Gemma Browne

Gemma Browne makes paintings and drawings of mainly female characters: fashion models, girls, teens and dolls which seem to belong to a world of prettiness and artificiality - but like Japanese contemporary art, which places the cute and the sinister side by side, Browne’s images too have a dark side.

Browne is influenced by Manga comics, some American contemporary art and trashy celebrity culture. She culls a lot of her images from glossy fashion magazines. She never works with real people or models but rather makes second-hand images from photos. She is aware of the ugliness which goes with our beautified, celebrity culture where shallow appearance is celebrated.

Her paintings are of the `artificial` but the paint gives her characters a warmth of personality which may be absent from the original photos. She likes illustrative art and fashion illustration and uses some graphic design materials such as markers and gouaches. Her subjects are usually prettified with made up eyes and lips but are also a bit confrontational with their wide-eyed stares. Browne likes things which at first glance appear to be cute or colourful but which on closer inspection, reveal their darker side

BIOGRAPHY

Gemma Browne was born in London in 1966. She lives and works in Dublin and Antwerp.

1992-93 Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Masters Degree in Fine Art, Margaret St.,Birmingham, UK.

1985-88 Crawford College of Art & Design, National Diploma in Painting & Printmaking, Sharman Crawford St., Cork

1984-85 Crawford College of Art & Design Certificate in Visual Education

EXHIBITIONS

Solo

2006, Lily-White, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin

2004, Twinkle, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin

2003, Sugar-Coated, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin

2002, Being Pretty is Everything, Draiocht, Centre for the Arts, Dublin

Pofferd-De Nul, Artists Collective, Antwerp, Belgium, June 2000

Group exhibitions

2010, BACKWATER 2010: a 20 year celebration of Backwater Studios, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 2010

2009, Paper Work, Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin

2007, Irish painting 1919-2006, The Courthouse gallery, Ennistymon, Clare

2006, The Future is Female, ARCO ’07 Projects, Kevin Kavanagh

2005, Passing Through, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork. (Curator: Patrick T. Murphy)

2005, The 2nd Burren Annual Show, Burren College of Art

2005, Eurojet Futures - An Anthology of Emerging Art from Ireland, RHA Gallery, Dublin

2003, Eurojet Futures 03, RHA, Dublin

2003, Fresh Fruit, Pallas Heights, Dublin, curated by Pallas

2002, Crawford Open 3, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork

2002, Vivid with Stephen Loughman, Darren Murray and Dermot Seymour, Laois Arts Festival

2002, Objective 1 European Artists Show, Brussels, Belgium

2001, Representing Ireland (Objective 1), Workshop & Exhibition Oslip, Austria

2001, Éigse 2001, Carlow

2000, The Crawford Open Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Crawford Gallery, Cork

2000, Hallward Gallery

2000, Scóip 2000, Tralee

1999, The Nylon Gallery, London, U.K.

1998, Wet Paint, Exhibition, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin

1994, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin

1994, Blue Gallery, London, U.K.

1993, MA Show, The Custard Factory, Birmingham, U.K., Midland Art Centre,

1991, Show with Sinéad Ní Chionaola, The Castle Gallery, Dungarvan

AWARDS

2003 Arts Council Visual Arts Travel Award (Barcelona)

2002 Culture Committee Department of Foreign Affairs Travel Grant (Brussels)

2002 Arts Council Bursary

2001 & 2002 Arts Council Materials/Equipment Grant

1997 & 2001 Arts Council Artflight

1999 Studio 2 Printmaking Workshop, Oxfordshire, UK

1993 Gertrude Emily Griffin Award for Drawing

RESIDENCIES

Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan, 2003

Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan, 2000

COLLECTIONS

The Arts Council of Ireland, The University of Central England Birmingham UK, Office of Public Works, AXA Insurance

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