Eileen Hogan: Personal Geographies

A solo exhibition focusing on two dominant themes - enclosed gardens and portraiture. Through painterly analysis Hogan explored the importance of green spaces in an urban environment. She investigated an expanded notion of what gardens are, their dynamics, the way that they are used, the patterns of life they generate and their impact on health. As well as work dating back to her student days Hogan exhibited a new series of paintings concerned with the notions of control and randomness, routines (her own and others), exclusivity and inclusion in relation to gardens. Hogan has also used painting to sustain a visual reflection on biography, self-image, trace and formality in portraiture. The exhibition contained paintings based on her collaboration with the oral history charity, National Life Stories, at the British Library, where she worked with an oral historian to establish the impact that a detailed narration of a life story might have on a sitter’s presence.