“Delicate Matter” exhibition in Athlone, Ireland

Through the end of August 2015, the Luan Gallery in Ireland is exhibiting "Delicate Matter," a show compiling the works of Karen Donnellan, Jennifer Hickey and Liz Nilsson joined together under the theme of "human existence," with each artist's series varying on a spectrum of elemental inspirations. A mix of glass, china sculpture and conceptual installations, the pieces share a spiritual and ethereal aesthetic, each medium exploring a different subject, focusing in the metaphysical, nature, and memory.

Karen Donnellan's works in glass, an exploration of the metaphysical, are inspired by the visual combination of light and energy. Her personal work is concerned with illustrating the intangible, expressing this in a range of media from film to performance, but glass is a particularly crucial material for her because of its ability to hold light, and its "elemental facets" of water, fire, earth and air. Recently hired by the glass program at Alfred University, Donnellan has employed the recuring motif of a circle, an important symbol for her of infinity and femininity, in her work. (Disclosure: Donnellan is an occasional contributor to GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quaterly.)
The Luan gallery, a publicly-owned art space, is located in Athlone, Westmeath Ireland, across the River Shannon. Extending out of a larger, historical building, Father Matthew Hall, which was founded in 1892, the recently built wing was a project that cost 3.4 million euros in 2012. It is now a multi-use space, serving as a gallery for contemporary art and film exhibitions, as well as a venue for literature, music and drama workshops.