Exhibition: ABSENCE - PRESENCE

Europa Gallery, 11 Chatham Street (Europa Experience), Dublin 2.

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These figures embody a spectrum of creative and spiritual vocations—healer, mystic, writer, musician, and painter. Each negotiated systems that constrained women’s authority, yet each found ways to assert an enduring cultural and spiritual presence. This work does not attempt literal portraiture—particularly given the absence of any true historical depiction of Brigid, the artist sought to step outside the vernacular of traditional female devotional imagery, turning to symbol, where the work investigates presence through absence, The cloak serves as the central metaphor of the exhibition. It becomes a non-figurative embodiment of the collective experience of these women: a form that contains, protects, and simultaneously reveals and withholds. The cloak suggests a quiet power and an active silence—a space in which complexity is held rather than simplified. It gestures toward an ecumenical, maternal lineage that predates and transcends doctrinal divisions. In this context, the cloak welcomes those historically marginalised or excluded, gathering their stories without imposing a singular identity or image. It resists the visual language often applied to female sanctity and instead offers a vessel for multiplicity, ambiguity, and resilience. Through this symbolic gesture, the exhibition honours the profound, lasting influence of these women—not through depiction, but through the evocative presence of what remains when literal representation is set aside.

 

Artist Bio: Catherine Greene

 

Catherine E Greene  is an established figurative sculptor working in bronze and latterly mixed media. Her versatile output ranges from large scale civic, to private commission and large exhibition pieces to smaller sculptures which explore the figure in the context of the sensual and often surreal world which they inhabit. Major commissions include the equestrian memorial of the patriot Thomas Francis Meagher in Waterford, the Memorial to the much-loved comedian Dermot Morgan, Merrion Square in Dublin; and the central Altarpiece sculpture of the crucified Christ in the new basilica Fatima Portugal.

 

Education

  1. National College of Art and Design,
  2. HDip in education NCAD
  3. lectured in sculpture, College of Marketing & Design, Dublin.

 

Solo Exhibitions

  1. The Irish Architectural Archive Dublin
  2. The Narrow Space Clonmel, Paris Drawings
  3. The City House Assembly Rooms Dublin
  4. Cross Gallery, Dublin
  5. 2002 Solomon Gallery, Dublin.
  6. 1993 Kenny Gallery, Galway.
  7. Two woman show in the Hamilton Gallery Sligo with Painter Martina Hamilton

 

SELECTED PUBLIC COMMISSIONS

  1. The Anatomy Room. The Royal College of Surgeons Ireland
  2. Sutherland School of law, University College Dublin
  3. Two1.5metrefiguresforArdscoile Na Trionoide School, Athy.
  4. Two 2 metre figures for prosperous, Co. Kildare
  5. 5metre figure of Christ on a 7-metre cross for the new Basilica in Fatima Portugal
  6. Memorial to General Thomas Francis Meagher, Waterford City 2006
  7. Allied Irish Bank. Angels Court, London
  8. Memorial to Dermot Morgan, Merrion Sq. Dublin
  9. Angels Quest, St John of Gods Glenageary, Dublin
  10. Mount Anville School Dublin.