Details
Curated by Dougal McKenzie & Hugh Mulholland
To mark the end of our 10th anniversary celebrations the MAC presents a major exhibition of new painting.
We are delighted to announce that the following artists have been selected to participate in New Exits: 10 Years of Painting Shows.
Juste Bernotaite - Hannah Casey-Brogan - Megan Burns - Daniel Coleman - Patrick Hickey - Aimee Melaugh - Tim Millen - Jane Rainey - Yasmine Robinson - Cameron Stewart - Kwok Tsui
New Exits whilst set within the context of the many significant painting exhibitions the MAC has presented since its inception, is primarily an opportunity to draw attention to and celebrate the painting practices that have emerged and continue to flourish through the work of graduates of the BA and MFA Fine Art courses at Belfast School of Art since 2012.
With art theorists and curators appearing to have fallen in love with painting again, and the critical debates around representation versus abstraction having dissolved, it seems that painters have re-asserted their relevance within our increasingly image-saturated society.
Using artist and writer Thomas Lawson’s seminal 1981 Artforum essay, Last Exit: Painting, as an important touchstone for our exhibition, it could be said that the intervening 40 years have seen a constant ebb and flow in painting’s popularity and relevance, with the tide firmly back in its favour.
The exhibition acknowledges the close relationship and interdependencies of the Belfast School of Art and the MAC and how our proximity to each other has informed our work and contributed to our understanding of what it means to be a contemporary painter today.
Our Sunken Gallery will be a space for conversation around painting with a rolling programme of screenings exploring why painters and audiences continue to engage with this form of art making.
About the Artists
About the Artists
Juste Bernotaite
Juste Bernotaite was born in Klaipeda, Lithuania, 1999 and is based in Belfast. Bernotaite gained First Class Honours in Fine Art Painting BA Hons, Ulster University, Belfast, 2021 where she was also Associate Fellowship (AFHEA), Ulster University, Belfast 2021-22. Recent selected group exhibitions have included; ArtsFest, Arts for All, Belfast, 2022, Past, Present, Future, King's House, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, 2022, Summer Show, The Engine Room Gallery, Belfast, 2022, Ulster University Degree Show, Belfast, 2022, Selection of Gallery Artists, The Engine Room Gallery, Belfast, 2022, Inception, Arts for All, Belfast, 2022, Emergence V, Queen Street Studios, Belfast, 2022, Portrait of Northern Ireland, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, 2021.
She has received the following awards Jordan Mills Memorial Prize for Landscape Painting and The Engine Room Gallery Award. Her work is held in private and public collections in Ireland and UK including Ulster University Permanent Collection.
Megan Burns
Megan Burns (b. 1991) is a painter based in Belfast who gained a BA in Fine Art from Carmarthen School of Art, Wales (2014), then returned home to gain an MA in Fine Art (2016) from Belfast School of Art. Since then, she has had 2 solo shows and exhibited work in a number of group shows across the UK and Ireland. She was longlisted for the 2017 Starpoint Prize and shortlisted for the 2017 RDS Visual Arts Award, as well as the 2019 Hennessy Craig Award. Burns’ work was most recently on show at the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, as part of GENERATION 2022: New Irish Painti
Hannah Casey-Brogan
Hannah Casey-Brogan is an Irish painter. She holds a First-Class Honours degree in Fine Art (2007) in addition to two Masters degrees in Embroidery (2009) and Painting (2015) from the Belfast School of Art. Casey-Brogan has exhibited her work throughout the UK and Ireland, and has also shown internationally in Berlin, Paris, New York, Reykjavik, and Kofu City, Japan. She has received awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and The British Council to travel on international artist residencies to countries including Iceland and Japan. In 2014 she received The Alice Berger Hammerschlag Award and was nominated for New Sensations 2014 at the Saatchi Gallery, London.
Daniel Coleman
Daniel Coleman (b.1994, Co. Armagh) is a Visual Artist specialising in Painting and is a current studio holder of Platform Arts, Belfast.
He has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland since graduating with First Class Honours in Fine Art (Painting) from the Belfast School of Art (2016). Selected group exhibitions include, ‘Past, Present, Future’, Boyle Arts Festival, Roscommon (2022), ‘192nd, 191st, 190th & 189th RHA Annual Exhibition’, RHA, Dublin (2022, 2021, 2020 & 2019), ‘Curacha’, National University of Ireland, Galway (2021), ‘PeripheriesOPEN’, Periphery Space, Wexford (2018), ‘Adˈvɑːnst’, Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast (2017), ‘Very Good Waves Now’, Catalyst Arts, Belfast (2016) and a solo exhibition, ‘All That Remains’, The Braid, Ballymena (2016). Coleman is the recipient of the Royal Hibernian Academy/ Áras Éanna Residency Award, Inis Oírr, Co. Galway (2021). He has been awarded funding to support his practice from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (2021), and the Freelands Foundation (2020).
Daniel Coleman is a member of, ‘The Drawing Journal’ (2018 – present) a collaborative drawing and text research project. Recent shows with this group include, ‘Image of Thought’, Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, Belfast (2020 – 2021) and ‘Thing;’, Ards Arts Centre, Newtownards (2021).
In addition to his own research as an Artist, Daniel Coleman works part time as an Educator of the Arts (2019 – present). He was an invited Guest Lecturer for BA Fine Art, at Liverpool Hope, University (2021).
Patrick Hickey
Patrick Hickey (b. 1992 Belfast) is a contemporary queer artist, living and working in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Hickey graduated from the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, in 2015, with a BA in Fine Art (Painting). In 2019, Hickey began a practice-based PhD at Ulster University, which focuses on homoeroticism and queer coding in modern and contemporary painting, with a focus on 20th Century Irish artist Gerard Dillon. He has exhibited extensively in both solo and group shows, with two upcoming solo shows in Belfast; June 2022 and January 2023. Hickey has also received several awards and grants from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the University of Atypical.
Aimee Melaugh
Aimee Melaugh is a painter based in Derry. She graduated with a First Class BA Honours Degree in Fine Art Painting in 2018 from the Belfast School of Art. Melaugh was recently shortlisted for the Robert Walter’s UK New Artist of the Year Award in collaboration with Saatchi Gallery in London and had her work exhibited at Saatchi Gallery in 2021. Melaugh has had a solo exhibition at The Glassworks, Derry, supported by the Arts Council Northern Ireland. She has recently completed an artist residency with Art Arcadia in 2021 and had a solo exhibition at St Augustine’s Old Schoolhouse in Derry. Melaugh has also exhibited at Platform Arts Belfast, PS2 and the ArtisAnn Gallery Belfast. Recognitions include the Belfast Print Workshop Residency Award and the Royal Ulster Academy Award. Her work is included in public collections including Ulster University , The Arts Council Northern Ireland’s permanent collection and the Northern Ireland Civil Service Art collection, as well as various private collections.
Tim Millen
Tim Millen graduated with an MA in Fine Art from the University of Ulster having completed a BA Painting at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin (1999). His most recent solo exhibition was ‘Future Present’ at The Ulster University Gallery, Belfast (2019). He has exhibited in numerous group and curated exhibitions across Ireland and UK and was selected for the last two BEEP Painting Biennials, Elysium Gallery, Swansea (2020 & 2022). He has received several arts awards including Freelands Foundation Funding (2020), the Hennessy Craig Scholarship, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2009) and numerous Arts Council of Northern Ireland Awards. His work is also included in several public art collections including the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland, Limerick University and the Arts Council NI.
Jane Rainey
Jane Rainey (b.1992) is a painter based in Belfast. Rainey has shown work across Ireland. Solo shows include 'Lunar Tides' at the Molesworth Gallery (2022) and 'The Horizon is never still' at the Molesworth Gallery (2019), while recent group shows include the Hennessy Craig Exhibition in 2022, 'Generation 2022, New Irish Painting' at the Butler Gallery, ‘Futures Series 3, Episode One’ at the RHA (2017), and ‘Headless Cities’, TULCA, Galway (2016). Recent awards include a scholarship awarded by NCAD for a Masters in Fine Art (2014), and the John and Rachel Turner Bursary Award, from Ulster University (2014). Rainey was also shortlisted for the 2019 Merrion Plinth Award and the 2022 Hennessy Craig Award. Recent commissions include an installation for Meta Open Arts, Dublin (2022) and 'Project Art' Chapter One, Dublin (2017).
Yasmine Robinson
Yasmine Robinson (b. 1994, Derry, N. Ireland), currently based in Belfast, is a lecturer in Fine Art, Foundation Studies at Belfast School of Art, Ulster University and holds a studio at QQS . Robinson was awarded a Distinction in her Master of Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art, London (2018), having previously studied BA Fine Art, graduating with a First-Class Honours at Ulster University, Belfast (2017). Robinson has been the recipient of awards including Tiffany & Co. Outset Studio Makers Prize, London (2018) and RDS Visual Arts Award, Dublin (2017). In 2017 she was awarded the Frank Bowling Scholarship to support her studies at Chelsea College of Art. Recent projects and exhibitions include Zabludowicz Master-Class (2022), Mutation Station at imlabor, Tokyo, Japan (2020), Penumbra, F.E Mc William Gallery, Belfast (2021), Absinthe, Collective Ending, London (2019), Young Gods, Charlie Smith Gallery, London, (2019)
Cameron Stewart
Cameron Stewart (b. 1996, Craigavon, Northern Ireland) is a painter based in Belfast, he is a current studio member and Director of Arcade Studios Belfast. In 2019, Stewart graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Art (Specialising in Painting) from Ulster University. Stewart paintings are held in both private and public collections including Ulster University’s permanent collection. Since graduating Stewart has taken part in multiple group exhibitions; notably a three person show at Platform Arts in 2020 titled, ‘When it Rains it Pours’. In 2021 Stewart helped co-found Arcade Studios Belfast; an artist led studio group and gallery space in the centre of Belfast.
Kwok Tsui
Kwok Tsui (b.1989, China) lives and works in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He graduated with a BA from Belfast School of Art in 2020. Recent exhibitions include ‘BA and MFA Fine Art Graduate Show’ at The MAC (2020), ‘Portrait of Northern Ireland: Neither an Elegy nor a Manifesto’ at Golden Thread Gallery (2021), ‘Emergence IV’ and ‘Future/Forward’ at QSS Gallery & Studios (2021/2022) - which was also on show at MART Gallery & Studios, Dublin. His latest exhibition ‘Lands In-between’ is a two-person exhibition with photographer Ben Malcolmson at QSS Gallery & Studios (2022), which includes an essay by acclaimed poet Padraig Regan.
