AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

"Fragments"- An Exhibition of Paintings: ENDA O'DONOGHUE at the Irish Arts Center in New York

April 30-June 19, 2009

Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51 Street, New York, NY 10019 - www.irishartscenter.org
Contact: Joanna L. Groarke (212) 757-3318 ext 203 - joanna@irishartscenter.org

Public Opening and Artist Talk: Thursday, April 30, 7:30 pm
Gallery Open by Appointment Monday-Friday 10am-6pm
____________________________________________________

Enda O’Donoghue is known for his work in painting, photography, video, installation, public art, and interactive media. His most recent paintings depict banal scenes of everyday life such as packed subway cars, travelers waiting at airport gates, and fast food checkout counters. Rather than being based on live models, O’Donoghue’s subject matter is drawn from snapshots he finds on the Internet. With each image he works with he is meticulous about tracing the ownership and requesting permission for its use. He uses the painting process to echo and translate the nature of these often low quality digital images, complete with blurriness, glitches and pixelation.

The artist refers to the subjects of these works as “in-between” spaces, which are neither public nor private. The same could be said of his work, which is neither the original product of his imagination nor a direct copy. Like twentieth-century artists including Andy Warhol, Gerhardt Richter, and Sherrie Levine, O’Donoghue raises questions about individual perception, the ownership of images, and the essence of authenticity. Using the ancient art form of painting to comment on contemporary phenomena, he challenges the viewer to think about the connections between fine art and technology as forms of self-expression.

Enda O’Donoghue was born in Limerick, Ireland. He studied computer programming before completing a degree in painting at the Limerick School of Art and Design. He went on to earn a Masters in Interactive Media at the University of Limerick and has worked at the Interactive Design Centre at the University of Limerick, where he taught in the field of Interactive Media. Since 2002, O’Donoghue has lived and worked in Berlin. For more information about his work, visit www.endaism.com.

In recent years his work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Notable examples include a recent solo show at the Galerie hunchentoot in Berlin; the showcase exhibition for the tenth Berlin Kunstherbst festival; the annual KiC NordArt exhibition in the north of Germany; Overgaden, the Institute for Contemporary Art in Copenhagen; and art fairs in Berlin and Cologne. In Ireland he has exhibited at the Four Gallery in Dublin and the Limerick City Gallery.
This exhibition is supported by Culture Ireland.

***
Since 1972, the Irish Arts Center has been the primary home for Irish arts and culture in New York. Located in the heart of Manhattan’s historic “Hell’s Kitchen,” The Irish Arts Center is one of the largest and most inclusive Irish cultural organizations in the United States. More than 35,000 people of all ages and ethnicities participated directly in Irish Arts Center programs in 2008, plus millions more through print and broadcast media coverage of our theatrical and musical engagements, education programs, festivals, and special events. The Center provides a home for established Irish artists and performers to reach – and build – a New York audience, providing a welcome opportunity for Irish and non-Irish alike to enjoy authentic, first-class Irish entertainment. . For 35 years, the Center has offered a cultural home away from home for such cultural luminaries as Robert Ballagh, Marie Jones, Jimmy Murphy, Mark O’Rowe, Ronnie Drew, Mike Hanrahan, The Chieftains, The Nualas, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Eamonn O’Doherty, Donal O’Kelly, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Milo O’Shea, Jim Sheridan, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson and many, many more.

###############