Young artists shine in local exhibition
GOMA Waterford are shining a spotlight on recent graduates
Each year, GOMA Waterford aims to highlight the wealth of talent graduating annually in Ireland by awarding selected graduates with an exhibition.
This year, three artists have been chosen for the award, Elaine Somers-Cashen, Leslie Allen Spillane and Fionn Timmins.
Their work is available to view until March 23, at GOMA Waterford.
A recent graduate of Visual Art from SETU Waterford, Elaine Somers-Cashen is a visual artist based in County Wexford.
Her work examines contemporary Irish landscape through the lens of a constantly evolving rural farm environment. She focuses mainly on the trees that are a familiar staple of all farms and land throughout the Irish countryside.
This body of work sees Elaine exploring large-scale drawings on fabriano paper that is coated in layers of charcoal.
Leslie Allen Spillane is a recent graduate of MTU Crawford College of Art and Design. She works primarily in lens-based media using a variety of alternative photographic techniques and printmaking.
She is interested in environmentally sustainable photographic processes and the relationship between the human body and the natural world.
Using homemade plant-based chemistry to develop and print her images, Leslie explores different plant’s properties and remedies as a metaphor for conveying psychological and emotional states.
Waterford artist Fionn Timmins works primarily with sculpture and uses video and sound to support this practice.
He graduated from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in 2024.
His work considers our relationship with the landscape by addressing and reinterpreting references to Irish folklore and ancient Irish megalithic forms, such as stone circles and dolmans.
Working primarily with ancient bog oak, a material that would have been alive in the landscape during the construction of these ancient sites. His sculptures draw on the symbolism of the circle and the Sacred Oak Tree, often referred to in Irish mythology.
