A new exhibition will open the Jennings Gallery at 6:15pm on Thursday, 10th September.

Entitled Etched, this is artist Adelina Billur's first solo exhibition in Ireland.

Etched revolves around change as the only true constant in life - imperfect, permanent, and ongoing. 

Join us for the launch of this exciting exhibition on 10th September in the Jennings Gallery, Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, UCC.

Adelina Billur is a Russian-born, Bangladeshi Canadian visual artist working in painting, drawing, and lithographic printmaking. Largely self-taught, she began painting at ten; being ranked "Top in the World" in her Cambridge O Level Art examinations - a global ranking across all international candidates - convinced her to take it seriously.

She went on to study Visual Arts alongside Biology at the University of British Columbia. Her practice has always run parallel to a life in science: she spent the pandemic years in biotech, working in quality control on lipid nanoparticles for mRNA vaccines, before leaving the lab to pursue her current training in dental surgery at University College Cork.

Her practice began in realism and gradually evolved into naturalistic surrealism, often employing a sense of symmetry and aiming to make pieces that elicit an emotional response in the viewer. Drawing on a diverse array of cultural experiences, she explores the struggles of adjusting to, and ultimately accepting, new emotional landscapes. She has previously exhibited in Canada and Bangladesh.

Etched

In the first series, portraits of elderly strangers sit alongside ornate lithographs. It is a study of irreversible progression, visible only to us over time, every wrinkle intimately capturing the richness of a life lived and every pattern evoking a sense of continuity.

The second series began with my mother: nineteen, raising me through her undergraduate degree with minimal financial support, far from home, my father completing his PhD in another city. The emergency C-section we both survived ended the carefree version of her overnight, and like countless other female Homo sapiens before her, she instantaneously became self-sacrificial. Our first home together was her university dorm room. Her story unfolds through romanticized biological symbolism and metaphor.

© Adelina Billur, courtesy of The Jennings Gallery