An exhibition of selected work by artists, Cris Neumann, Abigail O’Brien, Mary Kelly, Natasa Paterson-Paulberg and curated by Carly Mc Nulty.

This retrospectively presented exhibition brings together works from different periods, ranging from the late nineties to the present, which Mc Nulty has arranged corresponding to a specifically developed concept and with consideration to different spatial situations.

This open selection allows correlations that shift between visual arts, music and film. It gives the viewer the freedom to look beyond the specific medium and encounter the individual and formal languages of each work. These works deal with notions of perception, the formation and deterioration of identity, cycles of resource and in some cases provokes a humorous response.

CRIS NEUMANN

Neuman has been studying art and its related forms from an early age. Born in Florida, he has lived up and down the East Coast of the US from Miami to Massachusetts and lived in Bermuda, the Bahamas and as far west as Arizona and Texas. His travels led him to Mexico, England, Wales and Scotland where he attended school in Edinburgh. His wife is Irish and he has made his home in Ireland since 1998. He attended the University of North Carolina from 1984-1987 where he studied a range of subjects including sculpture, music, painting and the sciences. His interest in developing his manual skills led him to depart college and apprentice with a cabinetmaker. He served a basic apprenticeship up to journeyman level and returned to the University of Northern Arizona in 1991. He finished his undergraduate studies in 1995 with a bachelor of Fine Art degree from the University of North Texas and took a master of fine art from the same school in 1997.

His work in art began with drawing and painting, the former he still practices. He became focused on sculpture while in school in North Carolina and has not dropped that concentration. He has added printmaking to his interests as a result of his studies in Texas. He began by making relatively formal works in metal and wood, but his developing interest in cycles of resource use shifted his focus onto materials and away from forms. Because of his use of discarded, recyclable or natural materials, he has adopted subjects and themes that are relevant to those materials and echo his own thoughts on how we understand and alter our environment. To this end he attempts to craft everyday materials into familiar and beautiful objects for the enjoyment of those around him.

ABIGAIL O'BRIEN

Abigail O’Brien has won many awards for her work and her work is represented in both private and public collections, including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, The European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Goldman Sachs, London, The Caldic Collection, Rotterdam and the Volpinum Collection, Vienna. She has shown extensively, including Haus Der Kunst, Munich, The Gemeentemuseum, Holland, and Centro National des Artes, Mexico. Born in 1957, she received a first class honours BA Fine Art Painting in 1995 and an MA Fine Art Painting in 1998, from The National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Abigail O'Brien lives and works in Dublin.

Raspberry Decoy 2005 is part of a body of work called Fortitude created in 2005. Raspberry Decoy is an inflatable model of a T72 tank. A scale version of the real thing, it is pink and carries the motif of embroidered raspberries as a form of camouflage. The decoy is linked to a timer and inflates and deflates every few minutes. During deflation the sound of morse code is activated. Social definitions of manliness are historically constructed and culturally variable. The morse code text for Fortitude describes routine domestic trivia that could be considered to be male territory.

MARY KELLY

Mary Kelly is a contemporary Irish artist and filmmaker. She holds an M.A. in fine Art from N.C.A.D. as well as a Degree in Film from the Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design. She also holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from U.C.D. She has won many awards, including recently Artlinks award 2007 and the Irish American Arts award 2006. Her films have been screened at amongst others, NYU Tish School of the Arts, Cantor Film Centre New York and B.B.C. Short Film Festival, UCI Leicester Square London. She is widely collected and is included in both the Microsoft and Goldman Sachs collections.

Mary Kelly’s media are photography and film, and in her work to date she has used them to subject the domain of private life to an artistic analysis. Ritualised aspects of our social life, such as the fundamental human necessity of eating, are played on, and a handling that is detached and of formal perfection has the potential between the refined rituals of dining and banqueting, and the archaic process of ingestion (as in the breast-feeding of a child) unfold with captivating brilliance.

NATASA PATERSON-PAULBERG

Natasa is a Dublin based music maker and performer. Originally form Australia, Natasa obtained two Bachelor of Science Degrees in Clinical Science and Osteopathic Medicine from RMIT University, Melbourne and worked in the field of Osteopathy before completing her M.Phil in Music and Media Technologies in Trinity College, Dublin.

Natasa is currently studying for a Research Masters in the neurocognitive basis of music perception and emotional affect and how this is perceived in musical composition at Trinity College. Trained in both piano and voice Natasa performs around Dublin in various musical groups as well as being a member of the Irish Composers Collective. Her compositional work includes pieces for choir, piano, string quartet and the use of electro-acoustic elements.

Curated by Carly Mc Nulty.

Cake was founded by Carly Mc Nulty, a practising visual artist completing her M.A in Fine Art painting in N.C.A.D. She has exhibited in a variety of galleries including Hugh Lane Municple Gallery, Temple Bar Gallery, Pallas contemporay projects, Monster Truck Gallery and Crawford Municiple Gallery.