In ·zxx at the RHA, abstract painter John Cronin presents his latest examination of painting in the age of the Internet and artificial intelligence, writes Luke Naessens
One way to think about the development of art since about 1860 is as a series of reactions to the rapid transformations of technology. In the face of steampowered transport, electric light, photography, aerial bombing, phot0copying, personal computing, the Internet, drones and 3D printing, artists have variously responded with affirmation, negation, mimicry or ridicule. From this perspective, painting has for the last sixty years seemed impossibly anachronistic to many, bound by its very dependence on such an old-fashioned technology as paint. In this century, however, a number of painters have proposed new uses for painting within the contemporary technological context, which is taken as digital, networked and increasingly mediated through images arranged on a two-dimensional screen. In ‘ZXX’ an exhibition of new paintings at the RHA, Irish abstract painter John Cronin will present the latest development in his own career-long examination of painting in the age of the Internet and artificial intelligence.
Mark Ewart visits the studio of Allihies-based artist Rachel Parry who transforms natural matter into mesmerizing art.
Kim Haughton’s portraits, on view now at the National Museum Collins Barracks, reflect on Ireland’s multi-layered society at the end of the first century of this nation state, writes Stephanie McBride
