EXHIBITION: “NINETEEN SEVENTY FOUR” by Colm McCarthy

We're happy and excited to have with us all the way from the U.S. Dublin-born artist Colm McCarthy for his first solo show in Ireland! Please join us for the Opening Night on Friday 2nd of November from 6 - 9pm. Dublin-born Colm McCarthy is a self-taught lifelong photographer who began printmaking and painting in 2008. His work tends to have strong socio-political undertones and, though he has been based in the U.S. since 1991, is heavily influenced by his memories of growing up in Ireland.

On May 17, 1974, multiple car bombs exploded in Dublin and Monaghan,killing 34 people and injuring more than 300. It was the single highestcasualty count in the entire history of the Northern Ireland conflict.I was six years old at the time and living in Glasnevin on Dublin’s northside.This is not a political exhibition. “NINETEEN SEVENTY FOUR” is an examination of memory. Why we sometimes fail to remember significant events, yet can vividly remember seemingly trivial details. And how the media, and technology affect and distort memory. 

The exhibit consists of a series of “pop art” portraits of public figures contemporary to the time of the bombings, or who have been stuck in my mind since childhood. Each portrait is set against the backdropof the bombings, obscuring the details. The trivial remains fixed andvivid, while the important is obscured and forgotten.