James Ireland

James Ireland was the recipient of the Arts Council England, South West Residency at Spike Island in 2003. Ireland makes sculpture that combines a minimalist aesthetic with the concerns of representing landscape in art. He often uses materials that have little connection to the natural world, such as steel, plastic or glass. His increasing reputation has led him to a solo show at the Economist Plaza in London this year.

He has made two prints with us: Tree and Quartz.

Quartz

James Ireland has produced a detailed drawing of a crystal. He says this about it: “The attraction of etching lies in its directness; there is a plate and a point to make a mark with. There really isn’t much room for error, you have to go with the marks – get them right or just leave them in! I was also attracted to the fact that the image is always reversed. I often use mirrors and mirroring in a lot of my sculptural work so the process felt appropriate.”‘A crystal is a geometric body with faces which are the external expression of the internal arrangement of atoms and molecules’
Bristol Museum, Geology section

The crystal form (the etching is based upon a quartz crystal) is a motif that appears in a number of my sculptural works that often appear as bolt on attachments. I read the definition above as a fantastic explanation of the forms we see around us, an explanation that presents the world as resulting from a mass of economic and cultural negotiations. Part of what I do as an artist is to draw out the relations between what we see and how it gets there, the relationship between the expression and the arrangement. I try to reflect this idea in the production of artwork. I set up a series of parameters, resulting from my concerns with how we depict and utilize our environment, and follow them through to generate work, not entirely sure what form the final work will result in.”

Artist: James Ireland

Title: Quartz, 2007
Medium: Etching
Size: 31cm x 31cm
Edition size: 40
No available: 40
Price: Framed £- / Unframed £450 ( £375 + VAT)

TREE

Artist: James Ireland
Title: Untitled
Medium: Etching
Size: 60cm x 60cm
Edition size: 100
No available: 35
Price: Framed £- / Unframed £490 (£450 + VAT)