This week I was off to another mind opening exhibition, heading east to the 300 year old venue in Whitecross Street; Curious Duke Gallery, which currently has an exhibition like no other on display. The Curious Duke Gallery is showing work by 20 different artists from the Duke family in their summer exhibition ‘The Art of Curiosity’. The Duke family is referring to artists that are officially represented by the gallery, and they have been chosen due their distinctive style, various use of different media (including sculptures) but also because they are all rising surrealist and urban artists from the UK.
‘The Art of Curiosity’ exhibition builds on a different module within art, the ground breaking and slightly different, and dare we say, sometimes eye-brow raising. Eleni Duke funded the gallery in 2011 and when asking her about the galley, the name I particular, she tell me that she decided to name the gallery Curious Duke Gallery as she wanted to spark curiosity in art lovers with the name alone. The art that they represent also instigates questions of ‘how is it made’, ‘how did they come up with that?’ and the exhibition itself Eleni describes as follows; “The Art of Curiosity is an exhibition which includes 20 artists who work in a variety of different mediums and who all bring something new and exciting to the table. The artwork involved in the exhibition holds elements of distorted realism using a variety of fine art techniques with a twist. For example we have Dan Rawlings exhibiting his hand cut antique saws and Otto D’Ambra using the old fashioned technique of etching to create modern day surrealist images. I wanted to make art fun again and not leave people feeling intimidated or confused.”
As the pieces on show might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I wanted to know which her favourite piece on display is, Eleni provides a very diplomatic reply. “Really difficult question as all the pieces are so different and so strong in their own ways. I have so many favourites so I will name a few! One of my favourites in the exhibition is Darragh Powell’ s ‘Blue Movie (a crow left of murder)’. I love the contrast of using a CCTV camera pole as an urban tree for the crows to survey the city from, it becomes our urban man made forest. The new work that has been produced from Curious Duke’s collaborative pair Kristin G Endsley and Hannah Adamaszek are also very strong. Hannah’s figures and Kristin backgrounds really give the canvas an abundance of energy and life. I also have to add a third and say the fantastic work of Mark Powell. The entire concept is fantastic, paired with an obscure medium of a Bic Biro is a match made in curious heaven.”
The Art of Curiosity exhibition runs until August the 17th and is admission free.
The gallery is open Monday to Friday 10.30-6.3opm Saturdays 12pm until 4pm and Sundays.
