Exhibition Date: 14 September 2024 – 18 January 2025
This year, as part of our on-going artist support programme, Barnsley-based artist Ailish Treanor is undertaking an artist residency at Barnsley Civic. The work that she produces during this residency will be shown in a new major solo exhibition, opening in the Autumn.
Ailish works mainly in sculpture, incorporating some painting and installation as well. Some of her recent projects include Tableau Retro, a solo exhibition at 87 Gallery in Hull and Kissing Gate, a public sculpture commissioned by Barnsley Council as part Love Barnsley Festival 2022.
During her residency at Barnsley Civic she has been focusing on learning new techniques, such as ‘Trompe-l’oeil’ (a French term which translates to ‘deceives the eye’) and other traditional decorative painting techniques. She has also been researching the work of Georgia O’Keeffe and her diaristic writings, various art historical periods as well as non-traditional art forms such as shop window displays and set-design. She has also taken inspiration from the recent regeneration work on Eldon street, watching the place evolve as the original marble fronted shop facades are excavated and restored.
The exhibition will look at how we can experience art as part of a lineage, rather than singular artistic ideas coming from one artist or ego. The work will explore a collectivist, non-hierarchical approach to art making, where many methods, materials and styles exist together, drawing on elements from different art historical periods and oscillating between fine art and design.
