> ABOUT
"A RAWNESS THAT PUNKS ACADEMIA"
- Denis Farrell, June 2023.
Darran McGlynn is an artist from Inishowen, Co. Donegal who lives in Galway where he is based at Artspace Studios. His multi-disciplinary practice incorporates sculpture, text, installation and printed media, often combining these elements together. Recent activity includes Leaves Ground, a solo exhibition at Roscommon Arts Centre in 2023. Recent publications include Mopus Operandi (2022), an 8-page text work printed in TOLD screen printed text art journal published by Small Night Projects and launched at the RHA, Dublin. TOLD features in a limited edition box set produced specially for Librairie Yvon Lambert, Paris (2024) and featured at the Dublin Art Book Fair in 2022 & 2023.
Darran is interested in investigating the contemporary condition - contemporary Being - in the globalised landscape. Peering through lenses of history, culture, psychology, philosophy and politics, and combining this with an interest in concepts of time, he creates works that juxtapose the traditional and contemporary. He contrasts materials such as marble, steel, neon and animal skin in a way that speaks of the contemporary condition - isolated, lost and searching for meaning - but is firmly rooted in traditional materials and methods of working. The materials - found, salvaged, cut, forged - all show signs of other uses, previous lives and past labour. They hold enduring familiarity yet are presented in novel ways. Leaning against the natural weight balance of the materials takes them to the brink of collapse, creating (literally) tangible tension in the air. Three hundred million year old fossils from a field in Co. Galway, that were formed on the seabed when Ireland was located on the Equator, are suspended on top of suspension coils. Chinese digital components are set in harmony into ancient Italian marble from Michelangelo's quarry. Hot pink neon flashes hard lessons. Each work is a standalone piece but his exhibitions take on a site-specific, installation based format that forces the hand (and feet) of the viewer by careful placement of works, lighting, and manipulation of space. Darran's exhibitions situate the artist, the art and the audience together as all mutually constitutive of a contemporary culture, rather than the artist at one remove, making art as a form of exterior study.
Text plays a central role either as sculpture or print and you might say he's known for his one liners. There’s an underlying characteristic humour - a dark playfulness - informed by his own experiences and observations merged with a deeper social and philosophical reflection that is somehow gentle and simultaneously quite savage. The narratives operate on several levels at the same time, exposing multiple standpoints at once, causing a notable sense of contradiction and question. There’s a deep dive into personal and collective psyche and identity underway that aims to highlight our commonalities and fallibilities.
EDUCATION
2010-'13 BA(HONS) Fine Art, University of the West of England, Bristol. First class honours
2009-'10 Bronze Casting, Belfast Metropolitan College
2008-'09 Stone Carving, Redmond Herrity Stone Sculptor, Letterkenny
EXHIBITIONS
2023 Leaves Ground (solo show), curated by Naomi Draper, Roscommon Arts Centre
2022 With Other Matter, Part I (group show), curated by Naomi Draper, Roscommon Arts Centre
2019 PEERS (solo show), Artlink, Fort Dunree, Co. Donegal
2015 Horse (group show), curated by Mark Wallinger and Maoliosa Boyle, VOID, Derry
2015 You Are Here (solo show), VOID Studios, Derry
2014 Joyless Celebration and Purposeless Inquiry (group show), curated by Damien Duffy, VOID, Derry
2014 Sees The Day (solo show), VOID Community Gallery, Derry
2013 First Impressions (group show), View, Bristol
PUBLICATIONS
2022 Mopus Operandi, 8 page text work printed in TOLD screen printed text art journal, published by Small Night Projects
MEMBERSHIPS
2024 Board of Directors, Artspace Studios Ltd.
2023 Studio holder (current), Artspace Studios
TECHNICIAN
2013-present Ten+ years working as an Art Technician throughout Ireland specialising in all aspects of art handling, exhibition installation and lighting. Clients include VOID, Solstice Arts Centre, Nerve Visual, Roscommon Arts Centre, Glebe House and Gallery, TULCA Festival of Visual Art, Galway International Arts Festival, Maurice Ward Art Handling, Facebook, The Arts Council and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Contact me for availability and rates.