Friday 23rd September - 6.30pm
Tickets - Free
Devenish Gallery, Enniskillen
Culture Night - FLive Launch party & Exhibition opening
Culture Night: Fermanagh Live launch event, Friday 23rd September 2022
This year’s Culture Night event will take place in the Devenish Gallery, Enniskillen, with the opening of a new art exhibition, combined with the festival launch party. The exhibition curated by gallery owner Colin Burns, will feature the eclectic work of three Fermanagh artists; Anna Cieplucha, Catherine Keogh and the late Liam Blake.
Liam Blake ( 1939 - 2002), had the distinction of being born between the bridges, the hallmark of a true Enniskilliner. One of ten children born to William Blake, a highly respected Fermanagh businessman and founder of Blake's Of The Hollow and Melvin House Emporium.
Educated at St Michael's Enniskillen and at Castleknock College Dublin, he returned to his native county and managed the Melvin House before devoting himself to painting. Largely self-taught but with artistic siblings he excelled as a painter of landscapes and portraits. He attended night classes at the Technical College in Enniskillen, tutored by Toni Johnston. She remarked that his painting prowess was obvious from an early stage. Fermanagh artist T P Flanagan thought he was particularly gifted with a natural talent and flair for painting. Blake's landscapes owed much to his love of Fermanagh and Donegal. His painting 'Road by the Shore' which is featured in this retrospective, is thought to be in Donegal. He repeated this scene many times in different formats. His work is a mixture of Impressionism and Surrealism. Devenish Gallery hosted a hugely successful exhibition of the late artist’s work in 2018 as part of FLive.
Anna Cieplucha, originally from Lodz in Poland and now living in Fermanagh, Anna has worked as an architect throughout Europe. She integrates her technical skills and her strong passion for art and nature by creating vibrant and abstract impasto paintings in rich textures on a three-dimensional surface. Anna expresses herself and her life experiences through her art and aims to create contemporary art on acrylic. She describes her work as rough, harsh, matte and uneven and uses a palette knife to create thick dramatic strokes in her work.
Catherine Keogh, who is based on Boa Island, is an artist who has sold her work worldwide, including Singapore and LA. Her work combines handmade gypsum covered canvas where colour is built using hundreds of delicate lines. Catherine’s work is imaginatively executed and creates a meditative state to the onlooker.
