The National College
of Art & Design
The National College
of Art & Design
Research
The new work for 'Certain Distance', was made during the residency at Independent Studio Artist on Eustace Street, Dublin. Fitzgerald works mainly with acrylic on gesso boards or stretched paper, creating works with foundations in the narrative but with the gesture of the sensory abstract. This work is grounded in the experience of daily observing and remembering.
The experience of looking is not only based on what you see with your eyes - the immediate sensation of
something - but also how personal history, individual understanding and internal thought process alter what is perceived. These paintings create suggestions of place and object, but also incorporate private sensation and experience. Her iconography originates in the everyday, an eclectic gathering of images, daily observations and random things seen.
These 'new realities' with their combination of personal narrative, of momentary and fleeting images, are brought together, transformed and communicated through the process of painting. The work plays with our perceptions of literal and emotional space, revealing the extent to which we can never be certain of what we know, see or feel. Memory and reality are tested - allowing the slippage between what is 'real' and what is imagined - to be questioned.
The process of revealing and concealing the narrative, of scraping back creates a history or archeology within each piece.
The observation yields the subject but the process is abstract. Each work enjoys both a tangible and a subliminal existence. The spaces and silences created in-between remain for the observer to explore.
Mary A. Fitzgerald was born in Dublin where she lives and works. She studied Fine Art both at Dunlaoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and The National College of Art and Design where she received an honors degree in Fine Art in 1989 and a Master of Fine Art in 2004. She is a lecturer in the Department of Core Studies at NCAD. Fitzgerald has been awarded both a Visual Arts Bursary, and a Professional Development Grant from The Arts Council. She is a member of Artist Panel at IMMA.
In 2008 Fitzgerald was awarded a three year Studio Residency at Independent Studio Artists, Eustace Street, Dublin, where she is currently working.. Other Awards in 2008 include the Heinrich Boll Artists Residency and the Cill Riallaig Artist Residency. Fitzgerald is currently working with IMMA on the museums programme: Charcoal and Chocolate: and Studio 9 exploring contemporary art through drawing.
February 2010, she is currently collaborating with Marc Reilly they have been selected to show in INVISIBLE a curated show over five venues: IMMA, Project Arts Centre, Digital Hub, Back Loft, and OPG. Solo shows include: 'We do Dream' Original Print Gallery 2009, 'A longer walk home', Lemon St Gallery, 2007, 'Showcase' Lemon Street Gallery, 2006, MFA Post Graduate Exhibition, Digital Hub, Dublin 2004, "Drawn" The Original Print Gallery, Dublin, in 2003 and 'Works On Paper', Galleuiet, Grafikens Hus, Stockholm, 2001. Invited and selected shows include: 2009 Wayfaring, Stone Gallery, 'Inhabit', Draiocht Arts Centre, Dublin. RHA Annual Exhibition, 2007 'Attraction', Talbot Gallery, RHA Annual Exhibition 2007, 'Tender', Original Print Gallery, 2006, The National Arts Club, and The Graphic Arts Gallery, New York, 2003.
Fitzgerald was selected from Ireland to show at the 5th International Biennale de Gravure, in Liege, Belgium, and was invited artist at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition.
She has recently worked in collaboration with Kate Betts showing in "Drawing is a Verb, Drawing is a Noun", Stone Gallery, Dublin. In 2003, Fitzgerald was awarded a public art commission with Breaking Ground and Ballymun Regeneration in 2003.'The Home Project', began as a printmaking initiative in Ballymun. A working studio was created and Fitzgerald and a variety of participants created works centering on the notion of home. An exhibition of the work produced and a video piece were shown at the Inaugural Exhibition of Breaking Grounds Commissions at the Axis Arts Centre in 2004. She has published an article in relation to the project, in 'Contexts' magazine, 2004.
She has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and her work is included in many public and private collections including: OPW, UCD, Trinity College Dublin, Bank de Paris, Microsoft Ireland, Allied Irish Bank and Axa Insurance.
Click here to download Mary Fitzgerald's CV. (PDF)
Click on an image to enlarge
 A great distance Acrylic on gesso board 30cm x 30 cm |
 Border Acrylic on gesso board 30cm x 30 cm |
 Pontoon Acrylic on gesso board 30 cm x 30 cm |
 Rumble, rumble Acrylic on gesso board 30cm x 30 cm |
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 Three places Acrylic on canvas 29 cm x 29 cm |
