Ultraviolet Art Talks

On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to visual artist Kurb Junki (Niall Cullen) in 2020.

Contemporary visual artist Niall Cullen, formerly know as Kurb Junki, holds a first class honours degree in sculpture from the NCAD, Dublin. 

In his early days as a street artist and filmmaker, Kurb Junki spent years spreading his signature hand-drawn hamburger motifs which populate the various surfaces of Dublin's inner city.

His work investigates themes around identity, public space, mark making, re-appropriation of data and imagery while he also explores a collaborative practice with other artists, relevant acquaintances, familiars and the public.

In recent years artist Niall Cullen’s journey has led him towards the exploration of spiritual growth completely disassociated from any form of organised religion.

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Follow Niall Cullen on Instagram @niallcullen

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On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to members of the art collective Child Naming Ceremony in 2020.

Child naming Ceremony was s a collective formed by visual artists  2021: Michelle Hall, Austin Hearne, Celina Muldoon, Frances O'Dwyer 2017-2020: Ella Bertilsson, Ulla Juske.

Their live performances were very dynamic and full of intriguing meanings. The artists are currently in solo projects, for more information, follow them on Instagram. 

@austinhearne @michelles_hall @celina_muldoon @ella_bertilsson @ullajuske

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On this episode, Caren Sullivan Talks to Designer, DJ and artist Margaret O'Connor in 2020.

Margaret O’Connor is an Irish-based Independent Accessories Designer, DJ, and Conceptual Artist. She is best known for her work as an accessory designer, launching her accessory range in the HUGH lane Gallery 2023, The National Gallery of Ireland in 2022.

Margaret was trained by some of the ‘leading lights of the Millinery industry’ such as; Philip Treacy, Noel Stewart, Kristin Scott, Sarah Cant, and Yvette Jelfs. While surrounded by the landscape of her hometown in the Burren, Boston, Tubber in County Clare, O’Connor interprets

Irish tradition and historicism through her own personal awakening. 

Her creations have attracted the attention and been worn by a broad range of celebrities, ranging from Teddy Swims, Supermodel Kate Moss, Debbie Harry, Lady Gaga, Years and Years, Pink Floyd, Finbar Furey, The Pillow Queens, Victoria Mary Clarke, and many more. 

Margaret worked with one of Irelands finest visual artists Aideen Barry for Aideen's artwork Oblivion. Margaret has a passion for art, music, and fashion. A sense of drama pervades Margaret O’Connor’s work. She produces hand-made eclectic couture designs and commercial millinery collections from her studio in Co.Clare Ireland.

She has won several awards including the National Enterprise Awards nominated and supported by Clare Local Development Company (2019), The Global Original Fashion Design Award at Guangzhou China International Fashion Week (2017), and Milliner of the Year at the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards (2014). 

One of Margaret’s hats has also been selected to be in the national gallery of Ireland (2018). Margaret’s first film The Holy Ghost in collaboration with Taine King was shortlisted for an Emerging Talent award at Berlin Commercial (2019).

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Follow Margaret O'Connor on Instagram @margaret0connor

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On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Brian Fay in 2020.

Brian Fay is an Irish artist living in Dublin, his practice is rooted in drawing and he uses the materiality of pre-existing artworks and objects to examine our complex relationship to time.

In 2021 he was awarded a 3 year studio membership with Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin. He undertook an artist residency at the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation, Connecticut, USA in 2022. He recently completed a national touring survey show which will opened in the Highlanes Gallery Drogheda then to Limerick City Gallery of Art and Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland. 

He is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Technological University Dublin andholds a practice led PhD from Northumbria University, England.

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Follow Brian Fay on Instagram @brianfay1

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On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Wendy Judge in 2020.

Wendy Judge graduated at Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design.

AWARDS: 2022 Arts Council Project Award (strand 1 ) 2020 Arts Council Bursary, 2019 Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award, 2016 Arts Council of Ireland Bursary, 2016 Arts Council Travel and Training Award, 2013 DLR COCO Bursary, 2011 Arts Council Bursary, 2010 Arts Council Bursary, 2004 Arts Council Bursary, 

RESIDENCIES: selected, 2020 The Darkroom.ie Artist in Residency (travel) 2018Resort, Fingal Co Co, 2016 Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh , 

2016 Heinrich Böll Cottage, Achill Island , 2013 Cill Rialaig, Co Kerry

COLLECTIONS: Prints and Drawings collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Office of Public Works State Collection, AXA Insurance, Private Collections

Upcoming shows

2025 Centre Culturel Irlandais , Artist Residency, Paris (in association with Visual Artists Ireland )

 Selected exhibitions

2024 Movers and Shakers, summer program , curator Cora Cummins, The Lawn Mór Projects, Dalkey 

2023 House Of Disguise an UN Group Exhibition , curator Antonio Beecroft, Keystone Art Space, LA, USA

2021 Scaling the Untold:, An Expedition Of A Making, 2020 Darkroom Travel residency Exhibition,  thedarkroom.ie

2020  Airmail, Curated by Richard Gorman, Assab One, Milan 

2019 The Lost Library , curator Cora Cummins, The Lawn Mór Projects, Dalkey

2019 Airmail, Curated by Richard Gorman, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin

2019 THE LUMP SHOW: An Exhibition of the Un-Noun, Including an Introduction to Un-Realism & Revised, Amplified VOM, curator Antonio Beecroft, Cornelius Projects, Los Angeles, supported by Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award 

2019 Airmail, Curated by Richard Gorman , Yanagisawa Gallery, Japan

2019 Book Marks, curator Cora Cummins, Group Exhibition, Lawn Mór Projects, Dalkey 

2019 189th RHA Annual Exhibition (selected drawing) , Royal Hibernian Academy , Dublin

2018 Resort Revelations, Group Exhibition as Difference Engine curated by Caroline Cowley Fingal Public Art at Lynders Mobile Home Park, Dublin 

2018 The Flip Side, 3 person show, The Dark Room, Dublin

2018 Altern_ator XI Difference Engine, HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia, supported by Culture Ireland (Mark Cullen, Jessica Foley, Wendy Judge, Gillian Lawler)

2017 Travelator, Difference Engine, ONONO Gallery Rotterdam, Netherlands, supported by Culture Ireland

2016 A Conversation on Drawing , curated by Mary Ruth Walsh, RHA Studios, Dublin

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On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Atsushi Kaga in 2020.

Behind the playful, surreal façade of Atsushi Kaga’s work lurks significantly darker territory; wherein the artist confronts serious issues of cultural politics, mental health – personal insecurities, paranoia (particularly a fear-of-missing-out), and the complex search for identity and the philosophical crises presented by daily routine. Through the eyes of a self-proclaimed ‘Otaku’, and fascinatingly influenced by a mixture of the Japanese storytelling cultures of Manga, Anime and Irish satirical Irish literature, from Swift to Myles na gCopaleen, Kaga’s razor-sharp wit and extraordinary imagination takes the viewer on a willingly-led journey of exploration through a complex alternate universe, a register of the sadly poetic to hilarious, in the company of a cast of invented, metaphorical characters. While still a student, Atsushi Kaga created the classic trickster, Pooka-like bunny, Usacchi, that has evolved over the years as an intricate, multi-faceted surrogate, an emotional self-portrait of the artist, at work and thought.

Originally from Tokyo, and now living and working between Ireland and Kyoto, Japan, Atsushi Kaga studied Fine Art at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, graduating in 2005, and made a critically acclaimed first solo museum exhibition at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny in 2008. Kaga collaborated with his mother Kazuko Kaga on a process show, Nerd bag, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2010) and reiterated in a solo ‘Positions’ presentation for Art Basel Miami Beach (2011). Kaga’s fourth solo exhibition at mother’s tankstation Dublin; Melancholy with vegetables surrounded by miracles (2020), introduced and developed his recent, highly detailed large-format paintings, influenced by Dutch Vanitas and the 17-18th century Kyoto Rinpa school, fused to his characteristic style and subject matter. 

Kaga’s sixth solo exhibition with mother’s tankstation Here I am opened at the Dublin gallery, September 2023 following his first London solo exhibition your memorabilia floats in the air, with mother’s tankstation | London in October 2022. Kaga has also made notable solo exhibitions with Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, Galeria Leme, São Paolo, Galerie Nicolas Krupp, Basel, and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin, amongst others. He participated in the Location One International Residency Programme, New York (2012); the International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York (2011); and has also held residencies in São Paolo, Fountainhead, Miami and the Artists’ Work Programme at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. In 2019-2021 Kaga was awarded the Tony O’Malley Residency, Callan, Kilkenny, and participated in the Steep Rocks Art Residency, Washington, Connecticut in Autumn 2021.

Kaga presented his first London solo exhibition your memorabilia floats in the air, with mother’s tankstation | London in October 2022. In March 2024 Kaga presented Ukiyo-e, with mother’s tankstation at Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 Encounters sector. Consisting of 5 large format gold leaf panel paintings housed within a freestanding traditional Japanese theatre structureUkiyo-e is Kaga’s largest-scale installation work to date.

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Follow Atsushi Kaga on Instagram @kagaatsushi

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On this Episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Artist Orla Whelan.

Orla Whelan is a visual artist whose practice is rooted in painting. Her approach is to consider the visual language and materials of the medium as tools to reimagine contemporary possibilities for transcendence. She is motivated by an existential anxiety, and a belief that abstraction is a viable means to address metaphysical uncertainties. In addition to oil paint on linen, she uses non-traditional painting materials which refer to the materiality and tropes of painting.

These expanded forms include: wood veneers on panel, painted plywood wedges, modified furniture, colour pencil on paper and site responsive interventions that speak to the history and architecture of particular spaces. Orla frequently explores the role of writing within visual art practice by creating different author identities and experimental texts that challenge ideas of subjectivity, authorship and meaning.

Her current exhibition Coloured into Shapecontinues to12th October 2024 at Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin. Recent solo exhibitions include Coloured by Weather at Custom House Gallery, Westport (2024) Glas, Gorm, Uaine at the Pearse Museum OPW, Dublin (2023), Magnum Chaos at Hillsboro Fine Art (2023), and I Don’t Need Anything From Here (magic-carpet-painting) at the RHA Gallery (2022). In 2021, Orla took part in Dubliners – The 6th Biennial of Painting in Zagreb, Croatia, in association with Pallas Projects.

Her work is held in the collections of The Arts Council of Ireland, The Crawford Art Gallery, The OPW State Art Collection, Trinity College Dublin, The Merrion Hotel, Kelly’s Hotel and private collections worldwide. Orla is founder and director of AtHomeStudios – a collective of visual artists working from studios based in their own homes, and the art publishing project Whale Dust. She lives in and works in Dublin, Ireland.

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Follow Orla Whelan on Instagram @orlawhelanartist

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Closing Season 3, Caren Sullivan talks to 7 times Emmy Winner an BAFTA winner, Francis Fitzpatrick in 2020.

Emmy Award-winning, BAFTA winner, couple Denise and Francis Fitzpatrick, created the children’s series "Jakers!".

Francis is the founder of FuturumKids, a state-of-the-art animation and media company that specialises in producing, distributing and licensing thrown Ip for the global tv marketing.

The company comprises a multi-Emmy Award winning team of principals, with a major track record of global success. The company is a collaboration of the team that produced 7-time Emmy Award winning "Jakers!" and the successful HIT Entertainment Team that produced some of the world's most successful children's Francises including "Bob The Builder", "Barney" and "Thomas and Friends".

Their latest venture, is "Paddles!" a series about a baby polar bear delivered by mistake to Ireland.

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For more information and updates, follow FuturumKids @futurumkids futurumkids.com

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On this episode, Caren Sullivan Talks to artist Shane Griffin in 2020.

Griffin grew up in Dublin, and relocated to New York City in 2012, where he recently set up his independent practice, GRIF Studio. Specializing in both art and commercial design, the studio works on diverse projects through a wide range of mediums.

The studio’s portfolio includes an impressive array of clients, from Apple to Nike to LG and more. What’s interesting to note is how Griffin’s personal projects and artwork inform his commercial pieces. 

One such project is his set of best spoke wallpapers created for the iPhone 8 launch. The work is based on his iconic personal series “Chromatic,” which explores light and color through mesmerizing large-scale visuals.

While Griffin’s artworks are often the starting point for commissioned design projects, he sees a clear distinction between the two.

“With art, it’s all about asking questions,” he notes. “You’re inviting the audience into your world and asking them a question about your subject matter. It creates this silent dialog of reflection and thought.”

Whether working on an immersive art installation, a campaign for Nike or a film for Givenchy, digital artist Shane Griffin maintains his iconic style. He crafts captivating, otherworldly scenes and experiences, bringing his artistic mindset to his commercial work. This niche approach is what gives the brands he collaborates with a unique and innovative edge.

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For more information, follow Shane Griffin on Instagram @grif

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On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Vanessa Donoso Lopez in 2020.

Vanessa Donoso López (born Barcelona, Spain) lives and works between Dublin and Barcelona. She studied at the School of Arts and Design Llotja, Barcelona, the University of Barcelona and the Winchester College of Art, UK. 

Vanessa's work develops within an installation process through a dialogical relationship between a variety of media and mechanisms including, drawing, painting, arqueological- scientific experimentation and repetitive object making. Her practice is committed to exploring concepts of transitional phenomena relevant to contemporary migrant life. It seeks to negotiate the tension between cross-cultural identities and narratives, its instability and complexity, its potential for the loss of identity, language, and the hypothetical compatibility with original cultures. 

Vanessa has exhibited nationally and internationally with selected solo exhibitions including: 'I shall change the way things are ordered', Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, 'No fixed color Continuum', Candyland, Stockholm, 'To swallow a ball', The LAB, Dublin, 'Eye before E except after seeING Stockholm' Supermarket Independent Art Fair, with the Ormston House, Sctockholm, Sweden, 'Eye before E except after see', Limerick City Gallery, Limerick, 'Daily disagreements over small things', Kevin Kavanagh Gallery at the Barcelona Contemporary art fair SWAB, Barcelona, 'A painful excess of pleasure', Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, 'Jouissanc'e, Madame la Marquise, Barcelona,' it never rains to everybody's taste', Queen St. Studios and Gallery, Belfast, 'the rain in spain falls mainly of the plane', Barcelona, Spain,' Scientifico-experimental-techno-color-movement', M'ATUVU Project Space, Brussels, Belgium,' Establishing a Mission' at the Ashford Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. Group shows include 'Death Drive', Galway Arts Centre,' I want to be your dog', The Glue Factory, Glasgow, '40/40/40', Madrid, Rome, Warsaw and Dulbin and' Precaution' at Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.

Vanessa recently finished fully awarded residencies at Can Serrat Art Residency, and at La Rectoria Art Centre, both in Barcelona province. She is currently working as an invited artist on a project with the Black Church print studios, Dublin. Later this year, Vanessa has been invited to take part in a three people show in VCU university, in Doha, Qtar. 

Vanessa is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin.

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For more information, follow Vanessa Donoso Lopez on Instagram @vanessadonosolopez

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