NUA

Exhibition opens on July 3rd and continues until July 31st, 2021.
All unsold works are available from our ONLINE SHOP.

SO Fine Art Editions launches ‘NUA’ – a bold exhibition of new paintings by seven contemporary Irish artists.

NUA will showcase fresh work by some of Ireland’s most exciting painters: Neil Dunne, Sophie Gough, Emma Berkery, Róisín O’Sullivan, Eileen O’Sullivan, Stephen Doyle and Sarah Wren Wilson.

Although each artist has a unique style, all pieces reveal a new approach by the artist – a new challenge or project, or new path of exploration. Others were inspired by new places, people.

Together, the collection is striking. Each piece pushes boundaries; exploring texture and space. Experimentation with surrounding environments, processes or materials can be seen in much of the work.

Like Emma Berkery’s paintings from ‘Submerged in Echoes’ – a project where she challenged herself to work within a severely limited palette for the first time, to create the same emotion, drama, space and intrigue as previous work, in just monochrome.

Or Róisín O’Sullivan’s stunning experimentation through painting, wood-burning and woodcarving techniques.

Sophie Gough’s new series, Gestalt 2021, is full of bright, playful pieces. In painting, she hopes to develop a new knowledge in real spaces over time and to instil an invigorating sense of play – while Sarah Wren Wilson’s practice explores the intertwining of narrative within abstract painting. Her paintings are imagined space: the original designs often abandoned as new space is created.

In a series of works inspired by a residency in Shanghai, artist Stephen Doyle examines China’s restrictive social structures, particularly in relation to sexual minorities, while Neil Dunne explores urban aesthetics, and his work has been more recently influenced by the new and complex world we now live in.

Exploration of place, process and indeed, people, is also prevalent in Eileen O’Sullivan’s pieces. She takes the familiar and transforms it into something special – altering the viewer’s perception through the application and versatility of the paint.

Click on the thumbnails below to see full image of the works.
See our ONLINE SHOP to purchase.

Artists

Emma Berkery
Emma Berkery has a Masters in fine art, and shows nationally and internationally. She has undertaken many residencies, projects and commissions. She has designed and delivered many arts based projects, exhibitions and events, trained over 60 artists and worked as a creative consultant in the arts.

Stephen Doyle
Stephen Doyle was the recipient of the Student of the Year Award in his graduating year in Crawford College of Art. He is the recipient of two international art awards, The Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize and The Sunny Art Prize. He is credited with having the first piece to openly discuss transgender identity on the walls of the National Gallery of Ireland; after being shortlisted for the Zurich Portrait Prize. The Irish Times has selected Doyle as one of the ‘Top 50 People to Watch in 2019.’

Neil Dunne
Neil Dunne is an Irish printmaker, specialising in screenprinting. Dunne graduated from NCAD with an Honours BA in Fine Art/Printmaking and Art History in 2014, and received the 2015 – 2017 NCAD post-graduate scholarship. Dunne has since exhibited internationally and in Ireland and has won numerous awards including being short listed for the Student legacy prize at the Hamilton gallery, Sligo (2016) The ‘Clancy Barracks studio residency’ (2016), the AXA Insurance Award (2014), OPW purchase award (2014) and he was also nominated for the NCAD Staff Prize (2013).

Sophie Gough
Sophie Gough graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design (L.S.A.D) in 2016 with a first class honors BA in Sculpture and Combined Media. Her work exhibited in Dada Post Berlin, Gallery Port Reykjavik, Gallery Unnamed New York, and the H.K.U. University of the Arts Utrecht. She has completed residencies with the National Sculpture Factory in Cork, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, County Cork and Dada Post, Berlin. She has interned with Ireland at Venice 2015 for the Venice Biennale and EVA: International 2016.

Eileen O’Sullivan
Eileen O’Sullivan is a painter from Meath, based in Dublin, Ireland. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design in 2015 with a BA in Fine Art Painting and Art History. Her work is in key private collections in the UK, Ireland and Australia, as well as universities and colleges. In June 2018, she was awarded ‘The K&M Evans Prize for Painting’ at the Royal Hibernian Academy’s 188th Annual Exhibition. She also won the 2018 Solstice Visual Arts award at the 7th Surveyor exhibition. The Eileen has been named RTE’s top ten painters under 30 to watch, the and the top five visual artists to look out for by Hot Press.

Róisín O’Sullivan
Róisín O’Sullivan is an artist from Cork in the South of Ireland. Her process-based​ practice explores mark-making, experimentation and surface through the mediums of painting, printmaking, photography and drawing.

Sarah Wren Wilson
Sarah Wren Wilson is an Irish artist based in Dublin. She studied Fine Art at Loughborough University, England before completing her Fine Art Masters at the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. Sarah has been awarded residencies in Spain, Iceland, UK and Ireland and was a recipient of the Irish Emerging Artist Residency at Burren College of Art 2017. Recently, she has received the RHA IPUT Wilton Park Studio Award 2021-22.