Ireland's Future Traditions
Opening 30. August 2024
Zeitgeist Irland 24 is a celebration of the richness and diversity of contemporary Irish culture. Weaving the collective story and experiences of the Irish, Zeitgeist Irland 24 brings a new generation of Irish artists to German audiences, continuing to break boundaries and build on a global reputation for cultural excellence.
As part of Zeitgeist Ireland 24, the gallery will be showing the exhibition Ireland's Future Traditions. Artists Rod Coyne with his series of paintings Seeing Red and Shane Sutton with his digital art Immersion On create unusual environments and landscapes.
Rod Coyne
Rod Coyne lives and works in Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
During the past twenty plus years Rod Coyne’s painting style has developed constantly through several distinct stages. He is driven by risk taking and experimentation, arriving to some unique results.
Coyne founded his Avoca Studio Gallery in 2003 followed later by his Avoca Painting School in 2010. “...his images could be straight out of my own memory, very strange and wonderful, the red lightship, the Wicklow high valley, the angel glimpsed,” said Irish Laureate Sebastian Barry of Rod Coyne’s art in 2009.
Coyne graduated from Dun Laoghaire and Crawford Colleges of Art, before moving to Düsseldorf in 1990. After a decade working in his Rhine-side studio he returned to paint the Irish landscape plein air.
During thirty years of painting, he has amassed a broad following of collectors, been critically acknowledged through awards, shortlisting’s, grants, residencies, and international invitations. His art hangs in prestigious public, private and corporate collections.
Shane Sutton
Shane lives and works in Dublin as a volunteer artist in residence for Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork and has recently screened a street art / digital piece ‘Immersion On’ at the Living Canvas Screen at Wilton Park in July and August 2022.
Shane started painting murals in the early nineties but then swapped his brush for computers. He then went on to learn graphic design and motion graphics which eventually lead to making an independent film that would win 9 international film festival prizes and earn him a nomination for best editing at the Irish Film and Television Awards.
An award winning artist with the European Space Agency Shane’s work changes from street to canvas to digital. In 2019 he was selected for an art residency with the European Space Agency UK Climate Office and produced a number of paintings that were exhibited at the Living Planet Symposium in Milan 2019.
On the 1st of March in 2019 he became the first street artist to sign his work in weightlessness on a zero gravity flight. A once in a life time opportunity made possible after winning ‘Graffiti Without Gravity Street Art Competition’ with the ESA in Holland and The Hague Street Art. Shane’s other work has included product design, illustration, graphic design, motion graphics, film editing, photography and directing.
As an educator Shane has worked as a volunteer arts facilitator and has worked with local communities in Dublin and with and young people in Kurdistan Northern Iraq with the Irish charity the SCOOP Foundation.