It’s a cryptic exhibition

A major exhibition of paintings and sculptures that combine myth and history opens tonight, Thursday, in St Luke’s Crypt.

Presented by Sample-Studios, ‘Mutators’ is a solo exhibition by Cork-based Irish artist Kevin Mooney in which he explores art making from multiple perspectives.

Traversing the boundary between fact and fiction, Mooney’s pieces can be read as artefacts recovered from an imagined island community of artists with a Hiberno-Caribbean culture.

In his exhibition, Mooney combines oblique references to St Patrick, or the Irish-born 18th century Spanish army general Alejandro O'Reilly, with devices more readily associated with ritual imagery or tribal fetishes, opening up thorny questions about cultural influence and transformation.

Mooney explained: “The works play with imagery and visual languages from historically and temporally disparate cultures, compressing time and history into the immediate space of the artwork.

“With this compression of time, the work can be read as a reimagining of an alternative indigenous visual culture – a speculative art history projected into the cultural voids created by emigration and colonisation.”

Mooney’s work is held in major collections such as The Highlanes Gallery, the OPW, and The Arts Council of Ireland.

‘Mutators’ opens tonight from 5.30-8pm and continues until 28 May. The exhibition will be open each week from Thursday-Saturday, 11am-4pm in St Luke’s Crypt, Summerhill North, Cork city.