Helen Merrigan Colfer
Fine Artist
Helen Merrigan Colfer is an award winning Irish Artist living along the southeastern Wexford coastline on the tip of the Hook Head Peninsula. Her studio is located almost within the shadow of the Hook Head Light House, one of the oldest working light houses in Europe.
Her work is predominantly sculpture, preferring the slow almost meditative pace which allows the work to evolve organically from itʼs initial concept to final completion. She allows herself to be open to changes influenced by fluctuating mood & atmosphere as this is all part of the natural process, to ebb & flow, embrace change & grow.
Her sculptures are detailed, precise & elegant, attempting to unify nature & humanity. They encompass an extensive combination of media & engage a wide range of skill sets & traditional techniques.
A select range of Helenʼs sculptures are available in bronze, usually in limited editions of 6, 9 or 15 which are cast in an Irish foundry using the lost wax technique. Each bronze piece is hand finished & further embellished personally by the artist herself using a range of enamels & finishes so that within each limited edition every individual piece is in itself also unique.
Helenʼs resin sculptures are hand built one off pieces that are individually hand modeled over steel armatures using a slow precise building process engaging both additive & reductive techniques. Once a piece is in itʼs final stage a range of decorative media such as handmade oil paints, enamels & 23 carat gold leaf is applied to the surface for embellishment before being sealed & embedded into itʼs polished granite base.
Photo Credits : Michael Duggan
Critic reviews:
“One of the more unusual exhibits is Helen Merrigan Colferʼs Tribe, a five-piece sculpture in steel, resin & granite that is a tour de force of craft. Each part of this assemblage of elaborately decorated figures is a stand-alone work of art”
The Sunday Times Critic John P. OʼSullivan Review of 138th Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition
“Helen Merrigan Colferʼs practice confronts strong themes with a thoughtful process inviting us to investigate a multilayered narrative. These vivid works offer much room for the imagination marrying a new sensibility with an old obsession with form, texture & light creating conversation between work & viewer”
Tony Strickland Independent Curator
“Each figure has a uniquely decorated dress, sometimes simply painted & other times adorned with a textured modeling allowing you to speculate, wonder or even consider that they are as Helen says ʻfragments of a much larger mindscape, giving a visual language allowing people to start conversations or even superimpose their own narrative....
This inventive show is a delight from a sculptor we see too little of. I hope we see Helenʼs work much more often at our northern galleries in the future”
The Belfast Telegraph Art Critic Elizabeth Baird Solo Exhibition ʻIn The Roundʼ The Devenish Gallery, Enniskillen, Fermanagh
"Renowned international artist & prolific Sculptor Helen Merrigan Colfer combines creativity & imagination in her unique way inviting the viewer to participate in a powerful dialogue with her work. She skillfully captures the surreal & sublime aspects of the human condition & the interplay of the fragile worlds we occupy."
Noelle McAlinden Artist & Curator FLive Board of Directors, Board Member ACNI & Council Member RUA