Exhibition running from 4th – 20th October 2018, Monday – Saturday, 12pm – 5.30pm, The Belltable, Limerick.
‘Anthology’ is an art exhibition of selected drawings and prints by Helena Grimes. The artworks on show emerge from Grimes’ last four years of practice, presented in The Belltable as part of The Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival.
Grimes is an Irish artist and illustrator based in Limerick, originally from Longford. Since graduating from Limerick School of Art and Design in 2014, Grimes’s drawings have established a distinctive style, with each new piece exploring a new boundary and seeking to tell a different tale.
Grimes’ familiar line drawings act like fables. The whimsical creatures in her compositions act as metaphors of the human mind, present at different stages of social challenges. The environments portray a layer of familiarity; intertwined with dream-like elements to isolate the mind and hold the gaze of the viewer, enabling a deep engagement with their own subconscious. Her work addresses timeless themes of grief, anxiety, power and regeneration, which become infused with the artist’s inner most thoughts, mythology and fragments of her imagination.
The artist describes having an addictive relationship with drawing. It is her agency to reflect, release tensions, and to understand human society and inner self. Inspiration comes from the natural world, fairytales, mythology, books, people and life itself.
Helena Grimes’ work has been exhibited in various locations nationally as well as internationally in the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Egypt, Turkey and the USA. Her work has been purchased for several private collections in Ireland, the UK and the USA, as well as municipal art collections. In 2015, her work ‘Every Soul has a Dark Forest’ was commissioned by the University of Limerick for their collection. The accordion book went on to win an award at ABLE in February 2016. She was nominated for Screaming Pope Prize in June 2016. Her solo show ‘A Fine Line’ opened October 2017 in Limerick.