March 12 – April 25, 2009

Opening reception: Thursday, March 12, 6–8 pm

Artist Talk: 7 pm

Lora Reynolds Gallery is pleased to present our second exhibition with Irish artist, Tom Molloy, entitled Lucid.

Molloy’s work deals with current events including the economy, war, the media and other geopolitical issues, with a focus on the Unites States. Through his work the artist examines the global power of the United States, our attitudes toward war, and the influence the media has on our understanding of what is newsworthy. This exhibition will include new pieces made from United States currency, watercolor, collage, embroidery and pencil on paper.

For each of the six graphite drawings in ‘Lucid’, from which the show takes its title, Molloy has interwoven recognized war imagery with pornography. In doing so the artist raises moral and ethical questions about what is more socially acceptable and what role the media plays in society’s acceptance of each. Is it more acceptable to look at and to comment upon explicit sexual imagery or the horrific scenes of torture and death? 

In ‘Graven’ Molloy has appropriated imagery from the internet of the family members of suicide bombers holding photographs of their deceased relatives.  He has then erased the image in the held photograph and fastidiously redrawn the same image in pencil - reinforcing that the family member exists now only as a memory.

‘Behind Every Great Man’ is a commentary on the role of women in society. The work consists of cross-stitched portraits of all of the First Ladies of the United States. The work for this piece was executed by a woman, receiving minimum wage, performing classic ‘woman’s’ work. As with all of Molloy’s work, the results are delicately rendered, beautifully composed and possess a grace that is often at odds with the questions his work poses.

Tom Molloy was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1964. He lives and works in County Clare, Ireland, where he is a professor at Burren College of Art. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collection of the Irish Museum of Art, Dublin, Goldman Sachs, London, the National Self Portrait Collection, Limerick, Ireland, and the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin. His work was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at Solstice Art Center in County Meath, Ireland and he will have a solo exhibition at the Aldrich Museum, Connecticut in early 2010.