Carol Rhodes: Survey, Curated by Andrew Mummery
Dougal McKenzie: A Dream and an Argument
Bill Saunders: Side Steps These Ferried Measures Rise
30 June – 8 October
The MAC, Belfast is delighted to present three major solo exhibitions by three significant contemporary artists: two of whom are Belfast based — the painter Dougal McKenzie and sculptor Bill Saunders — with the third exhibition by one of Britain’s leading painters, Carol Rhodes, who lives and works in Glasgow.
Hugh Mulholland, Senior Curator at the MAC said: “Whilst these three artists have myriad starting points for their work, there is something that unities them all; that being a strong sense of ‘place’, whether this is the urban and industrial landscapes of Rhodes, or the emotional and historical attachment to Edinburgh in McKenzie’s work, or Saunders’ romantic but practical dependence and musings on the studio environment. We are extremely excited to be presenting this trio of exhibitions here at the MAC and we are confident that visitors will find lots to interest them.”
Carol Rhodes’ beautiful small-scale landscape paintings depict the interaction of natural geography and human intervention, placing the viewer on or near the edge of urban environments, seen from an aerial viewpoint, eerily distant from the world below.
Dougal McKenzie’s recent dreamlike painted scenes bring together key elements of the artist’s practice and thinking: an interest in history and storytelling through images and an investigation into whether it is possible to represent these as ‘memory’ in painting.
And finally, the work of Bill Saunders considers the very site where artwork is made — the profound “thinking space” that is the studio — as a source of inspiration for his work, presenting sculptural assemblages and works on paper that record, reconstruct, or otherwise invoke the place of artistic production.
The new exhibitions will open Friday 30 June in the Sunken, Tall and Upper Galleries at the MAC. Visitors will be welcomed daily from 10am-7pm and admission is free. For further information on the exhibitions visit themaclive.com.