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Consider the Lobster

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2012 Client: Diana Kingston Artist Project: Consider the Lobster Item: Catalogue

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Dalkey Castle, 25—29 April, 2012.

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Consider the Lobster

This is Diana Kingston’s first solo

exhibition since her much lauded

show in the OSB Gallery in 2006.

Kingston has never stood still as an

artist. While she is not one for radical

changes in direction you can detect

a gradual metamorphosis in style

over the decades. These changes

encompass both her subject matter

and her technique. Kingston’s early

shows in the Tom Caldwell Gallery in

the Seventies were rigorously photo-

realistic, often featuring self-portraits

along with an occasional excursion

into trompe l’oeil. She mainly used oil

and pencil and the work had a tight

graphical feel to it. It was light, well

executed and often witty.

In the subsequent decades she began

to look outwards to the natural world

for her subject matter and the work

became richer and more expressive.

She became a beachcomber gathering

the detritus of the seashore: crab

claws, shells, feathers, and stones.

She subjected these items to minute

scrutiny – homing in on specific

details. The resultant works often

had a mysterious abstract feel to

them, as their source was often not

immediately evident. In this exhibition

we find evidence again that Kingston

is still evolving as an artist. Just as

that exhibition in Enniskerry in 2006

demonstrated a change in direction

from these earlier shows in the Tom

Caldwell Gallery so this one in Dalkey

Castle heralds a further evolution.

She has taken a few steps back from

her subject matter to give us a new

less ambiguous view of the world of

nature. The lushly hued mackerel and

lobsters have replaced the often-

desiccated objects found by the

seashore. The mackerel are depicted

in all their glory: blue, turquoise, and

slate grey with hints of ochre, lime

and purple. There are suggestions of

their lost habitat the sea in the swirls

of gesso that surround them. Their

poignant and seemingly resigned

appearance contrasts with the malign

and purposeful lobster who seem to

be emerging for mischief from some

dark unfathom’d cave.

These works are rooted in Kingston’s

local environment. Her home in

Dalkey is not far from Bullock

Harbour famous for its fish and its

Cistercians. Its pier has been a source

of inspiration for her as far back as

the Eighties when she based her large

crustacean paintings on the discarded

crab claws she picked up there. More

recently, with the friendly assistance

of the local fishermen, she turned her

attention to lobster. They would hold

them up for the scrutiny of her camera

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and send her off enthused with

painterly possibilities.

The Coal Harbour Pier in Dún

Laoghaire was another rich source

of inspiration for the artist. Of the

multitude of fish to be found in the

little shop at the end of the pier the

modest mackerel seemed the most

beautiful and exotic. The women in

the shop grew used to her visits and

would pull their wares out into the

sunshine all the better to display the

gorgeous colours. These encounters

were the genesis of three years work.

These mackerel, symbols of fertility

and fecundity, are indubitably dead.

They have a tragic mien. The eyes

stare reproachfully at the viewer

in a memento mori fashion. But

paradoxically the paintings are very

much alive - the energy and harmony

of the compositions transcend the

banality of the fishes fate. They

are shown in vibrant tableaux all

glistening colour and intricate

pattern. And if the mackerel are

dead, the lobsters are thrillingly alive

and malevolent – giant sea spiders

lumbering with intent.

The title of this exhibition is

shamelessly filched from a book of

essays by the late and very much

lamented David Foster Wallace

published in 2005. The title essay was

a beady-eyed but humorous reflection

on the farrago that is the annual Maine

lobster festival. Unlike the Maine

event, no lobsters were harmed in the

making of this exhibition.

So consider the lobster but have a

good look at the mackerel as well.

John P. O’Sullivan

Dalkey, 2012.

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Lobster 5 Mixed media on paper, 26 x 26 cm

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Mackerel 9 Oil, gesso and aquarelle on board, 50 x 38 cm

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Mackerel 8 Oil, gesso and aquarelle on board, 50 x 45 cm

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Lobster 6 Mixed media on paper, 26 x 26 cm

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Mackerel Oil, gesso and paper on board, 30 x 30 cm

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Salmon 2 Oil, gesso and paper on board, 30 x 30 cm

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Lobster 2 Oil, gesso and paper on board, 48 x 48 cm

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Lobster 1 Oil, gesso and paper on board, 48 x 48 cm

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Lobster 3 Oil, gesso and paper on board, 30 x 30 cm

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Mackerel 14 Oil, gesso and paper on board, 30 x 30 cm

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Mackerel 5 Oil on board (diptych), 23 x 120 cm

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Mackerel 11 Oil and gesso on board, 75 x 55 cm

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Solo Exhibitions

2006 O’Sullivan Bewick Gallery, Enniskerry.

2004 Metatron Gallery, Enniskerry.

2002 Vangard Gallery, Cork.

1992 Jeffers Gallery, Kinsale, Co.Cork.

1988 Rathaus, Stuttgart, Germany

1984 Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin.

1981 Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin.

Group Exhibitions

2008 Vangard Gallery, Cork.

2002 Curator & Exhibitor Dalkey Art Festival.

2000, 99, 97, 93, 90, 89, 88, 84, 83, 82

RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin.

1996, 89, 83

Oireachtas, Dublin.

1995 Lavitt’s Quay Gallery, Cork.

1990 Riverrun Gallery, Dublin.

1989 Taylor Gallery, Dublin.

1986 Redec Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

1985 Cork Art Now (CAN).

1984 Claremorris Arts Festival.

1983 Independent Artists.

1983, 80, 79, 78

Irish Exhibition of Living Art, Dublin.

1981 Six Women Artists, Galway Arts Festival.

1980 Exposure, Dublin.

Collections

• AIB

• Office of Public Works

• Coopers and Lybrand

• IONA Technologies

• O’Donovan Stewart

• Contemporary Irish Arts Society

Acknowledgements

Essay: John O’Sullivan

Photography: Paddy Benson

Design: JMC Creative

Print: TMC Ireland

Diana Kingston

4, Saval Park Crescent

Dalkey

Co. Dublin

01 2848073

[email protected]

dianakingstonartist.com

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