New exhibition by Naomi Draper opens at Roscommon Arts Centre

A new exhibition by Naomi Draper titled ‘but if I could understand what you are, root and all, and all in all’ opens at Roscommon Arts Centre this Friday July 12th at 6 p.m. and continues until August 31st.

This exhibition is the culmination of an extended period of related artistic and research engagement by Naomi with the arts centre.

The invitation to present this exhibition follows a three year curatorial residency that Naomi undertook at the gallery from 2021-2023. During this residency she maintained a studio practice where ideas were simultaneously explored in both her studio practice and her curatorial methodology. Both these practices were informed by an interest in the relationships between humans and other matter, the role process' of production plays in this negotiation, and the potential of materials as active participants in our development and learning.

The title for this exhibition is extracted from a poem by Alfred Tennyson which articulates his curiosity and bewilderment before a familiar object.

This body of sculptural, print and photographic works articulate Naomi’s fascination with the human desire and drive to preserve, protect and care for collected things.

Some of the objects she has been collecting and making explore the internal cavity of plants, seedpods, shells and other things, investigating unseen invisible hidden spaces. Their making comes from a desire to form a deep knowing and understanding of an object. Through a casting process she attempts to forge, establish and enable a relationship with an object she can never fully understand, access or grasp. The objects are not physically strong, requiring careful handling and storage, Naomi has made a series of soft sculptures that act as packages and beds for them to rest and lie safely within, as a way to further protect, preserve and archive her findings.

Naomi Draper is an artist and educator based in Boyle. She graduated from NCAD with a Bachelor of Design in 2007. Following an Erasmus programme at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, Prague, she received a scholarship to attend Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle. In 2011, she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Community Arts Education at NCAD.

Recent solo exhibitions include the Mattress Factory Art Museum, Pittsburgh (2020), Limerick City Gallery of Art (2018). She has participated on a number of residency programmes within contemporary art institutions, community and educational contexts including the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, LOCIS Residency at Residence Botkyrka, Sweden, and The Model, Sligo. She has most recently completed a three year curatorial residency at Roscommon Arts Centre.