Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
The Old Museum Arts Centre, North Belfast
10 January – 8 February
Reviewed by: Gavin Weston
In a way, OMAC's latest venture could be read as something of an artistic comeback for Damien Coyle. One only has to scan through his impressive resume to note how creative and industrious he has been over the last few years – his employment history includes posts in arts education, training, management and administration. This show places him firmly back on the studio floor.
Coyle barges right back in there, not only with his astute and focused experimentation with technique and application, but also with that of scale. From his series of compact, highly covetable works (incidentally selling like hot cakes) to a range of very large diptychs and triptychs, there has been a whole lot of painting carried out here. It may well be the frenetic nature of daily existence that underpins the quality of these highly personal paintings; though not overtly political, much of Coyle's work displays gentle, yet unsettling, observations and uneasy undertones, often coupled with a new father's re-kindled interest in toys – you can tell that responsibility for another life has forced Coyle to reconsider weighty matters such as nationality, history and mythological foundation. In works such as Killing of pigs and One short of an apocalypse he cleverly uses motifs of meat and metal, beasts and bullets Coyle's paintings gradually, subtly, unveil a shifting mantle of aesthetic enjoyment and informed challenge, in an almost archaeological manner. A quietly refreshing show.
Writer detail:
GAVIN WESTON
is an artist based near Belfast
Venue detail:
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