Emer McGarry (The Model, Sligo)
Emer McGarry is a curator and cultural leader based in the west of Ireland. She is Director of The Model, home of The Niland Collection in Sligo, one of Ireland’s largest and most important centres for the contemporary arts. She has curated several ambitious group shows such as The Sea Around Us, 2020, The Keeper; To Have and To Hold, (2019), Turbulence (2018), Ghosts of Other Stories (2016) Psychic Lighthouse (2015) and Things go Dark (2014). Emer has curated many exhibitions and edited several publications on the work of Jack Butler Yeats, including the critically acclaimed retrospective Jack B Yeats; The Outsider (2011) in collaboration with Brian O’Doherty. She also curated major solo exhibitions with many leading Irish and international visual artists including Jennifer Walshe, Phil Collins, Mark Garry, Susan Hiller, Sean Lynch, Elizabeth Price, Martin Creed and Alison Pilkington. Thematic exhibitions that Emer has curated have included the work of John Akomfrah, Forensic Oceanography, Susanne M Winterling, Tacita Dean, Rosella Biscotti, Douglas Gordon amongst others.
Curator’s Areas of Interest:
I have a number of core curatorial interests, particularly regarding how the arts can lead the way in drawing attention to some of the urgent issues of our time, such as the displacement pf people and climate change. I’m interested in esotericism, new spiritualities and art for art’s sake. As director of The Model I’m particularly interested in multidisciplinary practices and the way in which contemporary art takes up and develops ideas from Irish & European art history. I’m currently developing projects on the expanded field of portraiture and the way in which 100 years of the Irish democratic state can be addressed and reflected in contemporary art practices