You are cordially invited to attend a reception for

Shanghai Ritual

an exhibition by William Hamilton and Diarmait Grogan.

The Reception will take place at the Gallery at Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise
on Saturday 28th February at 7pm

The images in Shanghai Ritual represent a year photographing the night-time streets of Shanghai. Together, Grogan and Hamilton took to the streets with their cameras at night, allowing themselves to be led by their own sense of intrigue to the areas that fascinated them. These outings became a regular fixture of their lives in Shanghai, and gradually an unconventional map of this enormous city began to take shape.

Shanghai Ritual is essentially a work of fiction, wrenched from reality. This is an imaginary city, the combined impressions of two artists who sought to consolidate their conflicting senses of disconnection and empathy while living abroad. Ultimately, it is a tribute to a vibrant place, caught between times, that will soon be changed forever.

The exhibition runs until March 22, 2015

'New Way Home' at Soundcloud HQ, Berlin

Some shots from the opening night of 'New Way Home' in the amazing Soundcloud headquarters in Berlin. A really special place to exhibit my work. The show opened at the end of last month, and will be hanging for three whole months! Many thanks to the wonderful Lisa Schröter, of This Love Is Deadly, for making it happen.

   

           

    

                   

  

There There/Post-Script

Image by Lydia Panas

'There There' is a photographic event taking place in Cork city, a small festival organised by curatorial team Stag and Deer. The event features exhibitions and talks by local photographic artists Roseanne Lynch and Miriam O'Connor, as well as a very exciting group show and solo exhibitions by Dutch artist Viviane Sassen and Zhang Kechun from China.

Opening on Friday as part of the lineup is 'Post-Script', an exhibition curated by Peggy Sue Amison. This show deals with the idea of connection and disconnection in today's ostensibly 'hyperconnected' world. In an interesting twist, Peggy invited selected artists from around the world to send her work on this theme by post alone. The results should be very interesting, particularly considering the incredible list of participants that, I'm delighted to say, includes me.

Check out the current roster:

Michael Ackerman, Nadav Kander, Aaron Schuman, Jenny Matthews, Lydia Panas, Billy Quinn, Émilie Delugeau, Charlie Jouvet, April Gertler, Britney Anne Majure, Gilles Roudiere, Mirjam Siefert, Zoltán Jókay, Jessica Hines, Eoin O'Connail, Germán Peraire, Rory Tangeny, Roger Ballen, Arja Hyytiäinen, Lana Slezic, Barry W Hughes, Mila Teshaieva, Stéphane C, Roy Arenella, Russell Joslin, Damien Daufresne, Markéta Luskačová, Harri Pälviranta, Tiane Do Na Champassak, Olivier Pin-Fat, Kai-Olaf Hesse, Eva Wollenberg, Paul Corcoran, Alessandra Capodacqua, Karl Burke, Mark Curran, Dara McGrath, Chris Rauchenberg, Monika Merva, Letitia Huckaby, Daniel Nicoletta, Clare Gallagher, Carolle Benitah, Marie Brett, Stefania Sapio, Diarmait Grogan, Max de Esteban, Christian Schilt, Agnieszka Rayss, Helena Tobin, Yoko Naito, Wasma Mansour.

All of the above names are well worth googling, if you aren't familiar with them already. There are apparently more to be named too. I only wish I could be around to see the results.

For those of you in Ireland, the show will open on Friday the 19th of October in the Camden Palace Hotel, Cork, at 8pm.

The launch of There There will take place tonight at 6pm at The Crawford Art Gallery.

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Edit: Below is the only installation shot I could get of my piece in 'post SCRIPT'.

Take Another Left at 'Block T', Dublin - Installation Shots

'Take Another Left' - Opening Night

Photos by Ashley Loftus.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped us out in the lead up to and during the exhibition, in particular: Grace, Ben, Colin, Miriam, Dorje, Pat, Jerry, Billie, Mella, David, Kate, Tansy, Ashley, Paul, Ciara and the rest of the PhotoIreland volunteers, Angel and Claudi, Nick and all the crew in Block T. Thanks to Becks for providing the beer, and finally - thanks to everyone who came along! It was a great night!

It was a pleasure and a privilege to show my work alongside Shane's. You can see some of his amazing work here.

Congratulations to Patrick Hough and Niall O'Brien who also had openings in Block T on the night, as well as Mella Travers whose exhibition 'Liquidity' was already underway in the upstairs gallery. All three exhibitions were first class.


EDIT:

Niamh Ní Shúilleabháin of Irish language radio station Raidió na Life was in Block T on the night with her microphone at the ready. She recorded an interview with me which was broadcast in the greater Dublin area. You can listen to it here - my interview is about 10 minutes into the show.

Take Another Left

This year's PhotoIreland Festival is shaping up to be something really special, so it gives me even greater pleasure to announce that I will be exhibiting alongside the extremely talented Shane Connaughton as part of the programme (Shane has just been featured in the latest issue of Viewfinder magazine. Check it out here).

'Take Another Left' opens in Block T on the 7th of July. More details can be found here (feel free to click the 'like' button on the event page to put us in with a chance of winning the 'people's choice' award this year!).

Have a look at the festival programme, it's absolutely jam-packed with exciting events, lectures and exhibitions. I'm particularly looking forward to the talks by Martin Parr, Markus Schaden and Bruno Ceschel (of Self-Publish, Be Happy).

A lot of credit has to go to Angel Luis Gonzalez, the creator and director of the festival, for curating such an inclusive and well-rounded event. Roll on July!

'Slippy Floor' Exhibition

Some shots from 'Slippy Floor'.

I was really happy to be able to make it to the opening night and to meet such great photographers as Charlie Jouvet, Thorsten Kirschhoff, Peer Kugler and Damien Daufresne.

Thanks to all the team behind Pavlov's Dog, especially Mirjam Siefert - another teriffic photographer - for asking me to take part.

'Slippy Floor' Group Exhibition at Pavlov's Dog Gallery, Berlin

I'm very happy to be taking part in 'Slippy Floor', a group-exhibition of more than 80 photographers from all over the world. The show takes place in the recently-opened Pavlov's Dog photography gallery in Berlin. There are some fantastic artists involved and the salon-style hanging promises to be quite something to see, so if you're in town do drop in for a look.

Vernissage: Thursday the 7th of April

Dates: 8th April - 25th of May

Featuring: Thomas Ruff, Ali Kepenek, Thomas Hoeffgen, Eva Leitolf, André Rival, Charlie Jouvet, Michael Wolf, Michael Wesely, Julian Röder, Arja Hyytiäinen, Sascha Weidner, Morten Andersen, Olaf Unverzart, Jan von Holleben, Andy Kania, Yann Gross, Thorsten Kirschhoff, Anatol Kotte, Robert Eikelpoth, Armin Smailovic, Oliver Sieber and many others.

New Way Home - Installation Shots