Luca McAleese | Who Else am I to Become

“Who else am I to Become?
Exhibition: 03/02/2025 To 16/02/2025
Opening Reception: Friday 7th February 2025, 7pm to 9pm

This exhibition traces a year-long journey of creative exploration-an attempt to unearth deeper layers of identity, emotion and the unseen truths within myself.

Luca Mc Aleese is a charcoal artist whose work explores themes of grief and the difficulty of expressing emotions. After leaving an art course upon discovering that it did not align with his goals, he created pieces that challenge how we see and deal with our emotions. Drawing inspiration from Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and John Coplans work, This exhibition marks a significant step in his ongoing journey to push boundaries and invite dialogue about how we as humans deal with our emotions and grief.

At the heart of this body of work is a deep fascination with the human form, particularly how it can convey what words cannot. Using charcoal and chalk-materials both raw and elemental-Mc Aleese seeks to capture emotions that are elusive, fleeting, and often beyond language.

This process led him to ask: He wanted to see what remained after we remove the most expressive parts of the human face-the eyes, the features that communicate so much? He wanted to see what would remain when the familiar was stripped away. Could the essence of a person, or an emotion, still be felt in the absence of what we are conditioned to see as vital? Removing these features did not diminish the emotional impact; in fact, it intensified it. The absence of the eyes, the windows to the soul, seemed to open up an entirely new way of perceiving the body, the emotions, and the meaning behind a piece. In this absence he began to find more.

Can less truly become more? How can the removal of something create a deeper emotional resonance?He found that by removing details,he was able to distill the essence of the emotion he was trying to convey. It became a process of subtraction, where taking away elements allowed the core of the work to surface in ways he had not anticipated.

The emptiness of the faces in these drawings invites viewers to fill in the gaps with your own emotions, your own interpretation. It creates a raw and immediate connection between viewers and the artwork.

This exhibition serves as a visual journal of Mc Aleese’s journey through the unknown aspects of himself. Just as viewers are invited to engage with the unseen, so too is Mc Aleese engaging with the parts of myself that are hidden, yet yearning to be understood. It serves as an attempt to visually articulate emotions I have not yet fully comprehended. An ongoing dialogue between the artist and the work.

Instagram: artbyluca23
Tiktok: @lucadoesart23

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Date

03 - 16 Feb 2025
Ongoing...

Time

10:00 am - 5:00 pm

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Location

Signal Arts Centre
1a Albert Ave, Bray, Co. Wicklow
Category

Organizer

Signal Arts Centre
Phone
01 276 2039
Email
info@signalartscentre.ie
Website
https://www.signalartscentre.ie
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