Emma Berkery’s intense involvement with the process of painting lends a layered complexity to her work, writes Isabella Evangelisti
Originally from Limerick, Emma Berkery came to Belfast to complete her master’s degree in Fine Art at Ulster University and remained there to establish her art practice. She is currently the associate artist with Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich.
Berkery is an abstract artist whose paintings are filled with forms derived from and reminiscent of nature. Reading her paintings as landscapes, however, underestimates their depth and scope. Berkery’s paintings excavate the physical environment in order to arrive at an understanding of the mental and emotional states that underpin a person’s sense of identity in the world. They are replete with signs and symbols, in their use both of colour and of the repeated motif, although they always avoid the literal or merely descriptive. They are exploratory works that seek to arrive at interior truth through contemplation of the exterior environment.
To read this article in full, subscribe or buy this edition of the Irish Arts Review
From 1960, when a chance meeting with Cecil King led to his work being included in a show at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, Michael Kane was a formidable, indomitable presence in Irish cultural life.
Emer McGarry considers the work of Marianne Keating, which brings to light overlooked stories of Irish migration, labour and resistance
The exhibition treats the archive as a tool for building new futures, writes Seán Kissane