Graham Gingles

WORKS FROM THIS ARTIST INTERVIEWS WITH THIS ARTIST

At first a painter, in 1969 he moved to mixed media boxed constructions where he combined drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs.

He is now well known for his constructed boxes and he has linked their creation in part to the troubles. The narratives within the boxes have taken a wide variety of forms. Gingles has exhibited his work extensively. In 1980 he was awarded the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Scholarship to the British School at Rome and in 1988 he received the Gold Medal at the Royal Ulster Academy exhibition. His first one-person exhibition took place at the Arts Council gallery in Belfast after his return from Rome in 1981. Since then he has had numerous exhibitions of his boxes, paintings and drawings throughout Ireland and his works have been included in some major thematic group exhibitions introducing contemporary Irish art at home and internationally.

His exhibition history includes solo shows in the Hendriks gallery, Dublin 1982, Fenderesky Gallery 1986-88-91-96 and 2000, Narrow Water Gallery 1992, Butler gallery, Kilkenny 1994, and the James Baird Gallery, St. Johns, Newfoundland 1999. Group shows include Contemporary Irish Drawing, Hull Fleming Museum, Vermont, USA 1982, New Works by Past Prize Winners, EV&A, Dublin and Belfast 1983, Directions Out, Douglas Hyde gallery, Dublin 1986, Art Advice opening exhibition, New York 1988, Parable Island, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool 1991, Ulster Art in the 80s’, Gallagher gallery, Dublin 1988, Art Cologne, Germany 1990/93/95, Innovation from Tradition, Brussels 1996, Troubled, an exhibition of Northern Irish Art, Pitshanger Gallery, London 2000.

More recent exhibitions have included the 14-18 Now exhibition ‘At Times Like These Men Were Wishing They Were Insects’ at theMAC in Belfast, which scales up the Princess Mary Box – the brass embossed boxes which were filled with gifts and sent to the front during World War One – to room size in the Sunken Gallery of The Mac.

Writings about Graham Gingles:

Art in Ulster Vol 2 (1978) by Mike Catto.
Art, Politics and Ireland (1990) by Brian McAvera.
Graham Gingles catalogue (1991), the Fenderesky Gallery.