NUI Galway and Burren College of Art will launch Surface Tension, the Galway Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition on Saturday, 12 April at 5pm. The exhibition, which runs 12-27April in The Gallery at the Burren College of Art, features paintings by Mollie Douthit, and drawings and installation work from Collette Egan.

Mollie Douthit’s still life paintings consider the physical presence and surface intricacies of familiar objects through the use of paint. Each painting is constructed in a single day, building a momentum that the artist uses to push the piece to successful completion. Douthit’s work plays with formal conventions of painting such as colour, composition, and paint handling. Her choice of subject matter is intuitive and the completed works express an emotional response to memories of places and people she has encountered.

Collette Egan creates expressive drawings inspired by the experience of being within a particular time and place. Through a process of mapping, she traces journeys through life, paying particular attention to the material she encounters along the way. The impermanence of the journey is reflected through the use of transient materials such as chalk, which is employed in immersive installations and then erased, so that the viewer is only able to experience the work for a limited time. Through drawing, Egan seeks to connect to a place while also creating a new world in which to exist, where the artwork ultimately creates a sense of home.

Founded in 1994, Burren College of Art is an internationally recognised not-for-profit independent college specialising in undergraduate and graduate fine art education. In 2002, NUI Galway agreed to accredit the first of a series of postgraduate programmes at Burren College of Art. This was the beginning of a fruitful relationship that has continued to develop year on year.

For further information on the exhibition and the graduate programme visit www.burrencollege.ie , www.facebook.com/groups/BurrenDegree/. Details on College Egan and Mollie Douthit are available at www.colletteegan.com and www.molliedouthit.com.

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