On September 5th, the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery will launch Green Like Now, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Kathy Tynan. Far from a typical exhibition opening, the gallery will host a full evening of delights to kick off the show’s run.
Green Like Now will open at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery at the unusually early hour of 5pm. At 7pm, attendees will leave the gallery and make their way to the Royal Hibernian Gallery for the opening of the Hennessey-Craig Scholarship’s group show, as Tynan has been shortlisted for the prize. In theory, the evening encompasses two gallery openings, in practice, it acts as a multilayered celebration of Tynan’s work.
Though Tynan’s reach can be seen across two of Dublin’s most prominent galleries simultaneously, her impact on the city’s cultural landscape extends even further this month: Green Like Now will transform into a theatrical set for Pretty Feelings from September 11th–15th. The play, written by Isadore Epstein in response to Tynan’s paintings, is part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. Tickets for the play are €15 or €13 for concessions, and are available online at the Dublin Fringe box office.
Following her return to Dublin after a year-long residency in Paris, Tynan launched her first book, Proud and Strong All Day Long, last year. She is nothing if not prolific. The painter’s work is defined by its robustness: light and colour bounce playfully through familiar Dublin scenes, and her depictions of nature contain an indefinable childlike wonder.
Speaking to The University Times last year, Tynan explained the basis of her work: “It’s all based on familiarity and my relationship to my everyday life. I’m trying to find peculiar moments in the everyday.” Tynan also gave us insight into her unusual titles, confessing that she often lifts her titles from literary giants: “I’ll just flick through really big, heavy texts and look for isolated sentences or little extracts of sentences and I’ll collect them up. I have a book, almost like a book of baby names. Then once something is finished I’ll try to match up a title to a painting.”
The urgency implied in the exhibition’s title, Green Like Now, is reflective of Tynan’s body of work. Immediacy is an essential aspect of her bright, wet-on-wet creations. There is very little pretension to be found in her work, as it is largely inspired by her daily life. If you’re looking for an instant hit of pure visual delight, Tynan’s work is the answer.
Tynan’s playful paintings promise to provide the perfect antidote to those back-to-school blues, and if her previous work is anything to go by, she won’t disappoint.
Green Like Now will run from September 5th to 28th and admission is free.
