Christmas Exhibition

EIGHT artists are catalogued in this exhibition showing print, sculpture, and more commonly, painting. Sean McSweeney's oils indicate less structure than previous works, allowing a more direct relationship between land and sky. In Saltwater Land, the thick buttery paint translates subtly into such details as buildings, fields and hedgerows. Tim Goulding's Crossing II is notable for its introduction of a diagonal linear structure and opaque paint - features which are different from his more familiar transparent layerings.

Michael Cullen's sustains his cowboy/artist alter-ego through either a graphic expressionist style, or a formidable impasto like Death of a Consul, where the images are buried deep within the thick paint. Bridget Flannery moves ever further away from fixed reference points within the landscape, as the main focus is the nicely poised relationship between collage and gently textural paint effects.

Noel O'Callaghan has developed a fairly distinctive drawing style which has arisen from resolute study of the human figure. The pen and wash piece - Male Nude, is an interesting clash of strong tonal balances with sharp linear outline. Dermot McCarthy's hand coloured etchings have an illustrative, yet playful and idiosyncratic quality.

The sculptural contribution comes from only two artists. Roger Hannam's bronze figures are strange hybrids with lanky legs and squat torsos, described through a textured green patina which contrasts nicely with the highly burnished details of a tapering head and truncated arms. Finally, James McCarthy shows three figure pieces in different styles, the most unusual being an untitled grouping made from sheet copper who act out some religious or ritual ceremony.