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Susannah and the Elders by Jack Donovan
A slightly edited version of this piece appeared in the Sunday Times Culture magazine on the 6 April 2014
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John Shinnors is not a big fan of abstraction and the term conceptual is not permitted within his artistic lexicon. So it's no surprise that this City of Culture sponsored show has engendered some injured merit on the Limerick art scene. High-quality figurative art dominates - demonstrating his love of the old virtues of drawing and painting. The exhibition is confined to those associated over the years with the Limerick School of Art and Design, ether as students or as teachers. This embraces the venerable such as Jack Donovan and Tom Fitzgerald, the established such as Donald Teskey, Michael Canning and Diana Copperwhite, and relative neophytes like Nuala O'Sullivan and Gillian Kenny. Particularly eye-catching were an early work by Jack Donovan and Lorraine Wall's powerful homage to de Kooning.
Shinnors modestly omitted himself from the show. But there is a splendid piece of his on permanent exhibit in the gallery so perhaps he felt that sufficed. No sign of the Cork maverick Maurice Desmond either - another fine artist that emerged from the Limerick School.
Church Gallery
Mon-Wed: 9am-9pm
Thu-Fri: 9am-5pm
tel: 061 293870
John P. O'Sullivan
