60 Years of Graphic Studio Dublin, dlr Lexicon

60 Years of Graphic Studio Dublin

Ireland’s oldest printmaking studio, est 1960.

An exhibition of work by GSD members born or living in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, and graduates of IADT.

Jean Bardon; Jack Barrett; Gerard Cox; Grainne Cuffe; Terry Dempsey; Aisling Dolan, Cliona Doyle; Susan Early; Melissa Ellis; Camilla Fanning; Clare Henderson; Ann Kavanagh; Jennifer Lane; Richard Lawlor; Stephen Lawlor; Kate MacDonagh; Ruth O’Donnell; Robert Russell; Joe Ryan; Adrienne Symes; Martin Gale.

Jean Bardon

Jean Bardon is a Dun Laoghaire resident and a printmaker at Graphic Studio Dublin. She studied at IADT, or Dun Laoghaire School of Art as it was then, between 1970 and 1974.

Jean’s work is strongly influenced by the formality and ornamental qualities of botanical art. The frequent use of a gold leaf background as seen in Japanese folding screens is a distinguishing feature of her work. The combination of the strong structural shapes of plants, drawn from life with the luminosity and radiance of the gold leaf and the repetitive and harmonious nature of pattern serves to create works which have the capacity to communicate a sense of tranquillity and stillness to the spectator.

Jack Barrett

Jack Barrett graduated from IADT in 2019, and studied a BA in Visual Arts Practice. He joined Graphic Studio Dublin having being awarded first place in the Graduate Award programme. This granted him one year’s free membership to the space and their facilities and technical support. Jack’s work is in the DLR collection.

‘Screen print allows me to create precise geometric shapes and colours with a flat surface. I am interested in structure/forms represented on a flat plain. I use a shift in tonal values and point perspective to add depth to my prints. I’m exploring the construction of space through the use of screen print and complex geometric shapes.’

Gerard Cox

Gerard Cox graduated from National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1979 and went to Düsseldorf Art Academy for a Post Graduate Sculpture year. In 1983 he had his first solo exhibition Sculptures in the Project Arts Centre Gallery, Dublin and won the Guinness Peat Aviation Award for Emerging Artists. Since then he has exhibited sculpture in solo and group exhibitions in Ireland, England, Germany, Korea and Japan.

In 1999 Gerard began making woodblock prints. He joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2002 and continues to produce woodblock prints for group and solo exhibitions.

Grainne Cuffe

Grainne Cuffe graduated from Dun Laoghaire School of Art, IADT, in 1979 and from Central St. Martins in 1989. She won a Fulbright scholarship to study lithography at the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico. She joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 1979 and now makes etchings of botanical subjects, often working to a signature large scale.

Grainne’s etching, Tulip for Miriam, was named after her Aunt Miriam, who lived in Glenageary all her life. The colours in the print are inspired by the stained glass window behind the altar in St. Brigid’s Church, Cabinteely.

Terry Dempsey

Terry Dempsey studied Fine Art in IADT. She joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2018.

Aisling Dolan

Aisling Dolan lives in Dun Laoghaire and graduated from DIT with a degree in Visual Communications. She became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2011.

Cliona Doyle

Cliona Doyle was born in 1968 and attended the National College of Art and Design in Dublin from 1987 to 1991. She graduated with an Honours degree in Fine Art Printmaking. Cliona Doyle is a member of the Graphic Studio, Dublin and was on the Board of Directors from 2005 until 2009.

Cliona has devoted herself to making prints, concentrating on carborundum prints and developing various flower themes.  Her work has been exhibited in The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, The Chester Beatty Library and the RHA, Dublin. Her work is in many public and private collections.

Susan Early

Susan Early is an Architect & Printmaker. She became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2012 where she now works as Studio Administrator. She makes etchings in drypoint and aquatint and has exhibited nationally and in Europe, Canada and the USA. Her work features in private and public collections including Fingal County Council, University of Limerick, Office of Public Works and National Botanic Gardens.

Susan’s printmaking is informed by drawings and photographs of familiar elements in Irish landscapes. Structures, buildings and the landscape topography, studied against context, are explored. The built and natural environment defined by the sea is of particular interest and includes studies of ships, lighthouses and other built landmarks.

Melissa Ellis

Melissa Ellis studied fine art and print in NCAD, graduated in 2015 and won a Graphic Studio Dublin graduate award. Her work involves etching images of strange mythical creatures, often finished with a hand applied watercolour. She has worked closely in recent years with Marshes Library and her work features in worldwide collections.

She has lived in Dun Laoghaire for twenty-six years and, as an artist, finds it to be a wonderfully inspiring place, from the many colours of the ocean to imagining the creatures that live above and below it.

Camilla Fanning

Camilla Fanning is based in Dublin working in Fine Art Printmaking and digital art. She Joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2013 and completed an MFA (NCAD) in 2018. She regularly exhibits throughout Ireland, and have been included in several curated exhibitions including the Royal Academy Summer Show, Zillah Bell Gallery & Bankside Royal Society Printmakers London in 2016 and group shows in in Norway and New York. Her prints are held in private collections in Ireland, the UK, Austria and New Zealand.

Camilla has received arts awards from the Irish Arts Council, and DLR County Council and has completed Art Residencies in Limerick Printmakers (2020) in Cill Rialaig (2015), Berlin (2008) & New York (1999).  She works in situ in the landscape and her research interests include psychogeography, Deep Mapping, Place and memory.

Clare Henderson

Clare Henderson grew up in Cabinteely, began her art training in Ballyfermot Senior College and went on to study Fine Art Print in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. On graduating in 2005 she began printing in Graphic Studio Dublin, having received the Graphic Studio Dublin Graduate Award that year.

Her practice is primarily in etching and monoprint, and she also facilitates etching and printmaking workshops in Graphic Studio Dublin and in schools and businesses. She often depicts misty seascapes hosting islands, glaciers, ghosts and sweeping winds in an effort to evoke ideas surrounding isolation, connection and relationships.

Ann Kavanagh

Ann Kavanagh originally is from Kilkenny, now living in Dublin. She is a visual artist and printmaker and graduated  from IADT Dun Laoghaire in 2004 with a first-class honours degree in Fine Art. She became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2019.

In 2016 and 2018, Ann participated at MI-LAB, (Mokuhanga Innovation Lab, Lake Kawaguchi, Japan, an artist-in-residence program designed to provide extensive knowledge of Mokuhanga (water-based woodblock printmaking) and its techniques to international artists. In 2017 she attended an advanced etching program at Crown Point Press, San Francisco, USA.

Ann’s art works are held in private and public collections including those at the Office of the Public Works, Institute of Art Design & Technology, AIB Bank and Ulster Bank.

Jennifer Lane

Jennifer Lane was born in Dublin and studied at Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design. She joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 1975. Her woodcuts figure in many private, State and corporate collections.
In 2019, she was commissioned by Trinity College, Dublin to produce a multicolour woodblock print. In February 2020 her images featured in an exhibition of Irish art in the Irish Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

Richard Lawlor

Richard Lawlor is a Dublin based printmaker. He attended IADT from 2013-2017 and graduated with a degree in Fine Art. He became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2017.

His work is figurative usually inspired by dramatic scenes from film or period photographs. One of his pieces in the current exhibition is based on clowns from the Great Depression. 

Stephen Lawlor

Stephen Lawlor was born in Dublin in 1958. He lectured at IADT, in printmaking and drawing (1991-97) and was chairman of Graphic Studio Dublin, (2000-05). He has worked at print studios internationally including: Guanlan, China, Galleri Astley, Sweden, Jyvaskyla Centre for Print, Finland, Paupers Press, London & Hampton Editions, USA.

He won 1st prize at New Grounds International Print, Albuquerque NM, USA in 2013 and joint 1st at Adogi, 35th Miniprint International, Cadaques, Spain in 2015. Stephen was elected an associate member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in London, (ARE) in 2016 and was elected a member of Aosdána in 2018.

Kate MacDonagh

Kate MacDonagh is a Sligo born artist currently living and working in Dublin. She studied at The Limerick School of Art and Design, Bellas Artes Madrid, Bob Blackburn Printmaking Studio, New York and MI-Lab, Fujikawaguchiko, Japan. She became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2018 and has exhibited in The Lexicon, The Model, The RHA, RUA and in Tokyo.

Kate is an abstract artist whose work explores dualities of light and dark, scale and ephemerality, stillness and movement, the spectral and the material. Since spending time in Japan throughout the last six years, Kate\’s primary focus is on water-based woodcut (Mokuhanga) and water colour painting. From carving wood blocks to making prints, the carvings have taken on a new dimension becoming sculptural objects in themselves.

Ruth O’Donnell

Ruth O\’Donnell studied at the Institut Saint Luc in Brussels 1986-90, Graduat en Arts Plastiques, and joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 1991. She lives in Stillorgan. Ruth has been exhibiting consistently in solo and group exhibitions, as well as working on commissions and undertaking residencies, in Ireland and internationally, for the past 30 years. A residency in the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris in 2014 featured in a short firm on newsarttoday.tv.

Ruth’s still life etchings are structured, still and contemplative, but the content and references trigger wider questions about values, memory, beauty, perspectives and the passage of time. Her work is in the collections of the Office of Public Works, Chester Beatty, and the National Gallery of Ireland and was selected from the OPW collection for Finders and Keepers, DLR Lexicon, 2015.

Robert Russell

Robert Russell attended IADT Dun Laoghaire from 1979. He specialised in sculpture but also worked in painting and print. Robert has focused on printmaking since joining Graphic Studio Dublin in 1988 and is Studio Director and Master Printer there since 2007.

His work is in the collections of The National Gallery of Ireland, The Chester Beatty Library and The British Library. He was awarded a prize for painting in the Taylor Art Competition in 1980, and received the Alfred Beit Award and the Norah McGuinness Award in 1993.

Joe Ryan

Joe Ryan is originally from Dun Laoghaire but lived abroad for many years. He became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2004. He holds a Doctorate in Fine Art from University of East London is also a graduate of IADT with a B.A. in Business and Entrepreneurship and an M.A. in Public Cultures and Society.
Joe has exhibited extensively worldwide and his work is held in both public and private collections. His work is informed by philosophy, theoretical paradigms and abstract conceptualism.

Adrienne Symes

Adrienne Symes studied at National College of Art (NCAD). She has been a member of Graphic Studio since 1990. Her family has had an association with Dun Laoghaire for over one hundred years and she have exhibited several times at various locations in Dun Laoghaire, Monkstown and Dalkey.
Drawing is the basis of all her work which is in a variety of media, oil, watercolour, sculpture and printing. Subject matter is mostly influenced by nature; the power and energy of water fascinate her. Other work has been of a botanical nature some of which has been reproduced on china, fabrics and notelets for Sybil Connolly.

Martin Gale.

Born in Worcester, Martin Gale moved to Ireland at a young age and studied painting and drawing at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin. In 1982 Gale was elected a member of Aosdána and has been a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy since 1996. He served as a Board member of the National Gallery. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1980 and his paintings have been included in several major surveys of contemporary and 20th-century Irish art. In 2013 Gale was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from NUI Maynooth and he was the recipient of the RHA Award for a Senior Artist at the 184th Annual Exhibition.
Gale’s work is held in numerous private collections in Ireland and abroad and represented in major public collections including The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, AIB, Bank of Ireland, OPW / State Art Collection, ESB, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Chester Beatty Library, and Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.

Martin Gale has worked with Robert Russell, Master Printer at Graphic Studio Dublin over a number of years as part of the Visiting Artist’s programme.