Cork 2005: 'If we want our environment to be truly a city of culture, then one of the most encouraging things that people can do is to support artistic practice by buying art!"
Nuala Fenton's emphasis is understandable, given that she is running Cork's leading commercial art gallery. Widely trusted yet something of a risk-taker, Fenton has developed a reputation for her gallery as a venue for the leading (and new) living Irish artists, and also for highlighting cutting-edge practice. This is further endorsed by the choice of the gallery as the location for Patrick Scott's first solo exhibition of new work in 10 years, opening May 17th.
Independent of Cork 2005, already this year Billy Foley, Hughie O Donoghue, Sean Scully and Charles Tyrell have taken up the austere, white-walled spaces of the Fenton Gallery, and Patrick Scott will be succeeded by John Byrne, William Crozier and Basil Blackshaw. During Fenton's nine-year engagement at the Crawford Gallery in Cork she built up a sturdy relationship with Dublin galleries, and, if passion can be discriminating, her commitment to painting and painters of quality has by now transmuted into an almost evangelical sense of mission.
She would never claim to be alone in this, and when the highly motivated grouping of Cork Printmakers and Backwater Artists found a home in a restored warehouse on Wandesford Quay, she rented a wing for the charming gallery for which she is winning a national status.
"I was already aware that there are not enough venues for artists to show in this city, although hardly anyone believed that a commercial gallery could succeed in Cork. But I was fortunate enough to have the support of several Cork business people and my contacts with artists and other galleries was crucial. People such as Charles Tyrell, Dorothy Cross, Eilis O'Connell, William Crozier came here, and a major Tony O'Malley exhibition was in itself a significant reason why we survived our first couple of years."
Business is brisk at both the Lavit and Vanguard galleries, with the sell-out Arthur Maderson show at the Lavit continuing to May 21st. At the Fenton Gallery, more than 20 paintings in this display of new work by Patrick Scott will be shown with the catalogue essay written by Aidan Dunne; sponsored by Barry's Tea, the show will continue to June 11th.
