Eternal at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

Paul Nugent

14/09/2004 - 23/10/2004

Paul Nugent was born in Dublin in 1964 and studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. In selecting his content Nugent’s aim has been to set up a series of ambivalences between multiplicity and uniqueness, presence and absence, and traditional and contemporary methods of practice.

His work may be read as variations on a singular subject. The layering of pigment and application of glazes gives each painting its individual tone and authenticity. His work is influenced by reproductions of historical paintings, printing techniques and photography. It also reflects Nugent’s interest in separateness and the meditative.

The points of reference for the new paintings are devotional statues such as Saint Joseph and the Madonna and Child. The paintings are related to the lives of the saints whose stories have been perpetually presented and represented through out art history. The obscured presence of the subject focuses on iconic Christian symbolism and the slow erosion of it’s meaning in contemporary society. Nugent’s paintings are made slowly and contemplatively as they are intended to be seen.

Paul Nugent’s work is included in the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. His work was exhibited as part of Re-Imagining Ireland, Virginia Museum of Art U.S.A and is included in Views from an Island, Contemporary Art from Ireland at the Millennium Monument Museum Beijing and the Shanghai Gallery of Modern Art. He exhibits at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery Dublin. Future exhibitions include Artists For Amnesty at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Faith at the Ormeau Baths Gallery Belfast and In a Lonely Place at the Turku Art Museum Finland.

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