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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
dianakingstonartist.com
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dianakingstonartist.com