David Ireland

Encouraged by Aurobora’s policy to work with artists in improvisational and experimental ways outside of their traditional mediums, David Ireland arrived at Aurobora wanting to explore the possibilities of creating images which might be consistent with his own concerns.  The concept that an artist’s signature might be the most compelling thing in a work of art, raising issues of value, recognition, and ultimately ego, engendered a series of images where the artist printed his initials (using mylar stencils inked in various colors) over a broadly painted monotype.

Ireland proceeded to develop new ideas and approaches as his residency continued, creating minimal works from found plates.  Ireland would allow only the plate tone to predominate the compositional field and then retrieve the scars and imperfections inherent in the found plates.  In another suite of prints, Ireland inked varying lengths of string placed upon an unincised plate.  The results were delightfully surprising and enforced the underlying message of all Ireland’s works: that beauty is to be found in the everyday and unexpected.

AUROBORA PROJECTS

February / August 1995

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California; Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California; Oakland Museum, Oakland, California; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California; Whatcom Museum of Art and History, Bellingham, Washington; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts; University of Californian, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah; Norton Family Foundation; Di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA