THE BLACK MARIAH

JULY 11 - AUGUST 8 / 09 ............................................................ .............TOM FITZGERALD / GAZAPARADISO[ CURATED BY SEAN LYNCH ]GAZAPARADISO includes new work by Fitzgerald, as Sandro Botticelli’s illustrations for Dante’s Paradiso (1490-5) are juxtaposed with journalist’s accounts of early 2009’s bombing of Gaza by Israel. Fitzgerald presents fragments of drawings and texts upon fragments of material; both the drawings and texts are inscribed in sections of plastic collected on a beach in County Clare where Fitzgerald takes his holidays. Fitzgerald notes that ‘the installation is an attempt to highlight the disparity between man’s aspirations and the reality of his actions.’“I always enjoy Fitzgerald’s impulses, curiosity and generosity towards the understanding of his subject matter and sculptural material... By creating these kinds of in-betweens, jarringly beautiful transitions have constantly been evoked by Fitzgerald over the decades in his sculptures, and more recently, in his drawings.” - Sean Lynch......................Tom Fitzgerald was born in Limerick in 1939. He studied at the Limerick School of Art & Design, where he later served as head of the Sculpture and Combined Media Dept. from 1976 - 2000. He was a founder member of Limerick's annual EV+a exhibition in 1977. During a long and prolific career as a sculptor he has held solo exhibitions in venues such as Limerick City Gallery of Art, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny and Hendriks Gallery, Dublin. He represented Ireland at the Expo 2000 in Hannover, and has taken part in many group exhibitions in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, New York and South Korea. Fitzgerald is represented in many public collections in Ireland.[ Opening Friday 10 July / 7.30pm ]