rebuilds compositions out of multiple sections of colours and gestures.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Declan Byrne is a studio member at KCAT Studios, Kilkenny and a major retrospective of his work took place in Glebe House, Kilfane, Co. Kilkenny in 2021.
Declan Byrne’s artworks have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including shows in Luxembourg, Finland Germany, Australia, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the UK.
His work has also featured in numerous exhibitions on the island of Ireland, including the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Dublin City Council Offices, The Skibbereen Arts Festival and University College Cork.
He has been involved in a number of exchange and engagements projects, including with Project Ability Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland. His work is also in the National Irish Art Collection in Crawford Gallery, Cork.
ABOUT KCAT ARTS CENTER
The KCAT artist studio is the permanent creative home to 14 professional visual artists.
Studio artists are supported by mentors and a facilitator in all aspects of their professional development. There is a strong sense of community and mutual support between artists and mentors, which extends beyond the walls of the studio. Working individually, all share, inspire and motivate each other.
For More Information about KCAT visit their website – kcat.ie
Past Exhibitions
strangely disjointed & idiosyncratic
Dara Condon
22 July – 19 August 2021 Opening: 5pm – 8pm
The University of Atypical is delighted to invite you to the long-awaited exhibition strangely disjointed & idiosyncratic by artist Dara Condon.
Dara Condon was the recipient of the University of Atypical’s Graduate Award 2019 and we’re pleased to see this promising graduate’s exhibition realised. Dara’s inspiration derives from eclectic pools of thought drawing on scientific theories, sacred symbols and forms, mythology and the power of the natural world.
This is Dara’s first solo exhibition and he has created an environment that explores how the mind processes visual information on a conscious and subconscious level. This new body of work forms a constellation of art forms drawing from the artists life and his experience of the mind, memory and mental health.
Gilly Campbell, Head of Community Arts & Education, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented, “I’m delighted to see this exhibition from Dara Condon open at the University of Atypical. This is Dara’s first solo exhibition, offering the artist that all important next step in his professional, artistic career. After such a long period of galleries being closed due to restrictions, it’s heartening to see them re-open and enthusiastically welcome the public back to see art up close and personal. There are so many terrific exhibitions going on in galleries across Northern Ireland and I would encourage everyone to go along and support your local gallery this summer.”
Artist in Conversation: Dara Condon
29 July 2021
1pm – 2pm
Booking required – limited numbers are permitted on site, please include your access requirements when booking your place.
To book HERE
or email administration@universityofatypical.org
About the Artist
Dara Condon is a Belfast based artist originally from Donegal. He studied fine art at Ulster University graduating in 2019. He was the recipient of the graduate residency award by Digital Arts Studio 2019, Belfast. Condon is a multidisciplinary artist and performed in Jan McCullough’s film Vision Board Part “Dissolving Histories: New Narratives”
This will be my first solo show. I have created a large ceramic wall piece of a brain. Intricate patterns representing thought processes, images relating to memories, thoughts, hurts and love. Tiny faces of those that I hold dear in my memory. I want to depict the flaws of the brain, the void or mental blocks. But also, a celebration of art and the impact it has on the mind, the healing, almost like a large tree with foliage intertwining. Art instilling hope. A burgeoning creativity to counterbalance the destructiveness. This will be my main piece.
Gallery tours & audio described tours are available. To book a tour of our current exhibition email us including your access requirements when booking your place. administration@universityofatypical.org
Artist in Conversation: Dara Condon
29 July 2021
1pm – 2pm
Booking required – limited numbers are permitted on site, please include your access requirements when booking your place.
To book email administration@universityofatypical.org
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project in conversation with Richard Dougherty.
4th August 2021. 7pm – 8pm
Join us for an evening with The DisOrdinary Architecture Project’s founders Zoe Partington and Jos Boys as they discuss their creative collaboration with architect Richard Dougherty.
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project was established in 2008. Since then a network of disabled artists have collaborated with architecture, interiors and built environment students, educators, researchers, practitioners and other interested groups to co-create new and exciting ways to do disability differently in the design of built space.
Fittings and MisFittings is part of Accessing Architecture: Disability and Belfast’s Built Heritage by the University of Atypical is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland. The project researches the history of the disabled community in Belfast through the city’s built, industrial and cultural environments.
About DisOrdinary Architecture
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project starts from the experiences, expertise and creativity of disabled artists. We work through co-partnering and co-design to bring together artists and built environment specialists on an equal footing.
Our collaborations aim to generate creative and critical opportunities that open up innovative new provocations for thinking and doing disability (and ability) differently in architecture and the built environment. By learning lessons from what we do, we aim to become thought leaders in the field, and to influence attitudes and practices as well as the design of our built surroundings.
To Book: LINK
For More Information – disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk
About Richard Dougherty
Richard Dougherty recently was the recipient of the ‘Project Architect of the Year’ award at the 2019 RSUA Awards, for his work on the Colin Connect Transport Hub in Belfast.
Richard is a practicing architect and has designed a new campus building for Gallaudet University for the Deaf in Washington D.C and has researched the relationship between upbringing, d/Deaf space, design and aesthetics; and how that informs access and architecture.
Access: Please let us know your access requirements, you can do this when you fill in the booking form. This talk will have BSL and captioning available.
Image ID: A feminine figure sits on the ground in the bottom left of the photograph. They have long reddish/brown hair, wearing a white t-shirt and teal coloured trousers. They are looking through a camera on a tripod, beside them is a wheelchair. Six people are standing in a semi circle in the background and there are other people to the left and right of the photo.
Exhibition dates: 22 October 2019 to 15 November 2019
Programmed with Belfast International Arts Festival, Atypical Gallery presents Missing Voices, a participatory photographic project about the lives of young women with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), led by Queen’s University researcher Gillian O’Hagan and photographer Helen Sloan.
Over a five week period, Helen and Gillian worked with a group of nine adolescent girls from four schools across Belfast. Using smartphones, the girls produced a series of 34 photographs, giving a powerful and moving insight into their lives inside and outside of the mainstream school environment.
To complement the exhibition, Atypical Gallery will host a panel discussion and photovoice workshop from 7pm on the evening of Thursday 24 October.
Led by Gillian O’Hagan and Helen Sloan, this discussion will delve deeper into the focus of the Missing Voices project which aims to amplify the adolescent female voice of ASD. The panel will look at the importance of creative expression in helping girls with ASD to allow parents, teachers, friends and others to understand their experience of the world around them.
They will also discuss the chronic problem of misdiagnosis in female ASD, asking why practitioners continue to use male-led diagnostic criteria that leaves countless young girls unseen, unheard and unrepresented.
Gillian O’Hagan is a doctoral student at Queen’s University Belfast. She is also the SENCO and Head of Psychology in Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School in Belfast.
Helen Sloan is an Irish photographer best known for her work as primary stills photographer on the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Exhibition Dates: 13th June 2019 to 19th July 2019
Launch: Saturday March 30th 2019 2pm to 4pm
Exhibition Dates: April 1st to April 26th 2019
Launch: Saturday January 19th 2019 2pm to 4pm
Exhibition Dates: January 21st to March 1st 2019
Launch: Saturday November 10th 2018 2pm to 4pm
Exhibition Dates: November 12th to December 21st 2018
Launch: Thursday August 2nd 5.30pm to 8pm
Exhibition dates: August 3rd to August 31st