Lily-White
Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, 2006
Collecting for Ireland, Hunt Museum, Limerick, 2011
Into the Light-The Arts Council, Crawford Gallery, Cork, 2012
SuprEYES, Lexicon Gallery, Dun Laoghaire, 2017
"Nostalgia figures strongly in Lily-White. Gemma Browne refers to the work as an attempt to capture the freshness and
possibilities of youth, especially those of teenage girls, who represent a particular optimism for the future. She describes the
whiteness and blue skies as a way of conjuring up summer, holidays and carefree times.
Employing her composition technique of portraying the head and shoulders of the subjects, the work is a series of images of
young teenage girls on bright blue backgrounds. The slightly smiling girls exude innocence and childlike qualities, a self- assuredness and confidence that one does not usually associate with those so young. They seem to come from a gentler era and are without the quiet anxiety and unease that can be associated with our culture`s notions of youth."
"Browne does not present the teenage world as an ideal. She merely visually articulates certain admirable qualities that this world evokes. There is no judgement on the adult world or on the teenage world. The teenage world is not presented as something best
reclaimed or relived, but by merely evoking both nostalgia and positive qualities of youth, we question our adult aims and beliefs,
perhaps wishing for more carefree times."
Excerpts from essay by Ruth Carroll, Exhibitions Curator, RHA ,Dublin