Gillian Lever & Clement McAleer
8th January - 12th February, 2009
New works straight from the studios of Gillian Lever and Clement McAleer, launch Art First's 2009 exhibition programme

Music is the formative source of inspiration for Lever, combining with her interest in architectural spaces and an engagement with abstraction's non-verbal, non-narrative roles. Suffused with an inner light, dense colour is built up from scraped surfaces and underlying layers to create a tension between vertical and horizontal elements. The affinity of her work with musical expression merges with a sculptural dimension, resulting in something precious and contemplative, but also seductive, beautiful and resolute.

Rooted firmly within the landscapes of Ireland, McAleer's paintings present us with shifting impressions - the imagery is at once descriptive and abstracted, fixed and fluid. These canvases explore the subject temporally as well as physically - in each brushstroke McAleer captures the light and essence of his subject - glimpsed, but not frozen, in time.