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THE CONTEMPORARY PRINT IN IRELAND September
9 - November 12 THE CONTEMPORARY PRINT IN IRELAND surveys recent work by some of the leading print artists working in the Republic of Ireland. The exhibition, organized by Guest Curator, Doug Biden, Fine Arts Professor at Okanagan University College, includes works by twenty-two artists from Dublin, Cork and Galway. The artists range from senior, nationally recognized figures, Art Institute Professors to young, emerging printmakers. The diversity of printmaking mediums is shown: etchings, monoprints, screen, relief and carborundum prints.
Dublin’s
two print workshops are represented with works in this exhibition.
Black Church Studio is a recent co-op development situated in the
frenetic Temple Bar area of the city, overlooking the River Liffey.
Graphic Studio, by contrast, was established in the 1960s, by founding
print artist Patrick Hickey. It is
situated on the riverside quay, an industrial area out of Dublin Center. Under
its Visiting Artists program, artists who specialize in media other than print
are invited to make an edition of prints with the assistance of a master
printer. Exhibitions are held at
the Workshop’s Studio Gallery, established in 1988.
In addition, there are works from the Cork Printmaker’s Cooperative,
based in a new facility in Cork City, and two works from the Galway Regional
Technical College.
The
works selected by Doug Biden do not necessarily speak of “Irishness”, but of
artists who working in a contemporary visual language, in a culture widely known
for its sung, spoken and written word. As
Dr. Slavaka Sverakova wrote in 1993 (Research Fellow at the University of Ulster
in Belfast), “Having nationality includes sharing a place and a language,
having a home, and having people one loves in that place.
Art can work with ideas of nation, of nationality, of nationalism, but
not in any clear or predictable way.”
Biden
writes, “As Ireland continues the economic surge begun in the 1990s, a kind of
renaissance and diversity in its cultural life has taken flight.
This exhibition reflects not just the contemporary nature of the print
and its concern about change, but also a recognition of the traditional print
and its roots in the past.”
[CLICK HERE] to view the complete Curatorial Essay by Doug Biden Installation Photo
THE
CONTEMPORARY PRINT IN IRELAND
is made possible with Grant in Aid funding from
Okanagan University College. |
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