ARTISTMargot Galvin
The gods in their playful glee put us down in the wrong place and we spend our entire life trying to, not find the place where we are supposed to be, but to find who we were supposed to be.
-Diane Arbus
Margot works primarily in print. She explores our relationship between ourselves and our immediate environment. Margot has explored extending the boundaries of print from to 2D paper, wall based medium to making print sculptures and assemblages. She is an active member of Black Church print studio and also has a home studio. She is also a member of a collective of people who have home based practices called ‘AtHome’ studios.
Margot Galvin is an artist living and working in Dublin, Ireland. Her work examines the relationship between self and place .
The extent to which a ‘sense of place’ or sense of belonging is developed by how closely our current environment echoes our place of origin is an idea explored in her work.
The themes of a ‘primal landscape’ and psychogeography are explored primarily through printmaking, although drawing, mixed media and 3D ‘print sculptures’ , objects and assemblages also form part of her practice.
Margot graduated from NCAD in 2012 with a 1st Class honours degree in Fine Art print. Having completed her Masters in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2014 , she is currently a member of the Black Church print studio, Dublin and ‘AtHome studio’ group.
Finding our place within the world is an important aspect of human existence and attachment to place is a powerful component in informing and shaping our identity. A longing to belong, to be ‘at home’ somewhere is a fundamental human desire and it is this relationship between self and place and the implications for our identity that I explore in my work.
The philosopher Edward Casey refers to our place of origin ‘as an exemplar against which all subsequent places are implicitly to be measured’. This imprint of childhood environment has been labelled a ‘primal landscape’ and as people move about in life new places are considered in relation to this baseline landscape.
Both the theories of a primal landscape and Psycho-geography, (defined as a collision of geography and psychology that explores the impact of our surroundings on our psychological and emotional states), are influences on my practice.
‘Fragile Brutalism’, Margot Galvin, screen-print on aluminium, 2019
‘City Series 3’, Margot Galvin, screen-prints on aluminium, 2019
The method used to explore these ideas is by interrogation of selected locales. These have varied from the Dodder river, the industrial landscape around Ringsend and more recently the architecture of Dublin city.
In the most recent work, motifs distilled from architectural features occur alongside more literal representations of the built environment. Materials such as metal, wood and glass are used to print on and occasionally used to bring print, traditionally a 2D medium, into non-traditional 3D ‘print sculptures’, objects or assemblages.
The works arising from this exploration may not be a straight forward imitation of initial observations but reconstructed ‘interpretations’ or responses to the experience of ‘being ‘ in a particular place.
The resulting works are a composite of visual fact, feelings, memory and imagination. Place, how we relate to it and form ties to it is at the heart of my enquiry.
ARTWORKS BYMargot Galvin
ARTIST’S Accolades
Awards
- Margot graduated from NCAD in 2012 with a 1st Class honours degree in Fine Art print.
- Masters in Fine Art from NCAD, Dublin in 2014.
Exhibitions
- Rua Red winter open.
- Making Art-Print Draiocht (4 person invited show)
- Caird Visual-Sligo
- Impressions-Galway art festival.
- RHA and RUA annual.
- Library project-Temple Bar.
- Platforms: no.
- Awards: Royal Ulster academy -Printmaker award.
- Axa purchase award.
- RDS student award.
- St.Patricks Hospital emerging artist award.
Residencies/Representation
- Member of Black Church Print Studio.
- Member of collective, ‘AtHome Studio’ group.