In recent years, Catherine Barron has painted on salvaged metal plates, old book covers and vintage photographs, incorporating elements of the surface support into the finished paintings. She continues in a similar vein with this latest series of works, painting on 12-inch bakelite records, as well as more traditional wooden boards.
The work charts the artist's own, very personal story. The imagery is on the one hand situational - with a series of studio-based self-portraits - and on the other allegorical, as the artist leads us on a confessional and intensely emotional journey through her adult life.
For Barron, stories are fluid, with no definitive beginning, middle or end - rather they hang within the scaffolding of our existence. "When we want to say something, we pick out and articulate specific details to communicate an experience or a particular meaning. The stories we tell can relay something that has happened, something that is happening, but also something we imagine or hope for. How we tell the story also conveys how we feel about it, how we understand it."
The book and the text 'Lone Play', which accompany the exhibition, marry the visual imagery with the written word and offer a broader context for the work. Copies of the book are available from the gallery.
Born in Co. Carlow, Catherine Barron studied at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Tecnology. She has won numerous awards, most recently The De Vere's Art Award at the RHA Annual Show, 2015. Her work can be found in many private and public collections including: Bank of Ireland, Glanbia, St James's Hospital, Carlow Institute of Technology, the EPA, John De Vere, the Haverty Trust and the Department of Education.
