Diploma '98 Sculpture & Ceramics

Cork Arts Society's support for students from the Crawford College of Art and Design seems boundless, as this show fits into …

Cork Arts Society's support for students from the Crawford College of Art and Design seems boundless, as this show fits into an exhibition calendar already offering regular exposure. Here, both floors of the gallery are given over to a selection from the sculpture and ceramics departments, an undertaking usually only reserved for its majorshows.The smaller works are located in the upstairs space, perhaps the most intricate being Kate Palmer's Ishera, where a bronze female torso is brilliantly fused with actual animal horns - such control of bronze is also found in Grainne Laverty's sensuous pod/organ forms. Noelle Hartigan's piece Grace is quite unusual, its globules of smoothly-turned mahogany cleverly balanced, reminding one of Andy Goldsworthy's shoreline sculptures.Sorcha Chartaigh uses copper wire to make fragile organic forms encased within a variety of complex perspex boxes. Geometric box structures also describe Regina Coughlan's ceramics as they slot together like architectural jigsaw puzzles, the egg-like glazes an interesting contradiction to the structural formality. Ann Wilson's rotund vessels are heavily fired so the clay is scorched and the glazes left incredibly fragile; and the most playful of all the exhibits are Jean Cleary's ceramic bathers, whose obesity exceeds even the proportions of Beryl Cook's figures.Downstairs is devoted to large-scale works. Ruair Carroll's limestone carvings demonstrate a flair for devising sleek, naturally-based forms. Michael Murray's imposing work enters the realm of extreme caricature in one example, where a crouching figure cups inordinately massive hands. Finally, Barry Dillon's formalist abstracts have a slightly nautical air as wooden beams decorated with nailed copper have a elegance which transcends the bulky materials.

Runs until August 29th.