Macroom artist’s show is inspired by docklands

A CORK artist who was educated in Macroom, and who will be a finalist in the next series of Sky’s Landscape Artist of the Year, will open her first Cork solo exhibition next month.

‘Docklands’ is Celina Buckley’s first solo exhibition in Cork and features a collection of fine art collages, mostly created on location over a period of two years. 

The exhibition started with the news that the 33.3m high iconic R&H Hall building which has dominated the skyline in the city’s docklands for 90 years would be demolished. 

Celina visited the docklands one morning last year to preserve the history of the building by making a fine art collage on location. This then went on to inspire an entire exhibition. ‘Art must defend the uncertain. Nothing is a finished project, always a beginning,’ says the Rylane woman who went to St Mary’s Secondary School in Macroom.

She added that it would be wonderful if a space for artists existed on the Cork docklands site which is due to be redeveloped very soon. ‘In Dublin, the port company and the Arts Council are working together to explore the options of creating an artists’ campus within the Odlums Flour Mills site,’ she pointed out.

Her art is created through the medium of collage. Using print-making techniques she learned in the print room at Cambridge School of Art; her collage papers are prepared using oil-based etching inks, an etching press and by mono-printing various textures onto the surfaces.

Almost all of her fine art collages are created on location from observation, and if needs be, finished in her studio. The human and natural environment are a living source of inspiration for her collages. 

As an emerging artist Buckley’s work has been exhibited in Cill Rialaig, Ballinskelligs, in 2021 and at Ranelagh Arts in Dublin in September 2022. She received an agility award from the Arts Council last year which has helped make her Docklands exhibition possible. Earlier this year, Celina was selected as a finalist on Sky TV’s Landscape Artist of the Year (UK and Northern Ireland) show, when she submitted one of her Docklands creations with her application – the R&H Hall collage. This piece will be included in her exhibition. The Sky series is due to be shown next spring.

Docklands will be opened at 5.30pm on Thursday November 3rd at Spaces, 1 Horgan’s Quay, Cork.

The event is free but places are limited. However, no booking is required to view the exhibition during the following opening hours: Tuesday November 1st – Friday November 4th, from 11am to 4pm.

Celina will be on site during the times above to chat to people about her work or email her at [email protected]