PRESS RELEASE  

PARALLAX 1977 - 2007 by Colin McGookin. A personal retrospective selection.
Higher Bridges Gallery, Clinton Centre Enniskillen June 28 - July 26, 2007

In this exhibition of paintings, drawings and constructions the artist takes us on a personal journey through his career as a visual artist. The tour starts in 1977 when he took a break from his art college fine art course to work in London and then Crete. It continues to the present day with work made during an academic year long residency at Devenish College in Enniskillen which finished in May 2007.
Although this is not a definitive selection it is an important sketch of the path the artist has taken in coming to terms with our world and finding a visual vocabulary to communicate through his art work. We hope it serves to illuminate his various phases of work and encourage a larger more in depth retrospective exhibition of his prolific output over the last 30 years.
The artist says of this selection "It has been fun to sit back and take stock of my output and select key works to help put the imagery into context. As you grind on daily as an artist you do not notice the shifts your artwork takes. It is a pleasant surprise to see how different some series are to each other but it is also reassuring to see that there is a thread running through them all and that you have tried to be true to yourself in the work whether successfully or not".
Based in Belfast with his wife and two children Colin has long associations with Fermanagh. His 95 year old maternal grandmother was born in Brookborough and he has relatives still living in the Tempo and Enniskillen area.