Máirín Grant & Kenji Nagai

September 5 – 29 2013

Views from the Cliffs is a collaboration planned site-specifically for H Project Space. Máirín Grant is based in Ireland and Kenji Nagai in Japan and both artists exchange and respond to each other’s artworks as an on-going project of mutual influence which began four years ago. The collaboration started when Grant first met Nagai in Europe and later visited Japan where she became influenced by Shinto culture, a spiritual practice of linking the present with the past and which reflects ideas about the elements and seasons of the natural world.

H Project Space has fitted a selection of their works within the given architectural structure, providing a dialogue between the ebbs and flows of artistic responses to nature and the historic as well as structural context of the space. This dialogue is enriched by the conceptual correspondences yet stylistic differences between two artists who work out of very different traditions. Views From The Cliffs provides a fascinating insight into the possibilities provided by shared knowledge, transnational communication and interwoven sensibilities.

Máirín Grant is based in Dunmore East, County Waterford in Ireland. Grant has received a number of awards including the RHA Thomas Dammann Junior Bursary, Arts Council Travel Bursary and an award from Karlsruhe International Photographic Exhibition. Solo exhibitions include Niš (2007), Serbia; Grünberg (2006), Germany; and GRACE (2005) at the Granary Gallery in Waterford. Group exhibitions include EV+A (2006), Limerick, curated by Katerina Gregos; Granary and Dyehouse Galleries (1999), Waterford; and Iontas: National Small Works (1995, 1994, 1993 & 1991) which travelled to Sligo, Dublin and Belfast.

Kenji Nagai is based in Tokyo and graduated from Musashino Art University. He has held solo exhibitions at KOBO Gallery (2010, 2012) and The Tolman Collection (2008, 2012), both in Tokyo. Recent group exhibitions include  1st International Print Triennial (2011), Serbia and Drawing: The Ability of the Conscious Hand (2009) at Musashino Art University.