Clodagh Murphy

Candy-covered dreams

September 15th - October 5th, 2011

At first glance, Clodagh Murphy’s work conjures up a sense of fun, of nostalgia for childhood, of the innocence of Sweet hearts, toy cowboy guns and brightly coloured balloons - all of them beautifully-rendered in slip-cast ceramics. On closer examination, however, the illusion begins to fade. The messages on the Sweet hearts are laced with bitterness, the balloons are stringless and floating beyond reach, and the guns are firing mecilessly on bleeding hearts.
The childood idyll was a  chimera.
Yet each piece is such a unique combination of colour and form, with a gloriously tactile finish and a cloying desirabiltiy, that they artfully toy with our better judgement, in spite of the macabre undertones.

Born in 1972, Clodagh graduated in 2008 from the National College of Art and Design. Her candy ceramics have appeared in several group exhibitions, among them NEXT / Art Chicago, 2010, with The Molesworth Gallery. In the same year she won the Sculpture in Context award at the Botanic Gardens for one of her large abacus-inspired pieces, an example of which features in this show.

Curriculum Vitae

Born, 1972
Education

2008-2005: National College of Art and Design, BDES (Hons) in Craft Design.

Exhibitions

Dec 2010: Winter Group Show. The Molesworth Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.
Dec 2008: Winter Group Show. The Molesworth Gallery, Dublin , Ireland.
May 2009: The 179th RHA Annual Exhibition, invitational. Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin,Ireland.
Aug 2009: Faces, an exhibition of portraits, OPW, collaborative touring exhibition.

April 2010: Next, Exhibition of Emerging Art, Chicago, U.S.A.
Sep 2010: 25th Sculpture in Context, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin, Ireland

Residencies

European Ceramic Context 2008, Bornholm, Denmark. Irish delegate.

Awards

2010: Sculpture in Context award for a large work of distinction

Collections

Office of Public Works
National and International private collections.