Bridget Flannery’s brand of abstraction suggests an allegory for a way of living with the sparest of resources, writes Mary O’Donnell
A glance around any number of Bridget Flannery’s solo exhibitions reveals work that is exciting, challenging and suggests a significant move forward in the patterning of Irish contemporary art as well as a comfortable empathy with her peers in American and European Abstract Expressionism.
Bridget Flannery’s biographical profile is not unusual, prestigious though it often is. The artist’s work has found its niche often and appropriately since she graduated as Student of the Year from the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork, some twenty-six years ago. The recipient of several major awards over the years, she has also received commissions from the Office of Public Works (OPW) and also a Scottish and Irish literature and visual arts project sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Pivotal to the development of her work was being selected by an international panel to participate in a painting symposium in Latvia some years ago. She was also selected by an international jury, to represent Ireland at the Florence Biennale in December 2005, and exhibited in China during 2007.
