“Tend and Befriend”
2nd October – 20th November
Droichead Arts Centre has announced that Olga Duka is to be the first recipient in 2021 of their ‘First Solo’ Award which offers support and funding at a key point in the careers of professional visual artists in the North East region who have yet to present a solo show.
Previous recipients include Eimear Murphy, with her exhibition Shape, Heap; thing in 2018, and Sean McGuill, with The Great Filter in 2019.
Hailing from Ukraine, artist, wife, mother and friend who has inhabited five countries in eleven years, Olga Duka’s work and practice draws from experience and personal research into the uniquely female response to the stress – ‘tend and befriend’. The exhibition, which is free, opens on 2nd October and runs until 20th November.
Curated by Vivienne Byrne, this exhibition places women at the centre of changing seasons and landscapes. The work acknowledges the supportive value of female friendship when adapting to unfamiliar circumstances, environment, mentalities and codes of conduct, both real and imagined. These invaluable relationships offer welcome salve in the face of uncertainty.
Olga refers to a shared international cultural mythology relating female human nature to the landscape, which, like a forest’s interconnecting trees, creates a ‘tend and befriend’ response to protect its saplings and the health of the species. In its essence this exhibition is a celebration of kindness.
Olga Duka graduated from Kiev College of Decorative Arts and Design in 1997 as a Textile Artist and Designer. She has been working as a freelance artist specialising in fine and decorative arts as well as tapestry making and textile design. Olga expresses her own trans-cultural background through a unique combination of styles that is reminiscent of medieval art. Olga’s work has featured in group exhibitions in Ireland, Great Britain, Italy and Ukraine. Her paintings are represented in private collections in Ireland, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Japan, Mexico, USA and Ukraine. Olga recently participated in Droichead Connects.
Vivienne Byrne is a Drogheda based artist, curator and facilitator who’s multi- disciplinary practice engages both traditional art forms and contemporary technologies. Graduating from IADT Dun Laoghaire in 2009 with an Honours Degree in Visual Arts Practice she has been exhibiting and working in collaboration with artists, musicians, composers, theatre practitioners, and communities in her own locality and nationwide.
Due to the ongoing Covid19 Pandemic, visitor capacity in our gallery is limited. Please adhere to government guidelines by wearing a mask and maintaining a distance of 2 metres from others while visiting the gallery. You can find out more information on your visit and our Covid Protocols here.
