A Burren-based artist is to bring her solo exhibition inspired by her travels in Iceland to Claremorris. Irish artist, Kaye Maahs will exhibit a new body of work at Claremorris Gallery, Mayo from September 14. This is her first solo exhibition in some time and includes twenty-eight new captivating paintings.
The exhibition, entitled ‘Iceland’, is a body of work borne out of diaries Kaye kept during her 2019 residency in Iceland, a journey made possible by the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award.
In her paintings, her intuitive and tactical handling of paint revels in the majestic and ethereal settings of the Icelandic landscape. Kaye’s paintings don’t scream for attention, instead the unpretentious use of paint beckons silently to the viewer; to explore, and to consider our relationship with the natural world, while at the same time calling attention to the physicality of their medium. She works ‘wet into wet’ and it is this immediacy that allows her paintings to retain the energy and excitement of that process.
Kaye Maahs was born in Kerry in 1970 and holds a degree in fine art from the Centre of Creative Arts and Media at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and is known for her contemplative and immersive approach to contemporary painting. She received a BA in Fine Art from Atlantic Technological University Galway in 2015, and today she lives and works in the Burren.
She was awarded The Alex Bradley Award for a Mid-Career Artist in 2024 by the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. Previous to this she has been a recipient of two Art Council agility awards, the Clare Arts Mentoring Scheme at Glór support by Creative Ireland and the Arts Council, and the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award 2019. Her work has been exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; the Royal Academy London; Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Mayo; Cairde Visual, Sligo as well as Burren College of Art and Glór in Ennis among other venues.
Rosemarie Noone opened Claremorris Gallery in 2007 having returned from the US where she studied for a Masters and subsequently worked in various museums and arts organisations in NYC and San Francisco. She is passionate about Irish art, particularly painting and grew up surrounded by artists, being “dragged” by her mother Patricia around galleries and studios of artists such as Tony O’Malley, Hughie O’Donoghue and Barrie Cooke. The Gallery’s strong programme which features important Irish artists at every stage of their careers has established itself as a destination gallery.
Following a very successful inaugural exhibition in the height of the last Irish art boom, Rosemarie soon had to weather a recession where show after show nothing was sold. She says that the gallery survived by maintaining standards of excellence and by offering interest free payment plans for buyers.
Iceland, the new work by Kaye Maahs opens on Saturday, September 14 at Claremorris Gallery and will be on view until Saturday, October 5. The gallery is open from 1 – 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday, or by appointment. For more information, visit claremorrisgallery.ie.
Andrew Hamilton is a journalist, investigative reporter and blogger who has been working in the media in Ireland for the past 20 years. His areas of special interest include the environment, mental health and politics.