There can be little to dispute the rationale behind bringing together Barrie Cooke and Brian Maguire into one exhibition. Naturally, two of Ireland's most prominent and influential artists demand attention. But it is the competabilty of the partnership which makes the show such a well-honed event, illustrating how both artists bring energy and vigour to the discipline of painting.
The selection of paintings and drawings by Barry Cooke stretch back 20 years, covering figure-based imagery and the closely related "Knot" paintings (at times the two seem to meld together as if they were part of the same series). In many of the paintings there is a perpetual conflict between discrete, silent passages of paint and bold structural shape and form - the tension between the two evolves into an elegant unified whole. In contrast, some of the charcoal drawings are more fragile, but by turns can be unequivocal in their depiction of sexual activity.
The human form also features strongly in Brian Maguire's paintings. The iconic Male Figure is particularly resonant of his tendency for sanctifying the secular - the painting becoming a shrine for venerating human frailty and vulnerability. Competing with the figure are abstracted emblematic symbols and the occasional reference to landscape. Bombers Aesthetic II is an edgy expressionist rendering of the latter - a beautiful swirl of crimson smoke left in the wake of the barbarous act referenced in the title. These paintings are layered in every sense - peel away one and there is another, raw and exposed beneath.
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