Kindred Spirits
Mel/Maximillist
Aga Szot
Waiter:
Are you ladies alone?
Women:
No, wE’re together!
Joint Exhibition Aga Szot & Mel/Maximillist
Kindred Spirits This Exhibition will combine the works of Aga Szot and Mel/Maximillist, two talented young women artists. Together their work will offer a vibrant collection of varied art works, a stimulating visual experience.
While diverse in technique, materials and subject matter their work at The same time has some common elements – a joy in painting, a great energy, a vibrancy and a challenging, analytical edge. Both artists’ works celebrate aspects of our worlds and criticize others; both pose similar questions, both highlight points of connection as much as difference.
Art can do many things, not least allow us to connect with each other, with ideas and insights. It is an instrument of self awareness at a societal level; a place to find like minds at an individual one. It can help us to find kindred spirits in what is often an isolating world.
Aga Szot is from the Eastern bloc, from Poland, while Mel/Maximillist is Half Irish Half German. In spite of these disparate beginnings they have formed a strong artistic bond, have found that they share their core ideas, beliefs and aspirations, that they are, in fact, kindred spirits. From opposite ends of the world and having grown up in opposite ideological climates they have emerged from these to travel and to meet through their art and their shared ideas. Showing their work together celebrates their shared agenda, their shared questing, their shared love and commitment to their art, their finding of many kindred spirits on their respective journeys and of course, with each other.
Each artist’ s work complements and contrasts with the other while maintaining its unique style. Remaining independent at certain levels there is nevertheless a unity of vision, of questing, a deep affiliation available.
This joint show will offer a chance for all of us to discover kindred spirits of our own.
MEL / Maximillist
Artist Bio Melanie Brady (1978) was raised in a bohemian environment, her parents encouraged her to adopt a broad and somewhat anti-establishment outlook on life. She relished the opportunities such parenting afforded her, exposure to diverse people, alternative ideas and the constant dialogue around artistic, political and social issues. All of these experiences have served her intellectual inquiry, and artistic development
A natural explorer and very curious by nature, Melanie gets her artistic inspiration from her extensive travels. Traversing the World, she meets and connects with people from different ethnicities, in various environments both urban and rural, researching their culture and heritage.
Searching for difference in the people she meets, she was struck by the striking similarities, connecting points and the shared kindred spirits she encountered. These unexpected bonding's and unlikely affinities, that she found tying together various ethnicity's and cultures, stimulates her artistic practice and continues to keep her socially engaged.
Melanie's paintings celebrate these memorable encounters in joyous colour, reflecting the pleasure of connections she finds, painting with an energy that echoes the vibrancy of these connections.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
In the early development of my work I began with photography, I was drawn to capture images of the everyday, documenting conventional lives moving through their various spaces, always seeking to formulate a quirky snapshot of life.
Over time, this pursuit was not fulfilling my creative hunger, I moved forward to other creative outlets, these included working with acrylics, oils, pastels, watercolours, applying these to canvas, wood, paper, and other materials.
In the 1960’ s and early 70’ s, street art, graffiti, and the combination of psychedelic images and design in both fashion and art were prolific, these were a strong grounding on which I based my early development. The vivid colours of those eras, the strong lines and deep contrasts that first opened my artistic eyes, all find echoes in my work today.
In later life I began to expand my focus to include other areas of art and design, I was inspired by the posters and prints of artists such as Andy Warhol, the abstract designs of Picasso, and the imagination used in the creation of works by Salvador Dali & Frida Kahlo. All of these artists have left a strong influence on me.
At present I am committed to expanding my scope and very open to exploring new avenues to articulate through my painting and find new expression to represent the often contradictory ways in which our world is formed.
Artist CV
I am a self taught artist currently developing my practice in Ireland. Since childhood I have had a keen interest in pop art and animation, I worked with these styles for many years, mostly as an escape, at times it was a way to make ends meet with different commissions and sales. In recent years I have started to show my work in exhibitions, on assignment in New York I created a series of photographs to paint from, this led to my first solo show in March of 2015 in Germany. The work was received well and given an excellent review in, Sandra Zendel: 'A lot of colour and & little provocation', Kultur Regional, Rheinland Pfalz Zeitung. All the work sold and paintings from the exhibition made it to Collections in Germany the UK and America. I have studied under Anina Fachenda & Henry Whyte in the Open College of Arts in Barnsley England during 2012 and now volunteer with a non profit arts organisation in Dublin called The Icon Factory, I recently had my second solo exhibition in their gallery space called 'All Walks of Life' a selection of paintings based on my travels.
Exhibitions:
2015 New York City Collection, Twenty One, Germany March to July 2016 All Walks Of Life, The Icon Factory, Dublin, Ireland October to Mid November
Publications:
Sandra Zendel: “A lot of colour and & little provocation”, Kultur Regional, Rheinland Pfalz Zeitung, Monday, 23rd March 2015.
Trim artist captures ‘ All Walks of Life’ with Dublin exhibition Meath Chronicle Saturday, 24th September 2016.
Education:
Open College of Arts, Barnsley England, 2012
Private Collections: Works held in private collections in Germany, America the United Kingdom, Luxembourg & Ireland.
AGA SZOT My art is centered on my observation of human social and familial relationships and is in fact an investigation influenced by ideas from sociology, anthropology and psychology. The visual images I create work towards an analysis of human relationships at different points of development in our life cycles. At any given time in the process of my work the individual paintings will be linked by a common interest, a thread of analysis that is stretched across a series of works. Taken together they pose particular questions – focus on particular phases of life and draw attention to how relationships develop. My work attempts to offer arresting images of key moments in the development of human relationships. My methods allow me to inject life and energy, for good or bad, in scenes of child/child encounters and of adult/child, adult/adult interactions. These are intended to stimulate the viewer to recognize the powerful forces at play in everyday relationships in our complex world. Offering visual information that is fragmented, full of flux and movement, overlaid with written work and supplemented sometimes with sections of graphic/ photographic materials from the media - this allows me to stimulate the viewer towards an insight, towards a realization of strength and of vulnerability, of acceptance and rejection, of struggles to survive at different stages in our lives. Often my artworks contain written script; short commentaries, antonyms or dictionary definitions. These are sometimes provocative additions to again stimulate the viewer towards an analysis of the scene. The technique I used (oil, ink, collage) allowed me to pose questions in each painting. Each painting asked the viewer to visually punctuate the image by inserting his or her own points or marks in the unfinished sentence that is the painting – the life depicted there.
Artist CV
//23 - 09 - 1978// EDUCATION Master of Fine Arts
10//05 Pedagogical University of Cracow
10//04
Lithography Studio
Master of Science
Pedagogical University of Cracow
Technical Science & Computer Science
Engineer
07//02
Pedagogical University of Cracow
Technical Science & Computer Science Restoration
09//93 - 06//98 High School of Fine Arts, N.Wisnicz
Elements of Architecture
SOLO & GROUP EXHIBITIONS 11//13 National Gallery, Belfast Annual Exhibition 2013
08//12 Non Grants Gallery, Dublin Punctuation
06//12 The Point Village, Dublin Pop Up Dublin Biennial 2012, Art as Public Life
05//12 Stephen's Green, Dublin Instrumental Art Exhibition
11//11Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin A Land of Milk and Honey
04//10 The Icon Factory, Dublin Safety First
01//10
Public Library, Leixlip
Between
11//09 D-light Gallery, She
Dublin