Royal Hibernian Academy (Gallery I Atrium), Gallagher Gallery, 15 Ely Place, Dublin Mon-Tues 11am-5pm, Wed-Sat 11am- 7pm, Sun 2-5pm Until Feb 27 01-6612558
Sculptor Eilis O’Connell’s work has always been exceptional because of her impeccable feeling for form, material and finish. The pieces she creates have a rightness and density of presence to them that comes from her slow, patient, incremental way of working.
What’s different about this large survey show is that it features work made since 2007, and it reflects the impact of O’Connell’s rural, agricultural surroundings in Inniscara, Co Cork, where she lives and has what was a creamery as her studio. “Surrounded by fields and the activity of agriculture,” she says, “the urgency of growth fuels my imagination. After the growing season I collect dried- out stalk and husks and they have become a new source of material in the studio.”
Many pieces, such as Sheep Skull 2(pictured), combine "hi-tech materials with organic detritus", including flax stalks, nests, coral, seed heads and even a sheep's skull. O'Connell is also sowing a series of bronzes, Unlikely Monuments.
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Structures Wexford Arts Centre, Cornmarket
