LCGA is delighted to present Mary Nagle’s exhibition MURMURARE
Limerick artist Mary Nagle presents new works of mixed media relief compositions and sculptures.
Mary Nagle’s work is about memory, and the infinite possibilities of the ordinary and everyday. ‘I am drawn to the seemingly inconsequential and the disregarded - materials and objects, both man-made and natural, that have been thrown away, given away, fallen away or worn away. These sometimes fragmented, broken or damaged objects and materials are reworked and juxtaposed to make small sculptural forms and relief compositions.
27 March - 3 May 2026
Limerick City Gallery of Art
LCGA is delighted to present Mary Nagle’s exhibition MURMURARE. A native Limerick artist who has evolved in her artforms over the years. This exhibition features new works of mixed media relief compositions and sculptures.
Mary Nagle’s work is about memory, and the infinite possibilities of the ordinary and everyday. ‘I am drawn to the seemingly inconsequential and the disregarded - materials and objects, both man-made and natural, that have been thrown away, given away, fallen away or worn away. These sometimes fragmented, broken or damaged objects and materials are reworked and juxtaposed to make small sculptural forms and relief compositions.
These works act as metaphors for the fragility of our lives and the tenacity of the human spirit, and evoke an emotional resonance that suggests memory and the vulnerability of human existence. Whether it is weathered steel, twisted wire, worn plastic, burnt tin, broken, rusty or perished fragments, or organic materials, plants, flowers and roots collected in my environment, these are a constant source of inspiration, particularly as they, with the passage of time and the effect of the elements, display an extraordinary richness of visual qualities as they deteriorate, or in the case of natural forms, as they wither, fade and die.
My work is made from a large range of materials and processes including fragments and found objects, metal, human hair, paper, clay, wood, plastic, glass, natural forms, copper, bone, involving a wide range of processes, including 2D, relief and 3D construction, casting, hand building, painting, gilding and sewing.’
instagram: marynagle_art
murmurare
Mary Nagle MURMURARE:
The exhibition ‘MURMURARE’ is beautiful and affecting in its materiality. The exquisitely contrived objects (which so masterfully lure us for closer inspection, seeking to establish what is real and what is representation) are composed of off-casts of materials cleverly manipulated with such precision by the artist that we are urged to consider the catastrophic impact of our flippant attitude to commodities in this era of over consumption.
One is drawn to examine the fastidiously manipulated found materials, aggregated so cleverly to mimic familiar forms and objects: flower stems and petals; small vines; vases; small mechanical devices. There are layers of symbolism for the enquiring mind. Flowers of fired sheet steel and marble pillars somehow evoke loss and memorial; porcelain fired casings, small and brittle, hinting at tiny bones. Some material has undergone firing; some has been subject of unknowable time at sea, continually washed and worn; other mechanical parts and pieces of tools and piping have been aged by oxidisation and rusting, each with new properties and former purpose. A kind of alchemy. Perhaps the real alchemy is the renewed purpose proffered then by the artist.
We are first impacted by the strikingly elegant ephemeral beauty of perfect flowers fashioned from steel/ wire/ paper/ glue/ paint, and other assemblages, delicately presented and perfectly replicating the forms which they imitate. These juxtapose elegantly against cerebrally chosen and carefully finished mounts of marble/ sea plastic/ sheet steel/ stone etc. The artist plays with balance. Bright on dark; hard on soft; delicate on durable; light on heavy.
We are perplexed by illusions of weight posed by masterfully reimagined pieces of ethereal detritus.
“The very nature of materiality is an entanglement. Matter itself is always already open to, or rather entangled with, the ‘Other’.
The intra-actively emergent ‘parts’ of phenomena are co constituted.” - Karen Barad, ‘Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning’, Duke University Press, 2007.
Nagle is the collector; the beach comber; the recycler; the coveter of discards. Her vision to reimagine what others dispose of and deem valueless, forging things of ephemeral beauty from materials which otherwise represent the worst for planet/ climate/ nature/ environment, holds up a mirror to our inclination to endlessly consume what is needed, with flagrant disregard for the heavy toll to the planet. The sculptural assemblages offer endless interpretive possibilities, with motifs of bereavement and tragedy; built history; flowers and gardens; industrial production; stone masonry; metalwork; ceramics and ironmongery; waning traditional sculptural practices. The audience is organically moved to a slow looking engagement.
Mary Nagle’s long standing successful career as a designer and educator are evident in her assiduous attention to detail and appreciation for beauty in the most unlikely of places.
All of this is so pristinely presented and carefully curated by the artist herself. Her capacity to replicate colours from nature by means of pigment, paint and found material is astonishing.
Sally-Anne McFadden August 2024
Queries to artgallery@limerick.ie
