Munster
Burren in Bloom
11th May – 2nd June
The Russell Gallery, New Quay, Co. Clare
The Russell Gallery, New Quay, Co. Clare presents a paintings & drawing exhibition Burren in Bloom, a collection of work by Carles Casasin, Will Gillchrist, Siobhan Leonard, Emma Stewart-Liberty, Jole Bortoli, Belinda Fair, Michael Hanrahan, Ross Stewart. The show will kick off on Saturday 11 of May at 6pm and will be launched by Stephen Ward, Director of the Burrenbeo Trust that organise the Ballyvaughan May festival.
This is an annual appointment at the Russell Gallery is running alongside other events that bring the focus on the Burren in its diversity and beauty at the time of the arrival of spring; each time the art exhibition offers you an inspiring insight of this unique and dramatic landscape with its mountains, the rocks, the sea, its flowers and the wild life.
The Russell Gallery every year offers the opportunity to many artists to give their interpretation and their emotional response to the theme of the Burren in Bloom. Each year the combination of art work is different and exciting also because of the variety and creativity of many artists that this country produce.
All the artists involved share a deep understanding of the environment of the Burren and their talent and competent artistic merits make this exhibition a wonderful experience. Don’t miss this opportunity to visit the Burren and the Russell Gallery, now also open with coffee, teas and wine bar.
This exhibition will run until the 2nd of June.
For more details visit the website www.russellgallery.net or call 065-7078185.
- “The Future is Domestic!” to feature artists from Estonia, Ireland and Latvia
Local and international artists will gather in North Clare from May 12-19th for a unique pan-European art project marking Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of Europe.
The week-long residency programme will see artists living and working in the rural domestic setting of Mrua Studios at Monreal North in Ennistymon to question the conflation of domestic and public spaces. The artists will research the theme of “The Future is Domestic!” through workshops, presentations and group discourse.
The initiative is being hosted by the Arts Office of Clare County Council and Outrider Artists as part of the Culture Connects national programme.
Amongst those attending the workshop will be artists from MoKs (Centre for Art and Social Practice) in Estonia and SERDE, a centre for art, folklore and heritage in Lativia, along with an informal association of artists based in rural North Clare named Outrider Artists.
MoKS, SERDE and the invited artists participating in the workshops will give public presentations at the beginning and at the end of the weeks’ work in the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, to a public audience. The free events take place on Sunday 12th May (3-5pm) and Saturday, 18th May (3-5pm).
For more information visit www.the-future-is-domestic.blogspot.com or email thefutureisdomestic@gmail.com.
Off Season
Trudi van der Elsen, Curator
4th – 30th May | Opening: 4th May at 4pm
The Courthouse Gallery, Parliament Street, Ennistymon, Co. Clare
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 4pm
The concept of Off Season comes from the months when holiday homes/villages are unoccupied, the atmosphere this creates and the sense of life in suspended animation; reminiscent of the famine villages.
Shops in small, seaside towns waiting for the tourist business to come back; colourful playgrounds and amusements sitting empty.
Unlike the famine villages there is a justifiable expectation of renewed life but for the moment – ‘Off Season’- they are virtually deserted. Buildings and amenities lose their function. There is a dereliction that creates an atmosphere that, not surprisingly, has suggested itself as the setting for menacing tales to unfold in, in both literature and film.
There is also a great beauty to this abandonment; it allows everything to be seen at its most fundamental, allowing a clarity of vision and attention to detail impossible during high season. Since moving from city life to a seaside village five years ago this aesthetic has seeped into my consciousness and ‘Off Season’ is my attempt to portray its desolate beauty.
Niall Kerrigan is an award winning graphic designer originally from Dublin, now based in Killala, County Mayo. Since moving to Mayo, he has documented the area he lives and works in through the medium of photography which includes his first major body of work; Derelict: Silent & Still an exhibition inspired by the architecture of abandonment.
The Fabric of the West of Ireland
Trudi van der Elsen, Curator
4th – 30th May | Opening: 4th May at 4pm
The Courthouse Gallery, Parliament Street, Ennistymon, Co. Clare
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 4pm
It is the textures or fabric of the west of Ireland that effects my work wherever I go, be it in my personal, editorial or advertising work. I find texture or fabric tends to be evident in much of my photography. The texture or fabric of a face, a surface, a tree, a landscape seems to be ever evident. This exhibition shows some personal work and some of my published editorial work with a strong emphasis in Black and White photography.
Although born in Ireland, Patrick McHugh spent his early years in Greenwich Village, New York City, returning to spend his teenage years in Ireland. After graduating from St. Flannans, Ennis, he rode the wave of emigration out of Ireland, returning to NYC to study at the School of Visual Arts and at Parsons School of Art and Design.
Assisting in New York and London at some of the more established photography studios introduced him to the world of editorial fashion and advertising. And after building a fashion portfolio in Madrid, opened a 2000 sq. ft. studio near the Guinness Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Four years later again returning to New York to set up in the Greenwich Village.
Patrick spent a decade concentrating in the Big Apple on Editorial Magazine and Catalog fashion photography. In 2001 he moved to one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Barcelona, basing his office in the intrinsic barrio of El Borne for several years.
Today he is an established fashion and advertising photographer based in the west of Ireland. Dividing his time between commercial and personal photography projects. His work has appeared in a wide array of national and international magazines, brand clients have included Aer Lingus, McDonald’s, Mazda, Time Inc. and some of Patrick’s personal projects have featured in Communication Arts, the New York Photo Festival and the Royal Hibernian Academy.
Official opening of both exhibitions will be on Sat. May 4th at 4pm. All welcome
13th April – 18th May
Siamsa Tíre, National Folk Theatre & Arts Centre, Town Park, Tralee, Co. Kerry
Eileen Hutton’s investigations to date into ecosystems have identified the critical role that both birds and honeybees play. Her work and research are realised through the everyday, easily replicated efforts of building artificial habitats for priority species.
2nd – 6th May | Opening: 3rd May with Úna McCarthy – The Arts Council
West Kerry Print Studio, John St., Dingle, Co. Kerry
Since 2010 Meitheal Eitseála/West Kerry Printmakers have been honing their skills & exhibiting their work. Nasc is a show that marks a link with Cló Ceardlann na gCnoc, Donegal, the only other Gaeltacht based print studio in the country. This exhibition is a melting pot of talent, celebrating contemporary Gaeltacht based print art.
“We are very excited to have Cló on board for this year’s exhibition. It marks the first of many valuable projects and collaborations we plan for Meitheal Eitseála in the future, both nationally and internationally.”
- Coiste Meitheal Eitseála
Meitheal Eitseála Artists: Lisbeth Mulcahy, Michael Flaherty, Deirdre McKenna, Tomás Ó Cíobháin, Julie Beckett, Caroline O Connor, Clodagh Edwards, Jack Bates, Kathleen McAuliffe, Niall Naessens, Ruth Carbery, Pat Owen, Ciara McKenna
Cló Ceardlann na gCnoc Artists: Aoife Mc Garrigle, Heidi Nguyen, Caitlin Ní Ghallachoir, Ian Joyce, Kordula Ludwig, Oona Hyland
Food For The Soul.
‘Lón Anama’ – Food for the soul. Showcases new work by local artist Pierce Casey.
This event is part of the festival: West Waterford Festival of Food
Monuments
20th April – 30th September | Preview: 19th April at 6pm
Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Co. Waterford.
Featuring Pablo Bronstein, Iman Issa, Aleksandra Mir, Yorgos Sapountzis and Danh Vo; curated by Mark Sladen
Monuments at Lismore Castle Arts features five artists whose work addresses the role that monuments and memorials play in our society. The exhibition includes sculpture, works on paper, video and performance, with notable pieces that include large fragments of a reconstruction of the Statue of Liberty by Danh Vo, and a giant piece of ‘paper architecture’ created especially for the castle’s garden by Pablo Bronstein.
Lismore Castle is a site rich in monuments, and one reference point for the exhibition is the role of stately homes and gardens in memorialising their creators. The role of vanity and propaganda in generating monuments can make them an easy target for satire, but the artists in this exhibition also suggest ways in which the monumental tradition might be co-opted, brought up to date or used to express new collective identities.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue that is being co-published by Mousse Publishing in June 2013.
There will be a Seminar in response to the exhibition on Wednesday 23 April, with Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Lecturer, UCD School of Art History & Cultural Policy, John Cryan, Professor of Anatomy & Neuroscience, UCC, Helen Carey, director / Curator, Limerick City Art Gallery, and Alan Phelan, artist. The seminar is a free event, however booking is essential. Contact Lismore Castle Arts for details – 058 54061 / gallery@lismorecastlearts.ie
Black-Eye - MFA Graduate Exhibition by Jill Miller & John Freeman
13th – 27th April | Opening: 17th April at 3.30pm
The Gallery, Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare
The Burren College of Art and MFA students John Freeman and Jill Miller invite you to attend Black-Eye, the MFA graduate exhibition opening April 17th at 3.30pm. The exhibition runs April 13-April 27 and features painting and video installation exploring metaphorical interpretations of sexuality, liminality and fear while acknowledging the challenge of externalizing the personal internal experience.
For further information on the exhibition and the graduate program, please visit www.burrencollege.ie and www.facebook.com/groups/BurrenDegree/.
13th April to 18th May
Siamsa Tire, Town Park, Tralee, Co. Kerry
Eileen Hutton’s investigations to date into ecosystems have identified the critical role that both birds and honeybees play. Her work and research are realised through the everyday, easily replicated efforts of building artificial habitats for priority species.
