“Retrieval Systems” at Wexford Arts Centre

Opening Thursday, June 9

Wexford Arts Centre, in collaboration with Cow House Studios will host a two-person exhibition of recent work by 2010 artists-in-residence, Matthew Denniss and Gail Cunningham. In developing their work at Cow House Studios, Denniss and Cunningham examine the various aspects in which energy resides. With Cunningham’s work, her highly controlled, precision-cut paper images reveal a hidden energy of powerful proportions, conveying an anxiety as spiders crawl and scramble frantically from deep within the confines of the domestic ritual. Denniss, on the other hand, is more concerned with the physical elements of energy and his association with the primitive means of harbouring and utilising it. In doing so, he is attempting to explore and reveal the true motives and philosophies of the original inventors, responsible for such machines like the phonautograph and the wind turbine.

Gail Cunningham studied at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia and graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland, Oregon in 2003. Her work has featured in numerous group shows including Side By Side, High Wire Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Pretty, Pretty, Bambi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; and OFF DUTY, MGA Partners, Philadelphia, PA. Gail lives and works in her native Philadelphia.

Matthew Denniss graduated from Goldsmiths College, London with a BA in Fine Art in 2006. Denniss was Artist in Residence at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2009, and has exhibited in Newcastle, Glasgow, London, Norway and the Czech Republic. He currently lives and works in Manchester.