C108 See

A look at some events not to miss, compiled by Cian Donnelly

Paul Stanley: from Morris & Co., colour photograph; courtesy Mid Pennine Arts

If you find yourself bone idle in Burnley this summer, and like the idea of seeing stuffed toys run over by trains, you could do a lot worse than checking out Morris & Co. at the Mid-Pennine Gallery. Billed as "Cuddly toys go to war," this show of photographs by Paul Stanley (not that Paul Stanley of Kiss legend mind you) pitches itself somewhere between the worlds of David Shrigley and Liliana Porter, only fluffier.

What emerges is slightly subversive work, with an underlying socio-political concern, that seeks to question our acceptance of violent imagery, particularly that of bloody conflict. Although the idea of re-contextualising objects of play within a violent scenario is not original, the tone of Stanley's work is heartfelt, genuine and possessed of a peculiar innocence, which makes it quite special. The exhibition runs until 26 June and is curated by Manchester-based artist / curator Patrick Ward.

Una Walker: from Surveiller; courtesy Golden Thread Gallery

From 12 June to 24 July, the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast will be hosting Surveiller, an installation by Una Walker. For some time, Walker has been engaged with the rather daunting task of listing every exhibition that has taken place in Belfast between 1968 to 2000. Having now meticulously compiled her chronologically exact database, Walker plans to have it printed onto panels and arranged throughout the gallery space. The installation also includes a mock office environment in which there will be a computer with a searchable version of the database. Be warned, however, to wear your best anorak and appear enthralled as a surveillance camera, on live feed, will be monitoring each and everyone of the computer users.

Vija Celmins: Untitled (web 4), 2002; courtesy Douglas Hyde Gallery

The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin will be home this summer to a number of excellent Vija Celmins prints. The Latvian-born but US-resident artist is renowned for her analytical studies of the ocean, the sky and the desert. Celmins' quiet and subtle sense of touch in her mark making produces pieces that are highly sensuous as well as intricately detailed. More recently, Celmins has made exquisite drawings and prints of spiderwebs, its delicacy of line and patterning being perfectly suited to her sensibility. Some of these prints, along with images of the night sky, are included in this must-see show. Until 7 July.

Hannah Maybank: Drifter IV, 2003, acrylic and latex on canvas, 30 x 41 cm; courtesy Catalyst Arts

Beginning on 5 August is a new show of paintings by Hannah Maybank at Queen Street Studios Gallery in Belfast. Maybank produces paintings that marry landscape imagery with an inventive exploration of the physicality of her medium. At points Maybank is able to turn accretions of paint inside out, unfolding fissures of layered colour to reveal an inner, secret form to the paintings' life. In this sense, the excavated passages of the painting become their own landscapes. This situates the work in an interesting twilight language, where trees become peels, and images of mountains pucker into candy-coloured topography. This is Maybank's first show in Ireland, having had a number of solo shows at Gimpel Fils Gallery in London.

The Crawford Municipal Gallery in Cork has two shows worth catching this summer. Until 26 June, Finnish artist Jaäkko Niemelä will produce several installations that involve his characteristic use of models, and highly expressive shadow projection. Niemela's work is suggestive at times of childhood game-playing. However, rather than the enchantment and freedom associated with this kind of play, the pieces have a strong undercurrent of sadness and control.

Jaakko Niemelä: Model of disintegration, video projection, camera and model (mixed media), 2002; courtesy Crawford Municipal Art Gallery

From 3 July to 4 September Gottfried Helnwein exhibits some of his large photo-realist landscapes. These really are BIG paintings, with some of the canvases reaching seven metres in length. So what, you may yawn, but the work has to be seen to be believed. Helnwein specialises in the classic, dramatic sublime and, not surprisingly, Caspar David Friedrich is cited as an influence.

Gottfried Helnwein working on American Landscape I (Death Valley), 2002, mixed media on canvas, 120 x 774 cm, courtesy the artist / Crawford Municipal Art Gallery

In what is billed as a mid-career survey, the French artist Sophie Calle is showing at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 23 June to 15 August. Beginning with very early photographs and texts, the exhibition chronicles her development from the initial 'tailing' experiments in Paris to more recent works such as Chambre à coucher and Voyage en Californie. This show has been curated by Christine Marcel and is organised in conjunction with the Centre George Pompidou.

Also at IMMA over the summer is the first solo show in Ireland for British artist Marc Quinn. Entitled Flesh, the show is set to include some forty new sculptures. Moving away from the human form, but still playing with the classical notion of sculpture, Quinn has cast, in bronze and black patina, select cuts of meat from various animals. Similar to his marble portraits of amputees, the sculptures are to be displayed on plinths. Quinn's exhibition is curated by Rachael Thomas, Curator of Exhibitions, IMMA. Runs 1 July to 12 September.

Sophie Calle: Exquisite pain (detail), 1984 Ð 2003, © ADAGP, 2003; courtesy Irish Museum of Modern Art;

 

Marc Quinn: Rabbit I, 2003, bronze and black patina, 33.5 x 16.5 x 14.5 cm, photo Stephen White; courtesy Jay Jopling/White Cube, London / IMMA

At The Model and Niland Centre from 25 June to 14 August is H2o, a group show of four artists that explore the subject of, you guessed it, water. Harvey Jackson, a Glasgow-based artist, presents a series of new installations that delve into the world of magic. Not the Aleister Crowley, hide behind the sofa kind, but the more family-friendly, fairground, how'd he do that? kind. Anyone who saw Jackson's work at Street Level in Glasgow last year knows they can expect something tempered with humour. Clare Cashman contributes landscape photographs that explore "the meditative quality of water-filled landscape." Having travelled to Nicaragua, Iceland and as a winner of the Tony O'Malley Travel Award for Painting since graduating in 2002, expect an altogether different response from Cashman. Filmmaker Giuseppe Esposito focuses on the ebb and flow of the tides in his film The Biblical...the natural...and the everyday and the show is completed by the work of painter Donald Teskey.

Clare Cashman: Reflective space, colour photograph; courtesy Model Arts and Niland Gallery

Paul Mosse: Untitled, 2003, sawdust, straw, peat moss, plywood, MDF, acrylic, graphite, metal, 122 x 203 x 91 cm; courtesy ????

At the Green on Red Gallery in Dublin from 1 July to 28 August is their summer exhibition, a show of four very different artists that share a curiosity about the reconfiguration of disparate materials.

James Hyde and Paul Mosse could be described in some sense as painters. Mosse is well known in Ireland for his highly idiosyncratic and original amalgam of materials such as resin and sawdust. Hyde's work is more promiscuous in its use of space, material and its movement from the wall into sculptural form. Kirstin Arndt favours material such as slats, tarpaulins and yarn, working to create a kind of wall-based picture language. Leonardo Drew's more recent work is transformative in nature, involving the use of found objects that are symbolically altered to become something assumed to be more classically desirable. This show is curated by Molly O'Sullivan.

Catalyst Arts have two shows running over the summer period. The first of these, C-ZINE, is an zine exhibition with a difference. A zine is essentially a cut-and-paste, self-published magazine, generally photocopied at your local Kwik-Print or some such. This show features punk-zines, zombie-zines, anarcho-zines, politico-zines, muscle-Mary-zines, Hasselhoff-zines, and promises to be a zine-tastic experience. Those who contribute zines to the show will have them reproduced and redistributed on the streets of Belfast. For the duration of the show all reading material will be available in the galley library. Runs during June (to be confirmed).

Brendan Jamison: In between (detail), 2004, sugar cubes and PVA, dimensions variable; courtesy Catalyst Arts

During July Catalyst Arts will be staging the show Fine Thing. This features a group of artists whose work can be described as 'being extremely finely made or laboriously crafted'. The show includes sugar-cube sculptures by Brendan Jamison and drawings by Gemma Anderson.