Waterford College of Further Education officially opened its annual Art and Design/ Photography Exhibition recently. The exhibition is a showcase of the best work by students of Art and Design Level 5, Photography Level 5, Journalism and Photography, Level 5 and Advanced Certificate in Photography, Level 6.

Opening the event, Principal of WCFE, Gerard Morgan said that the exhibition was once again the benchmark for artistic study in the South East. Head of Art Department, Ann O’Regan echoed this, adding, “We have the longest running art portfolio course in the South East and we pride ourselves on our creative and innovative approach to art education, particularly through mixed media and sculpture”. Head of Photography, Margaret O’Brien Moran said that WCFE is unique in that it is the only FE college in the South East that can offer both progression on site but also a comprehensive approach to photographic techniques, both contemporary and traditional.

As always, the work is entirely stunning and a must see for anyone interested in art or photography, particularly those who might wish to pursue a career in these fields.

The exhibition is spread across 5 exhibition spaces. The Art and Design section allows the viewer to experience the main modules of study in corporeal form; painting, drawing, sculpture and combined materials. Each piece carries a brief description of the muse and inspiration that led to its creation. Many sculptures centre around the theme of morphology, the evolution of shape and form, particularly through animal sculptures. Nature is guided through weave and combustion into three dimensional form. Creation is everywhere.

The mother conflict which bears creation is represented too, most notably in a work by Brian Norris, entitled ‘Rising Angel’. The piece is inspired by the song, ‘For Sale’, where the conflict between Lucy (Lucifer) and an angel hangs hauntingly in the space just out of reach.
This is an exhibition which looks upon the artist as both creator and destroyer, the inferno of imagination, what is and what becomes.
This feeling of being in an almost sacred space continues into the photographic exhibition. Everywhere there is conflict and harmony, light and shade, posed and focused, unfocused and wild. It is a theatre of lens, the paper stage of the photograph, moments caught upon the eternal roll that is time. Beauty is everywhere, digitized sacred geometry. All aspects of photographic composition are on show. The exhibition is designed to involve the visitor and to allow them to be ‘in the photograph’. The gentle evening sunlight binds the images into one steady gaze and the feeling, as one walks through the images, is that one is a God, omniscient in a prism of a captured world.

This is a very special exhibition and is open to the public until the 26th May. If art or photography are your thing, come rule the universe in this, most beautiful of spaces

Apply online at wcfe.ie for Art, Photography and Journalism & Photography courses