Monday 4th April – Sunday 29th May 2022
The Office of Public Works are delighted to announce the presentation of the first solo exhibition of abstract artworks by the young artist Ellie Dunne.
Ellie was born in Dublin in 1999 and lives in Dublin City Centre. She is currently a student on the Art Portfolio course at Stillorgan College and she hopes to progress to art college in the future.
Ellie has been drawing and painting for more than a decade, but during Covid lockdown she had the opportunity to devote more time to her art, and to experiment with new paints and materials.
Ellie’s abstract work is striking and graphic, evidencing an exceptional sense of colour and a strong sense of pattern. She is an intense, focussed worker – it is as if her art emerges from deep within. Her ambition is to work at an ever-increasing scale.
Amongst the artists who inspire her are Anni Albers, William Crozier, Richard Gorman, Keith Haring, Mainie Jellett, Agnes Martin, Bridget Riley, and Sean Scully.
Last year Ellie collaborated with Miriam Cushen, a sixth-generation weaver from the family-owned Cushendale Woollen Mills in Co. Kilkenny, to produce a limited edition of blankets using indigenous Irish wool from the fleece of the protected ‘Galway’ sheep. She is currently working on designs for more blankets to be released later this year.
Ellie has Down Syndrome.
The exhibition at the Dower House Gallery at the CaToCa Café at Emo Court, in Emo, Co. Laois, will be the first major solo exhibition of Ellie’s work. It will run from Monday 4th April until Sunday 29th May 2022. Admission is free and the Gallery is open every day during the CaToCa Café’s opening hours.
