Kevin Cosgrove - A Workable Space

"A Workable Space", the title of Kevin Cosgrove´s solo exhibition at Galerie Lena Brüning, asserts an ongoing inquiry into an art practice depicting moments of hiatus within working environments. The notion of a workable space refers to a setting affording the means and manoeuvrability to complete a task. Like the title suggests Cosgrove’s interests lay less in outcomes and more in the in-between circumstances of production. Within this space activities may be ventured, lost or repeated. The emphasis is on undertaking. Also the title provides a none too coded reference to the subject matter: Workshops. This favourite tactic is akin to the artists’ use of self explanatory titles for individual works like Container Ship, Temporary Workshop, Fabrication Workshop (all 2010.) In such straightforward naming there appears a desire to forgo the suggestion of narrative offering only the art works contained experience. In this way these artworks aim to be autonomous and thus create a platform or space for their own existence.

Cosgrove’s paintings often depict unpopulated workspaces, commercial ships and vehicles, motor bikes and pleasure boats. The paintings are generally executed in an unassuming and laid back style, where a painterly naturalism is favoured over hard edge realism. Most paintings are made within a day and are executed wet on wet. There is an emphasis on working quickly and describing various details as efficiently as possible.

The paintings of interiors make careful use of manmade and natural light sources. Blended areas of shadow and neutral tints are infiltrated by light from windows or workshop doors. Artificial lighting is also described using a handful of recurring techniques such as sgraffito where the top layer of paint is removed or scraped to reveal the layer beneath. The use of light is equally purposeful in outdoor scenes provoking a feeling of fleeting brightness or changing weather.

Certain notions of skill, workmanship and competence inform the subject matter and paint application. In today’s context we might recognize these values as belonging to old fashioned traditions or out-moded eras in art history. This somewhat traditional approach is intrinsic to the artists own background and upbringing in a mining town in the east of Ireland.

Cosgrove is represented by Mother´s Tankstation in Dublin and will exhibit with them at LISTE Basel 2010. He is one of the winner’s of this years prestigious Jerwood Painting Prize, London and a "Workable Space" is his first solo exhibition in Berlin.

Kevin Cosgrove
A Workable Space