Mary Goss is a Newry based Fine Art printmaker. She obtained a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at the Southern Regional College, Newry Campus, in June 2013. She graduated with a First Class Honours classification in the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree programme at The Belfast School of Art on The Ulster University’s Belfast Campus in July 2017

Her work has been represented in the following exhibitions:

• 2018: Emergence, group exhibition, Queen Street Studios (QSS), Bedford Street, Belfast.
• 2017-18: 8th Lessedra International Painting and Mixed Media Exhibition, Lessedra Gallery & Contemporary Art Project, 25 Milin Kamak Street, Lozenetz, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria.
• 2017: heART OF HOPE, NI Hospice group exhibition, Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast.
• 2017: Stretch, Creative Spark members’ exhibition in An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk, Co Louth.
• 2017: Royal Ulster Academy of Arts 2017 exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast.
• 2017: Unfolding, group exhibition, in Spy Pond Gallery, Newcastle, Co. Down.
• 2017: 16th Lessedra World Art Print Annual Mini Print, Lessedra Gallery & Contemporary Art Project, 25 Milin Kamak Street, Lozenetz, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria.
• 2017: Closure, Arts & Culture Society UUSU, members’ exhibition, The Engine Room Gallery, Donegall Square South, Belfast.
• 2016: Collective Memories, Arts & Culture Society UUSU, members’ exhibition, The Engine Room Gallery, Donegall Square South, Belfast.
• 2016: Ulster University Fine Art Printmakers, group exhibition, Seacourt Print Workshop, Bangor, Co Down, Northern Ireland.
• 2015: Ulster University Fine Art Printmakers, group exhibition, Georgian College, School of Design & Visual Art, Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
• 2014: Half Way There, group exhibition, Orpheus Building, Ulster University, Belfast School of Art, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Samples of her work are held in the Ulster University Print Archive and in private collections in Belfast, Glasgow, Leeds and London.

She was an active participant in a two day, UUB-based, workshop on the use of print in ceramics led by renowned ceramic artist Paul Scott in December 2015

Volunteering in the Arts Community: Mary has been a set designer and painter with a highly respected Northern Ireland amateur drama society for many years; her involvement with shows touring on the Ulster and All Ireland amateur drama circuit has seen her designs adapted for stages as diverse as those of The Grand Opera House, Belfast, The Little Theatre, Bangor, and The Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

She is committed to raising levels of inclusivity in the performing arts, and to the development of performance opportunities in Music, Dance and Speech for people of all ages; she is the Administrator of Newry Musical Feis, the largest festival for multi-disciplinary, adjudicated performance in Europe, and Chair of the Northern Ireland Festivals Forum. She is registered as a volunteer researcher with The Newry & Mourne Museum at Bagenal’s Castle and is a regular contributor to the exhibitions held there.

Work Experience in the Arts:
She is a member of the General Teachers Council of Northern Ireland [GTCNI]. Upon completion of a Postgraduate Certificate in Education with teaching practice in Geography, English and Art & Design, she taught Art to Key Stage Three students for seven years.

I use a wide range of fine art printmaking processes and a number of mark-making techniques to investigate aspects of the natural world.

My works range in size from micro images (<1 x 1cm) drawn onto glass slides and viewed through a microscope, to copper etchings and screen-prints on paper, and hand-drawn pieces on True Grain that are approximately 100 x 70 cm.

My ongoing research is focused on the human brain and its capacity for recovery, change and growth. Initially, in order to build my knowledge of brain structure at macro and micro levels, I concentrated on a study of 21st century, digitally-generated imagery and current text books. However, I was soon drawn back to the mid–to-late 19th century and early 20th century drawings of Spanish and Italian histologists, in particular Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camillo Golgi, who were seeing, and attempting to understand the functioning of, cells in the brain for the first time. I have a long-standing interest in neuroplasticity; the ability of the brain to evolve, regenerate, compensate, and adjust to new challenges. In my work as a counsellor/psychotherapist, I have seen how consistent practice and determination on the part of an individual will bring about significant changes that can only be made possible by the patient formation of new neural pathways and the conscious and unconscious abandoning of old, habitual patterns that gradually fade as new thought processes and behaviours become the norm. Paradoxically, as my research has expanded my technical knowledge and understanding I have been drawn more deeply into the world of neuroscience, simply by the immense beauty of what is hidden there. My current work, the early stages of a more extensive study, pays homage to Ramón y Cajal, Golgi, and their peers, and carries a reminder of how little thought many of us give to the brain and its exquisite combination of vulnerability and resilience.

Our brain is a place of complete darkness yet it controls everything that we use to access the world. Each of our lives is, or will be, touched by the consequences of brain functions that are not adhering to the norm. Through the work that is presented in this exhibition I hope to entice the viewer into the little known, and constantly evolving, landscape of the brain, and to trust each individual to find what he or she needs most within its delicate shapes and patterns.