Ireland: Figure, Face, Home
Group show curated by Haydn Shaughnessy
Nova Straaf Gallery on the SS Galaxy, Second Life
opens Saturday 8th March 1- 3 pm SLT
til 31 March
For those not in the know: Nova Straaf Gallery is a gallery on a virtual cruise ship in SL!

Haydn Shaughnessy / traveler Auer views Nathaniel Stern’s work at the Nova Straaf Gallery
Ireland: Figure, Face, Home is a virtual exhibition of works on display at Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery based in Kinsale, Co Cork. (www.galleryica.com). This group show is running at the Nova Straaf Gallery on the SS Galaxy, one of the most highly trafficked areas of Second Life, from Saturday 8th March to the end of the month.
Clare Greene uses the software programme paintbox to capture the fine outlines of her nudes against the background of atonal colour typical of paint programmes. In the process she has created a particularly Irish pop art, focused on the country’s recent quite public rejection of repressed sexuality.
Nathaniel Stern is an interactive installation artist who has created these performance scans of the Irish landscape especially for our gallery. Here you have new technology, the desktop scanner, giving us access to new images of the most painted landscape on earth. Stern’s performative scans and prints are attracting growing attention from serious collectors in Ireland.
Home is the theme of Dearbhail Connon’s oil on canvas work. We normally don’t work artists whose metier is traditional media. Our reasoning is simply that other galleries cater well for this work. In Dearbhail’s case we wanted to exhibit her spiritual search for home. IT fits well with the diversity of work around her.
EJ Carr is an internationally renowned photographer who has been living in Ireland since 2007. His Avalon series is a provocative attempt to capture an important part of history, the Arthurian Legends. In EJ’s work you see the faces of everyday people in and around Bantry, set against the backdrop of mythical Avalon, here in Ireland.
Claire Keating plays tricks with your perceptions For her Illusion series she worked with make-up artists to paint the faces of six models in the style of well known artists. We know from visitors to our gallery that people are often confused over whether they are really paintings or photographs..
Paul La Rocque is our second Irish pop art artist. Paul trawls the Internet for iconic images from around the world and combines them with images he captures from the streets of Cork. This series of icons combines Irish emblems with iconography from China and the USA and signals the arrival of Ireland on the world economic and cultural stage.
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