IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, is excited to present a new performance installation by New York based Sweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, acclaimed for their highly experimental, formally inventive cross-disciplinary work, who will present my tongue is a blade, on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June 2025 from 2pm to 5pm, in the Chapel at IMMA.

my tongue is a blade is a three-hour durational movement practice that is a work with relation, memory, and reflection. It asks: What are the limits of our attention and how does that test the strength of our bonds? Three performers commit to remembering each other, holding each other, bearing each other, and sustaining the world that contains them. This rich visual and sonic landscape is an invitation to the audience to witness this practice and resonate within it.

This new piece continues themes of embodied inheritance also explored in Sweat Variant’s acclaimed let slip, hold sway and adaku trilogy. With a confluence of middles and beginnings, but no end, a movement moves in difference across the bodies of the performers. my tongue is a blade will be performed by Okwui Okpokwasili, NY based performer Bria Bacon, and Dublin-based performer Alessandra Azeviche.

The artists Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born are partners in their work and their lives. Since 1996, as Sweat Variant, they have been working at the intersection of dance, theatre, and visual art to make challenging and rigorous work that reaffirms that which has been deemed marginal as the true centre through the exploration of Black interiority.

The Sweat Variant performances are supported by the Sam Gilliam Foundation. The Sam Gilliam Foundation is a primary resource on the pioneering abstract artist Sam Gilliam and carries his legacy forward by supporting visual artists who, like Gilliam, push boundaries and grapple with the pressing issues of our time. IMMA is presenting for the first time in Ireland a solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting. The exhibition Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields runs at IMMA from 13 June 2025 to 25 January 2026.

To coincide with the performance and the Sam Gilliam exhibition, Sweat Variant will screen two films swallow the moon and looking, on Living Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital art screen, from 5 to 18 June on the front lawn at IMMA.

For media inquiries and images, please contact:
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957

20 May 2025

ENDS

Additional Information

Sweat Variant, my tongue is a blade
Date: Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 June 2025
Time: 2pm – 5pm daily, performance starts at 2pm.
Venue: The Chapel, IMMA
Tickets: Tickets: Admission is free. Two entry time slots are available at 2pm and 3:30pm. Guests are welcome to arrive any time after their chosen entry slot and stay for as long as they like. Advance booking is recommended.
Performance details: Each durational performance is three hours long, and we encourage audiences to come and go throughout the piece. Entry is rolling through the duration of the installation, and space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Further details and booking: Sweat Variant Performance – IMMA

About Sweat Variant
Sweat Variant describes the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born. They are partners in their work and their lives. Since 1996, they have been working at the intersection of dance, theater, and visual art to make challenging and rigorous work that reaffirms that which has been deemed marginal as the true center through the exploration of Black interiority.

Okpokwasili and Born are interested in building a spectacle of radical intimacy, in which both performers and audience are acknowledged as being locked in a mutual gaze. They build gestural vocabularies and narrative frameworks that are concerned with the problem of memory in the inherent instability of the construction of a persona. They hope to activate a space that allows the audience to question who they are looking at, and how they are looking. They hope this creates a critical space of wonderment, of uncertainty, and of mystery. It is in this space that they believe we can see each other anew.

About the artists

Okwui Okpokwasili (she/her) is a performing artist, choreographer, and writer creating multidisciplinary performance pieces. The child of immigrants from Nigeria, Okpokwasili was born and raised in the Bronx, and the histories of these places and the girls and women who inhabit them feature prominently in much of her work. Her highly experimental productions include the Bessie Award-winning Pent-up: A Revenge Dance, the Bessie Award-winning Bronx Gothic, as well as Poor People’s TV Room, when I return who will receive me, Adaku’s Revolt, and the participatory performance installation Sitting on a Man’s Head, and adaku, part 1: the road opens. Recent works include installations in the exhibitions Grief and Grievance, Art and Mourning in America at the New Museum (NYC), Witchhunt at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. Commissions include the performance on the way, undone at the High Line in NYC and at Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival, the film Returning for Danspace Project, the site-specific performance swallow the moon at Jacob’s Pillow, and a new 2024 commission from Little Island as part of its commitment to supporting original work.

Her work has been presented at such venues as the Walker Art Center, Performance Space New York, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, ICA Boston, MCA Chicago, BAM, and New York Live Arts. She has worked with film and theater directors Carrie Mae Weems, Ralph Lemon, Arthur Jafa, Terence Nance, Josephine Decker, Mika Rottenberg, Mahyad Tousi, Charlotte Brathwaite, Jim Findlay, Annie Dorsen, and Peter Born. Okpokwasili is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including a 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellowship, a 2018 Herb Alpert Award, a 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship. Okpokwasili was the 2015-2017 Randjelovic/Stryker New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA.) She was the inaugural artist for the Kravis Studio Residency program at MoMA in 2022, and an artist in residence at the Brown Arts Institute in 2023.

Peter Born (he/him) works as a director, composer, and designer of performance and installation, often in collaboration with Okwui Okpokwasili, with whom he has created the installation turn, return at the Doris Duke Foundation (2024), repose without rest without end in Trondheim (2021), swallow the moon at Jacob’s Pillow (2021), on the way, undone at the High Line (2021), Poor People’s TV Room (SOLO) installation at the New Museum and the Hammer Museum (2021), Sitting on a Man’s Head (2019) at Danspace Project, Adaku’s Revolt (2019) at Abrons Arts Center, Poor People’s TV Room (2017), when I return, who will receive me (2016), Bronx Gothic (The Oval) (2014), Bronx Gothic (2013), and pent-up: a revenge dance (2009). Born and Okpokwasili also produced an album, day pulls down the sky, in 2019. Their work has also appeared in the Berlin Biennale and at the Tate Modern, London. Born has collaborated with David Thomson as a director, designer, and writer on The Venus Knot (2017) and he his own mythical beast (2018), and as a set designer for Nora Chipaumire’s rite/riot (2014) and El Capitan Kinglady (2016). His work Poor People’s TV Room (SOLO), created in collaboration with Okpokwasili, is in the collections of the Hammer Museum and the Whitney Museum. Four of his collaborations have garnered New York Dance Performance (Bessie) Awards.

His work as an art director and prop stylist has been featured in video and photo projects with Vogue, Estee Lauder, Barney’s Co-op, Bloomingdales, Old Navy, 25 magazine, The Wall Street Journal and No Strings Puppet Productions. Born is a former New York public high school teacher, itinerant floral designer, corporate actor-facilitator, video maker, and furniture designer.

For more information about Sweat Variant / Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, visit www.sweatvariant.com.

About the Performers

Okwui Okpokwasili as above.

Bria Bacon is a performing artist, predominantly trained in dance, holding passions and gifts in writing, theatre, sound-making and singing. She has worked with Bebe Miller Company, Stefanie Batten Bland, ChameckiLerner, Wendell Gray II, Sally Silvers, Donna Uchizono, Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Stephen Petronio Company, and Kyle Marshall Choreography, as well as Beth Gill and Rachel Comey in NYFW and Company Christoph Winkler in Berlin. Currently, she is working with Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group and Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born), among others. All praise to the angels, ancestors, and folx within her village.

Alessandra Azeviche is a Dublin-based Bahia-born dance artist who has been breaking boundaries in Ireland since 2018. A leading Afro-Brazilian artist connecting ancestral movements to a contemporary approach. Founder of the multicultural, counter-colonial Afro-Brazilian community Quilombo Terra in 2022, Azeviche also sits on the board of Dublin Dance Festival. Her acclaimed solo debut ‘Terra’ was performed at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2024, nominated for two Fringe awards. She has also performed in Irish Modern Dance Theatre shows, and as part of Hot Brown Honey at Dublin Fringe 2022. Azeviche is increasingly working in contemporary arts performance, dealing with themes of counter colonization and intersectionality.

Living Canvas at IMMA screening swallow the moon and looking
5 – 18 June 2025, Living Canvas at IMMA – IMMA

swallow the moon
swallow the moon is the second in a series of lamentations that mark the rupture between a precolonial West African body and the charged space of identity within a contemporary Black body. At the heart of this epic song is a mother’s wail with the gravitational force of generations. It signals a mother’s grief for a lost daughter. Her cries are doubled in embodied shadows that gather around her–cries so loud, with a mouth going so wide, she would swallow the world.Conceived, composed and performed by Okwui Okpokwasili with additional collaboration by Lucia Betelou, Willow Green, Julianna Massa, Adriana Ogle
Headpieces designed by Peter Born and Okwui Okpokwasili. Scenic elements and audio design by Peter Born.

looking
looking is part of the installation for a larger work, called poor people’s tv room (solo)
In his novel “Foreign Gods Inc.” by Okey Ndibe, the main character visits a friend of his in his hometown in Nigeria. His friend has become rich, and his way of sharing that wealth with the community was to build an extra living room to his house, where people could come and sit in the air conditioning and watch old Michael Jordan videos. He called it a “poor people’s tv room” and that inspired the title of this work—this idea of providing a room where someone else’s aspirations were always on a loop, a space set “alongside time,” rather than in it.

Inspired by the events of the Woman’s War of 1929 in southeastern Nigeria, the “Bring Back Our Girls Movement” in 2014 and the movement for Black Lives (BLM) in the US in 2014, this work considers how protest movements are durational acts. These acts transmit embodied knowledge through generations and across continents, even when cultural histories have been suppressed. This work explores the relationship between these durational acts and performance practice.

This installation is in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Created by Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born. Cinematography by Iki Nakagawa.

Launching with a major solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting

 And a new performance by award winning New York based Sweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born

IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, is excited to launch Summer at IMMA 2025, a dynamic programme of free events for all ages, that includes exhibitions, performances, screenings, talks, workshops, tours and more, taking place in the beautiful surroundings of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham from June to August.

The 2025 summer programme launches with a major new exhibition Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields, presenting a solo exhibition by pioneering abstract artist Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022) one of the great innovators in post-war American painting, opening on 13 June 2025. Also showing this summer is a major display from IMMA’s Permanent Collection Art as Agency; a stunning exhibition of quilts by the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers; and an ambitious new exhibition Staying with the Trouble showcasing the work of over 40 artists which includes a life performance event on 26 July.

IMMA is excited to present a new performance installation by New York based Sweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, who present my tongue is a blade, on Sat 14 and Sun 15 June, from 2 to 5pm, in the Chapel at IMMA.

Other highlights include a new IMMA Horizons workshop series exploring creative interventions in urban ecologies; a storytelling event that shares Travellers stories inspired by the IMMA Collection work Why the Moon Travels by Leanne McDonagh; and a harvest celebration of The Model Plot by Deirdre O’Mahony where you can take part in a feast of spuds, music and storytelling. These bespoke events are presented alongside visitor favourites including art workshops, biodiversity tours, heritage tours, yoga classes and our popular Music in the Courtyard series on Sunday afternoons.

The summer programme culminates with EARTH RISING, IMMA’s vibrant free festival of art, ecology, and ideas, running from 12 to 14 September.

This summer IMMA will launch a new app, joining forces with Smartify the world’s most popular digital museum guide. The app provides new digital experiences for visitors to IMMA enhancing engagement through interactive features such as audio tours, interactive maps, image recognition and more.

Summer at IMMA Programme Highlights

Emerging in the mid-1960s, Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022) is best known for his canonical Drape paintings, which expanded on the principles of Abstract Expressionism in entirely new ways. Suspending unstretched lengths of painted canvas from the walls or ceilings of exhibition spaces, Gilliam transformed his medium and the contexts in which it was viewed. This exhibition of his work Sewing Fields, co-organised with the Sam Gilliam Foundation, draws on a period in the early 1990s when Gilliam visited Ireland and began a sequence of abstract paintings in reaction to the Irish landscape – a body of work which showcases his exceptional mastery of colour, form, and material. Following his time in Ireland, Gilliam continued his innovative exploration of sewn and collaged works, liberating canvases from traditional supports blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture.

A new durational performance installation my tongue is a blade by Sweat Variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, acclaimed for their highly experimental, formally inventive cross-disciplinary work, has been created for IMMA and is supported by the Sam Gilliam Foundation. my tongue is a blade is a three-hour durational movement practice that is a work with relation, memory, and reflection. It asks: What are the limits of our attention and how does that test the strength of our bonds? Three performers commit to remembering each other, holding each other, bearing each other, and sustaining the world that contains them. This rich visual and sonic landscape is an invitation to the audience to witness this practice and resonate within it.

IMMA Horizons presents a new workshop series Creative interventions in urban ecologies that investigates the intersections of art, ecological thought and urban farming as sites of resistance, resilience and reimagination. Participants will explore how creative interventions in urban ecologies can challenge dominant narratives of land use, ownership and sustainability.

Throughout the summer Living Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital outdoor art screen presented at IMMA by IPUT Real Estate, will feature film and moving image works by artists Ammar Bouras, Pádraic Barrett, Marion Bergin, Sarah Browne, Linda Brownlee, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Ahree Lee, Susan Thomson and Sweat Variant, amongst others. The programme includes one-off film screenings on selected Thursday evenings from 6 to 8pm.

Summer at IMMA celebrates Pride Month with a special programme of events that includes a Family Friendly Pride Day on 22 June, with a LGBTQ+ inclusive Céilí and family art workshop. Other events include Queer Eye on the IMMA Collection a guided tour of LGBTQ+ artists in the exhibition Art as Agency on 21 June; a workshop Explore queer identity and creativity through zine making on 27 June; DJ performances by JWY and President Todi; and a screening of Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor’s film work laying fire (2022), an experimental memory work on intimacy.

IMMA Talks invites renowned critical thinkers, writers, artists, and international curators to share their contemporary views. Keynote talks, artists’ discussions and gallery talks draw on IMMA’s programmes to explore themes of land, agency, resistance, and the environment. Highlights include a panel discussion L’internationale Museum of the Commons Summer School exploring Landscape (post) Conflict on 9 and 10 July; Lifelong Creativity & Learning for the Curious with Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Director MISA, James St Hospital on 16 July; and to celebrate National Heritage Week a conversation Recording History: Picturing Derry with directors of Picturing Derry Sylvia Stevens and David Fox on 19 August.

A variety of community events, gatherings, and workshops will take place as part of Summer at IMMA. These include a workshop led by the Bahian artist Thaís Muniz, founder of the Turbante-se platform, that explores the history, meaning, and everyday practice of turbans and headwraps across Afro-Atlantic cultures, on 5 July. A Sarau Session on 6 Aug, this is a live gathering connecting transcultural multidisciplinary artists who live and make art in transit. Throughout the summer a series of zine making workshops will explore queer identity; the immigration experience; and feminist discourse. The Engagement Hub: Art in Action will run three family workshops, this partnership between IMMA, Superprojects and the Angelica Network aims to empower racialised and ethnic diverse artists to participate in arts education for children and young people.

Summer at IMMA’s much-loved programmes, delivered by IMMA’s Visitor Engagement Team, continue this year. These include Slow Looking Art Tours, Art & Mindfulness workshops, yoga classes, heritage tours, biodiversity tours, family workshops and Parent and Baby Hour at the Museum.

IMMA’s popular Music in the Courtyard series continues on Sunday afternoons and will feature family Céilí’s with live trad music; DJ sets; singer songwriters and jazz and theatre bands.

To round off a very special summer EARTH RISING returns for a fourth year from 12 to 14 September. This year’s festival will spark transformative climate conversations and actions through immersive cultural experiences. This year’s theme, “Making Kin,” invites audiences to explore meaningful connections — with each other, the natural world, and the urgent challenges of our time.

The new IMMA Café, which includes an outdoor van, is open all summer for coffee, lunch and treats!

For further information and images please contact:
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957

13 May 2025

Additional notes for Editors

Summer at IMMA
June / July / August
Webpage with full details and calendar: SUMMER AT IMMA – IMMA

Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields – Opening Events
Opening Reception: Thursday 12 June 2025 / 6 – 8pm

Performance: Sweat Variant, my tongue is a blade
Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June 2025 / 2 – 5pm
Free, booking required at Sweat Variant Performance – IMMA

Curators’ Lunchtime Talk: Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields with Mary Cremin
Wednesday 18 June 2025, 1.15pm – 2.15pm
Free, Booking required, Book Here
Join Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA who introduces the new exhibition Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields. Discover the artist’s ground-breaking approach to painting and the influences of Irish landscape on his work.

IMMA MEMBERS
IMMA MEMBERS offers access to a calendar of seasonal events, retail discounts at the IMMA Shop, a 10% discount on all items at the IMMA café, and bespoke merchandise. On 23 May, IMMA MEMBERS will host its second event of 2025, an In Conversation with internationally renowned fashion designer Simone Rocha and IMMA Collection artist and photographer Perry Ogden. Tickets for his event are now sold out – but the 2025 IMMA MEMBERS programme is still bustling. In late summer, IMMA welcomes Bohemian Football Club, among others, as they discuss how unlikely platforms create social change. Ending 2025 on a high, we will collaborate with global storytelling phenomenon Seanchoíche to bring another heartwarming night to IMMA, only for IMMA MEMBERS. To access the booking links for our upcoming events, make sure you are subscribed to the IMMA MEMBERS newsletter here. All are encouraged to join our newsletter mailing list, however, booking for these events will be made available exclusively to IMMA MEMBERS. To become an IMMA MEMBER click here.

An ambitious new group exhibition, Staying with the Trouble, inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s seminal work of the same name, opens at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) on Friday 2 May 2025. The exhibition features over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time.

Pushing against social norms, Staying with the Trouble challenges us and attempts to make sense of the present, questioning interspecies relationships, ideas of transformation, and renewal. The exhibition challenges human-centric narratives, advocating for a multi-species/multi-kin perspective through sculpture, film, painting, installation and performance.

The exhibition follows Haraway’s propositions such as “Making Kin”, “Composting” and “Sowing Worlds”, inviting visitors to rethink their connections with humans, animals, and ecosystems. Other propositions include “Critters”, emphasising the agency of non-human life, while “Techno-Apocalypse” critiques dystopian views on technology, proposing a more nuanced, interconnected future.

Commenting on the exhibition Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA, said; “Staying with the Trouble is a call to rethink, reshape our views — to stay present in complexity, to unlearn human-centric ways of seeing, and to lean into the radical potential of kinship across species, materials, and worlds. This exhibition is both a provocation and an invitation — to reimagine our place in a shared, entangled future.”

There will be a screening programme of film and moving image works as part of Living Canvas at IMMA, running throughout May to September.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a live performance series on Saturday 26 July 2025.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Farouk858, Kian Benson Bailes, George Bolster, Renèe Helèna Browne, Myrid Carten, Elizabeth Cope, Redd Ekks, Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, Andy Fitz, Laura Fitzgerald, Marie Foley, Paddy Graham, Aoibheann Greenan, Kerry Guinan, Austin Hearne, Atsushi Kaga, Michael Kane, Sam Keogh, Caoimhe Kilfeather, Diaa Langan, Áine Mac Giolla Bhríde, Marielle MacLeman, Alan Magee, Christopher Mahon, Michelle Malone, Colin Martin, Maria McKinney, Bea McMahon, Thaís Muniz, Bridget O’Gorman, Venus Patel, Samir Mahmood, Alice Rekab, Eoghan Ryan, Jacqui Shelton, Sonia Shiel, Katie Watchorn, Luke van Gelderen, amongst others.

– ENDS –  
 
For media inquiries, please contact:  
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023  
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957  

Additional Information  

Staying with the Trouble
2 May – 21 September 2025
Admission Free
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm
Webpage: Staying with the Trouble

IMMA TALK
Preview Artists’ Conversation: Staying with the Trouble
Thurs 1 May 2025 / 5.00pm – 6.15pm / Lecture Room, IMMA
Join us for the exhibition preview and artists’ conversation with special guests whose work is part of Staying with the Trouble. Artists speaking include Laura Fitzgerald, Eoghan Ryan, Jacqui Shelton, Marie Foley, and Atsushi Kaga. Moderated by Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA. Admission free, book online

EARTH RISING 2025
The EARTH RISING festival (12 – 14 September 2025) will align with Staying with the Trouble guided by Haraway’s concept of “making kin”—collaborating across species and communities.

Epic new work by Irish artist Clare Langan headlines Living Canvas at IMMA Programme.

IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and IPUT Real Estate, Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts, are excited to launch the Spring/Summer programme of Living Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital art screen on the grounds of IMMA. The programme launches from today (Friday 11 April, 2025) with the premiere of Irish artist Clare Langan’s epic new film work Alchemy, 2023.

In the aftermath of a pandemic and a time of numerous climate crises, Clare Langan’s Alchemy symbolises an alchemical change that is necessary for the human species and the planet to survive. This sensory-rich film of provoking visuals and original music takes the viewer through a journey of narrative transformation and revolution. The visuals are shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan and artist Clare Langan, with an original score by Gyða Valtýsdóttir and soundscape by Daniel Goddard. Alchemy will be shown until 23 April and will form part of the museum’s celebration of Earth Day on 22 April.

In May, to coincide with a major display from IMMA’s Permanent Collection called Art as Agency, Living Canvas at IMMA will screen highlights from the IMMA Collection moving image works featuring artist Maïa Nunes, followed by Duncan Campbell, and Deirdre O’Mahony, amongst others.

To celebrate Pride 2025, Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor’s film work laying fire (2022), an experimental memory work on intimacy will be screened in June. This will be followed across the summer months with screenings by artists Ammar Bouras, Pádraic Barrett, Marion Bergin, Sarah Browne, Linda Brownlee, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Ahree Lee, Susan Thomson, and Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born). The summer programme will also include one-off film screenings on selected Thursday evenings from 6pm to 8pm from 19 June to 28 August.

In September to coincide with EARTH RISING, IMMA’s festival dedicated to sparking climate conversations, Living Canvas at IMMA will screen a thought provoking film programme including works by artists Telu Von Flap, Martina O’ Brien, Tina Claffey, Simone Kessler, Aoife Desmond, Linda Schirmer, Stijn Ank, Tanya de Paor, Denis Buckley, Una Walker, Anna Korbut, Zoë Uí Fhaolain, and Paul Hallahan.

Local, national, and international creative partnerships are central to the Living Canvas at IMMA programme. These range from Dublin International Film Festival and art and technology’s Beta Festival, to collaborations further afield including the Jarman Award, London, and BIENALSUR, the International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America.

IPUT Real Estate, Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts, has successfully presented Living Canvas, at two of its buildings in Dublin’s city centre since 2021. The Living Canvas large-scale outdoor public art screen, now located on IMMA’s front lawn for two years allowing visitors and the wider community to enjoy a vibrant programme of artworks by Irish and international artists in IMMA’s beautiful surroundings.

Niall Gaffney, Chief Executive, of IPUT Real Estate, commenting on the launch said “As a long-term investor in Dublin, IPUT Real Estate is committed to creating a space for culture in and around our buildings. We want to ensure Dublin remains an attractive and vibrant place to work and live. In this regard, we provide artists with spaces to create work, and to platform that work to the city. We are very proud of our Living Canvas initiative that to date has displayed the work of 120 artists and 100 individual art and literary works. We are excited to see Living Canvas at IMMA, and we are proud to support the work of the museum.”

Mary Cremin, Head of Programming at IMMA said “Living Canvas has enlivened the IMMA’s grounds, providing a welcoming space for visitors to delve into a captivating film programme in their own time. The partnership with IPUT Real Estate has opened new opportunities for the museum to collaborate with and support festivals across Ireland and bring international screenings to new audiences at IMMA.”

 11 April 2025

– ENDS –

For further information and images please contact: 
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957
Caroline Kennedy E: [email protected] T: 086 2449805

Additional notes for Editors

Living Canvas at IMMA webpage – Living Canvas at IMMA – IMMA
Screens daily from Monday to Sunday from 9.30am to 6.30pm.

About IPUT Real Estate Dublin
IPUT Real Estate is Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts Owner of 70 buildings in many of Dublin’s city centre neighbourhoods, IPUT is committed to positively shaping the public realm and to supporting arts and culture within the city. Across its portfolio, IPUT supports and showcase Irish artists and creators – commissioning sculptures, paintings and installations that stimulate and sustain the occupiers of its buildings and those who live, work, and socialise in the neighbourhoods in which those buildings are located.

About Living Canvas
IPUT Real Estate launched Living Canvas in 2021 as a spectacular presentation of public art using giant outdoor screens at two of its sites in Dublin’s city centre: Wilton Park off Baggot Street, and at the Tropical Fruit Warehouse on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2. The custom designed screens debuted the works of leading Irish and international artists produced in partnership with leading cultural institutions the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI). Over the course of two years, Living Canvas featured the work of more than 120 artists and presented close to 100 individual art and literary works.

About IMMA
Founded in 1991, IMMA is Ireland’s National Cultural Institution for Modern and Contemporary Art located in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Its vibrant, bold, and diverse programme comprises exhibitions, commissions, and event-based projects by leading Irish and international artists, as well as a rich engagement and learning programme which together provides audiences of all ages the opportunity to connect with contemporary art and unlock their creativity. IMMA is also the home of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of nearly 4,000 artworks by Irish and international artists. IMMA makes this national resource available through exhibitions at IMMA and other venues nationally and internationally, engagement and learning programmes and digital resources.

Art as Agency heralds a new role for the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan T.D. launched (Wednesday 26 February 2025) a major new display of the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Art as Agency is a landmark exhibition, featuring over 100 artists, from the 1960s to the present, including many recent acquisitions.

Art as Agency marks a significant shift in IMMA’s approach, moving away from fast-paced exhibition turnover to a more considered long-term model. Running for three years, this exhibition underscores IMMA’s commitment to sustainability by reducing the impact of frequent installations while fostering deeper public engagement with the National Collection.

Since its foundation in 1991, IMMA has been at the forefront of contemporary art in Ireland, producing dynamic and ambitious exhibitions. Under its strategy 2024-2028 ‘A Creative Catalyst for Change’, IMMA is embracing its role as a ‘modern museum’, creating a space for critical reflection and public engagement. By adopting long-term permanent collection displays, IMMA is not only expanding access to the National Collection but also shaping a more sustainable model of museum programming.

IMMA’s Collection has grown significantly since 2020, now comprising over 4,500 artworks, thanks to support from the Department of Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport. As part of an increasingly research-focused curatorial approach, IMMA is also acquiring key archives of artists, curators and theorists, providing valuable insights into shifts in artistic practice and the wider political and social contexts in which these works were created.

Speaking at the launch, Minister O’Donovan said:  
“It is encouraging to see how IMMA is using our National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art to produce research-led exhibitions. These pieces tell social, political, and environmental stories that resonate with audiences here and all over the world. The introduction of long-term displays of the Collection will mean more people will get a chance to visit this important public resource. It gives more time and opportunities for audiences to delve deeper into how they consider these pieces. This complements my priority, as Minister, to facilitate and enhance public access to and engagement with culture.” 

Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections at IMMA, said:  
“By interweaving historical and contemporary narratives, Art as Agency is a true celebration of the growth of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art over the past 30 years. I am delighted that we can show so many of the significant works in the Collection, many of which are recent acquisitions and have not been seen by the public before.”  

ENDS  
  
For further information and images please contact:  
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023    
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957  

IMMA Collection: Art as Agency   
Now until 6 February 2028   
Admission Free
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm
Webpage: IMMA Collection: Art as Agency

IMMA Talk 
IMMA Collection: Art as Agency 
Thursday 27 February at 4pm / Johnston Suite, IMMA / Booking required on imma.ie   
Join Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator, Head of Collections at IMMA, for an engaging lecture on IMMA Collection: Art as Agency. This talk is followed by the opening of the exhibition. A recording of this talk is available to listen back to on IMMA’s SoundCloud channel. Places are limited for this talk.

A new exhibition of quilts made by the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, a group of African American women with a 200-year tradition of quilt making, opens at IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, on Friday 28 February 2025, co-organised with Souls Grown Deep. Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend follows the legacy and familial traditions of quilt making that have existed in Gee’s Bend, a remote river island community in Alabama dating from the 19th century.

The quilts are a testament to resilience, community, and a legacy woven through generations. Passed down primarily from mother to daughter, the tradition of quilt making flourished within a tight-knit community grappling with the enduring legacy of slavery, oppression and the fight for civil rights. The women of Gee’s Bend have created quilts that hold both artistic and political significance. Artistically, their work is renowned for its improvisational style, bold colours, and abstract designs, often compared to modernist art movements like abstract expressionism. The quilts, made from recycled fabrics, are deeply rooted in African American textile traditions and showcase unique creativity in geometric patterns.

Politically, the quilts reflect resilience and self-sufficiency, as they were born out of necessity in an economically deprived, racially segregated region. Imbued with a deep connection to the land, their ancestors and geography, each stitch is a poignant reminder of the struggles and triumphs of a community that persevered through adversity.

Commenting on the exhibition Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA, said; “The quilts of Gee’s Bend transcend mere craft; they are powerful social and historical documents. They offer a critical counter-narrative to dominant art historical discourse, challenging the traditional hierarchies that often exclude the voices of marginalised communities. Kith & Kin is the first in a series of exhibitions at IMMA this year that will explore the use of textiles in art making”.   

While the artistry of Gee’s Bend has been exhibited in museums worldwide, Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend marks the first time the quilts have been shown in Ireland. The exhibition concentrates on the connection between mother and daughter and the intergenerational relationships seen in the different styles, patterns and colours. The significance of storytelling through the quilts is an important part of the making, with the quilts serving as both a celebration of African American heritage and a testament to the strength and creativity of women in the face of systemic oppression. This exhibition aims to recognise their invaluable contribution to art, and to ensure that their legacy continues to inspire and enrich future generations.

– ENDS –  
 
For media inquiries, please contact:  
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023  
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957  
 
Additional Information  

Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend 
28 February – 27 October 2025  
Admission Free  
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm
Webpage: Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend

IMMA Talk  
The Ties that Bind: Community and Artistry in the Quilts of Gee’s Bend 
A lecture by Raina Lampkins-Fielder 
Thursday 27 February at 5pm / Johnston Suite, IMMA / Booking required on imma.ie 
Raina Lampkins-Fielder, Chief Curator for Souls Grown Deep, presents a talk on the unique quilt making tradition of Gee’s Bend. This talk is followed by the opening of Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.
A recording of this talk will be made available to listen back to on IMMA’s SoundCloud channel.  Places are limited for this talk.

About Souls Grown Deep 
Souls Grown Deep (SGD) advocates the artistic recognition and empowerment of Black artists from the American South, promoting visibility, scholarship, and education about their contributions to art history and fostering economic development and racial and social justice in their communities. Founded in 2010, the organization derives its name from a 1921 poem by Langston Hughes (1901-67) titled The Negro Speaks of Rivers, the last line of which is “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

Souls Grown Deep stewards the foremost collection of works by Black artists from the Southern United States, and advances recognition for artists through collection transfers, research, loans, exhibitions, education, public programs, and publications. More than 500 works from SGD’s collection have been acquired by over 40 museums in the U.S. and around the globe, creating new opportunities for public access and scholarship. A leading voice for equitable practices in the art world, SGD works collaboratively with artists and communities to advance their stated needs and goals through support for the creative economy, intellectual property rights, fair compensation models, economic and political empowerment, and values-aligned investing. For more information, please visit soulsgrowndeep.org.

Proudly opening with a major three-year exhibition from the IMMA Collection

IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, today (30 January 2025) announced highlights of its 2025 programme, opening with a major three-year display celebrating IMMA’s Permanent Collection titled IMMA Collection: Art as Agency, that showcases over 100 artists from the 1960s to the present, highlighting key works including many recent acquisitions. Through thematic, chronological, geographical, and media-based approaches, Art as Agency examines how artworks connect across time and contexts, fostering new interpretations and relevance. By interweaving historical and contemporary narratives, the exhibition invites audiences to reflect on the evolving meanings and possibilities of art in shaping our understanding of and action in the world. Opening on 6 February this ambitious exhibition will invite engagement and research, allowing for a rich durational experience of Ireland’s Modern and Contemporary Art Collection.

Commenting on the 2025 programme, Director of IMMA Annie Fletcher said: “In 2025, IMMA is proud to be placing the permanent Collection at the forefront of the museum. By investing in significant semi-permanent displays of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, we hope to allow the public time to delve into the pivotal artworks that have shaped contemporary practice. This will complement an exceptional exhibition programme punctuated by unmissable experiential performances. Creative interventions as part of Dwell Here, Living Canvas at IMMA, Summer at IMMA, and EARTH RISING will animate the grounds to provide our visitors with remarkable experiences that we hope will bring them back to IMMA time and time again”.

Central to the 2025 exhibition programme is an exploration of artists working with textiles, two of which share connections to Ireland. IMMA is presenting solo exhibitions of their work in Ireland for the first time. The first exhibition, opening on 28 February, features the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, a group of African American women from a small Alabama community with a 150-year tradition of quilt-making. Their quilts are both artistically and politically significant, rising to prominence during the Civil Rights Movement as symbols of Black empowerment and cultural pride. These works are deeply rooted in family, heritage and the history of their community.

Opening on 13 June IMMA presents a solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting, co-organised with the Sam Gilliam Foundation. Emerging in the mid-1960s, his canonical ‘Drape’ paintings merged painting, sculpture, and performance in conversation with architecture in entirely new ways. Suspending unstretched lengths of painted canvas from the walls or ceilings of exhibition spaces, Gilliam transformed his medium and the contexts in which it was viewed. Following an influential artist residency in Ireland in Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo in the early 1990s, he continued his innovative exploration of sewn and collaged works, liberating canvases from traditional supports blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Gilliam’s work in Ireland fostered an intuitive dialogue with the surrounding environment, celebrating the physicality of painting and the emotional resonance of place through abstraction and materiality.

In the Autumn IMMA presents a solo exhibition by internationally renowned artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña titled Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey, opening on 7 November. This groundbreaking presentation delves into themes of ancestry, ecological urgency, and the interconnectedness of humanity, inspired by Vicuña’s discovery of her ancient ties to Ireland and the poetic resonance of her return journey from the Andes to Ireland. The exhibition draws on her 2006 visit to Ireland, during which she and her partner, James O’Hern, honoured Ireland’s archaeological sites with rituals of gratitude. This connection becomes a narrative thread within the exhibition, intertwining personal memory, indigenous traditions, and a dialogue with Irish heritage. Vicuña, whose multidisciplinary practice bridges visual art, poetry, sound, and performance, will transform IMMA’s galleries with a dynamic suite of new works. Central to the exhibition is a site-specific quipu—an ancient Andean system of communication using knotted cords – created with local makers. The commission is a reference to the design of Aran sweater that is thought to be symbolic of nature, the sea and the lives of the fisherman and Islanders.

Other highlights in 2025 include Staying with the Trouble, an exhibition opening on 2 May of over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time. Staying with the Trouble is inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s germinal work of the same name. The exhibition challenges human-centric narratives, advocating for a multi-species/multi-kin perspective through sculpture, film, painting, installation and performance.

Alongside the exhibition programme live performances will be presented throughout the year in the newly reopened North Wing of IMMA. A new live performance by Isabel Nolan and Belinda Quirke, The Hum of Earth’s Uneven Breath, will take place in the Baroque Chapel on 13 March. Created in response to the current exhibition Take a Breath Nolan and Quirke explore embodied, cosmological and spiritual breath through deep time using sound improvisation, spoken word and voice. Other performances in 2025 include Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born in June, and as part of the Staying with the Trouble exhibition, a series of live performances on 26 July.

IMMA is also proud to announce the 2025 screening programme for Living Canvas at IMMA, a partnership between IMMA and IPUT Real Estate, Dublin’s leading property investment company and supporter of the arts, that brings Europe’s largest digital art screen to the grounds of IMMA. The programme opens with the screening of Derek Jarman’s The Angelic Conversation, 1985. This is followed by a partnership with the RDS Visual Art Awards presenting a specially curated programme by past Visual Art Awards artists. Later in the year screenings will feature work by artists Bruce Conner, Sweat Variant, Clare Langan and Aideen Barry, amongst others, together with partnerships with Dublin International Film Festival and Beta Festival.

This Summer IMMA’s popular programme, Summer at IMMA, will return with a vibrant programme of free events, exhibitions, artist performances, screenings, talks, workshops and tours, running from June to August.

EARTH RISING returns to IMMA in 2025 as a vibrant festival of art, ecology, and ideas. Running from 12 to 14 September, alongside the Staying with the Trouble exhibition, the festival will spark transformative climate conversations and actions through immersive cultural experiences. This year’s theme, “Making Kin,” invites audiences to explore meaningful connections — with each other, the natural world, and the urgent challenges of our time. Expect thought-provoking installations, interactive workshops, and inspiring voices that merge creativity with climate action, offering fresh perspectives and a space for collective imagination.

IMMA’s Engagement & Learning programme is central to the museum and in 2025 it will deliver many new initiatives.

The launch of a new residency Dwell Here that will support research and engagement with more than 20 residents in 2025. Six practices will have year-long opportunities at IMMA and all other residents will participate in one month residencies organised around a series of Research Intensives. Selected artists include Eoghan Ryan (IE), Crystal Bennes (UK/USA), Colm Keady-Tabbal (IE/LB), Sarah Pierce (US/IE), Amanda Dunsmore (UK/IE), Seamus Nolan (IE), Olga Micińska (PO), Slinko (US/UA), Renèe Helèna Browne (IE), and Angelina Radaković (UK), with more artists to be announced.

An international Summer School, Landscape and Conflict, organised by IMMA and the National College of Art and Design as part of the L’Internationale project Museum of the Commons will take place in Dublin and Belfast from 7 to 11 July 2025.

Engagement Hub: Art in Action is a new unique training programme to empower racialised and ethnic diverse artists to develop their practice towards engagement with younger audiences. This project, created by IMMA and Superprojects, is funded by the Ireland against Racism Fund 2024 by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Art for All: Inclusive Family Workshop is a new programme that creates pathways for families seeking asylum into IMMA’s existing Explorer Family Workshops. IMMA has teamed up with artist Olga Vnukova and the Liberties Community Project as part of Dublin City Council’s pilot grant scheme aimed at delivering meaningful and impactful programmes in local settings.

IMMA Perspectives: A Creative Encounter is a partnership between IMMA, Dublin City Council and neurodivergent artists, Jody O’Neill and Dee Roycroft working towards creating a Dublin where neurodivergent people can fully participate in and enjoy cultural experiences. The programme will see selected professional neurodivergent artists participate in a facilitated encounter through bespoke workshops and seminars.

Please click on the links below to read more about the individual exhibitions and programmes:

2025 Programme

IMMA Collection: Art as Agency
8 February – 7 February 2028

Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers
28 February – 27 October 2025

Staying with the Trouble
2 May – 21 September 2025

Sam Gilliam
13 June 2025 – 25 January 2026

EARTH RISING
12 – 14 September 2025

Cecilia Vicuña: Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey
7 November 2025 – July 2026

Living Canvas at IMMA
Year long

Continuing in 2025

Take a Breath
Until 17 March 2025

Hamad Butt: Apprehensions
Until 5 May

– ENDS –

For further information and images please contact:   

Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023  
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 

Born in Lahore, Pakistan and raised in London, Hamad Butt was British South Asian, Muslim, and queer. A contemporary of the Young British Artists, critics described him as epitomizing the new ‘hazardism’ in art; his poignant and severe work is emotive yet austere. Before his AIDS-related death in 1994, aged 32, Butt completed and showed four major sculptural installations, which forged new encounters between art and science in the time of AIDS. He also left behind videos, writings, drawings, paintings and plans for new installations; and was a pioneer of intermedia art, sculptural installation, sci-art and queer diasporic art.

Butt belongs to a group of British artists – most famously Derek Jarman (subject of a 2019 IMMA retrospective) – who responded to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Unlike Jarman however, Butt’s art did so in a non-militant way, dealing with the subject matter through subtle inferences to sex and death, an approach which connects his work to major international figures like Felix González-Torres, who similarly used a more minimal sculptural vocabulary.

Butt’s most iconic works, Transmission (1990) and the three-part series Familiars (1992), have never been shown together. None of his works has ever been shown outside the UK. Hamad Butt: Apprehensions is the first retrospective exhibition of Butt’s work and it seeks to correct the ways his work has been overlooked in British and international histories of contemporary art. It brings together Butt’s extant works, including the four major installations and supplementary parts, including the reconstruction of a destroyed work (a cabinet inhabited by live flies); schematic drawings, sketches and written notes from his archive; previously unseen (or rarely shown) paintings, etchings and works on paper; and a videotaped interview with the artist.

Butt’s works imply physical risk or endangerment: in Transmission, the threatening image of a triffid (a literary harbinger of blindness and mass extinction) is visible if one dons protective glasses to screen out the harmful ultraviolet light; in Familiars, we encounter chemicals that can heal us (they are disinfectants), but that irritate, burn, blind or kill if unleashed. He summons the fear of injury and contamination as analogies, perhaps, for the threat of disease and contagion (including that of HIV/AIDS), for mortality, or for airborne disasters – of climate emergency or of war. He also invokes the perceived threat of the racial, religious, or national outsider, through references to Christian and Islamic iconology, and to religious, spiritual, or hermetic orders of knowledge, such as the Islamic history of alchemy. His invocations of the end of the world are redolent in our own contaminated present – blighted (still) by pandemics, looming environmental disaster, migrant crises, and terror from the air.

Hamad Butt: Apprehensions is a retrospective exhibition developed in collaboration between IMMA and Whitechapel Gallery, London. The exhibition restages the Familiars, and Transmission sculpture series, along with paintings, drawings, and archive materials that contextualise his practice. The exhibition is curated by Dominic Johnson, Professor of Performance and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London, and co-curated with Seán Kissane and Gilane Tawadros. The exhibition is organised in cooperation with Jamal Butt and the Estate of Hamad Butt.

The accompanying exhibition catalogue is edited by Dominic Johnson and features a comprehensive survey essay (the first of its kind), and new commissioned essays by scholars, curators, conservators and artists including Alice Correia, Seán Kissane, Steve Kurtz, Adrian Rifkin and others. It is the first significant book-length study of the work of Hamad Butt. The catalogue is published by Prestel and supported by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Price €35 from the IMMA Shop.

Commenting on the exhibition, Annie Fletcher, IMMA Director said; “We are thrilled to work with Whitechapel Art Gallery, Dominic Johnson, and Jamal Butt, to realise this long-overdue retrospective of Hamad Butt. Building on our series of exhibitions that has revisited and revised the art of the 1990s, including The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now and Derek Jarman: Protest!, this exhibition reveals how other, truly significant, histories of the ‘90s and HIV/AIDS, can enrich our understanding of that time, and also provide a more complex and diverse lineage for the art of the present moment.” 

Hamad Butt: Apprehensions is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.

– ENDS – 

For further information and images please contact: 

Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957

Additional Notes for Editors Exhibition Details 

Title: Hamad Butt: Apprehensions
Exhibition Dates: 06 Dec 2024–05 May 2025
Museum Opening Hours:
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm
Bank Holiday Mondays: 12noon – 5.30pm

IMMA TALKS
Preview Curators’ Panel Discussion 
Thurs 5 Dec, 5.00 – 6.20pm, Johnston Suite, IMMA 
Dominic Johnson, Professor of Performance and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London, Gilane Tawadros, Director, Whitechapel Gallery in a moderated discussion with Seán Kissane, Curator, Exhibitions, IMMA.
Admission free, booking essential. Book here.

About Hamad Butt
Hamad Butt was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962 and moved to live in east London with his family in 1964. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths from 1987 to 1990, and coincided with the Young British Artists (YBA) generation, many of whom studied alongside him there. His earliest works include countless paintings and prints, which were shown in exhibitions around London and the UK from 1983-87, including at Brixton Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, South London Gallery and London Lesbian and Gay Centre. From the late 1980s, Butt developed unprecedented large-scale sculptural installations using toxic or dangerous materials. His later works were exhibited at John Hansard Gallery (Southampton), Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain), Whitechapel Gallery, Milch, Institute of Contemporary Arts (all London), Manchester Art Gallery, and elsewhere. He continued to make works on paper throughout this time. Butt died of AIDS- related complications in London in 1994, aged 32. A book on his work, Familiars, was published posthumously in 1996. His work is in the permanent collections of Tate and IMMA.

A new exhibition, from the exceptional photography collection donated to IMMA by Dr David Kronn, opens at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Monday 28 October 2024. This display presents a selection of 130 works showcasing Dr Kronn’s longstanding commitment to building a diverse collection of photographic works for nearly 30 years.

Photography has held a lifelong fascination for Irish-born US-based collector Dr Kronn. A doctor specialising in medical genetics, his attraction to the scientific processes used in photography is not surprising. The donation contains examples of many photographic forms and media, from 19th century Daguerrotypes and albumen prints; the microphotography of Karl Blossfeldt from the 1920s; or pin-hole camera images by Adam Fuss from the 1980s.

Other themes that emerge throughout the collection include abstracted landscapes or seascapes; portraits of artists, such as August Sander’s image of Heinrich Hoerle at work in 1931; the portrait of Louise Bourgeois by Annie Leibovitz from 1997; and numerous iconic works, like Herb Ritts’s image of pop star Madonna from 1986. Irish artists showing as part of this exhibition include Alice Maher, Richard Mosse, and Ameila Stein and international photographers such as Harry Callahan who made work in Ireland in the 1970s.

Seán Kissane, Curator, IMMA said: “Currently there is no major collection of international photography collection housed in any Irish museum. Dr Kronn’s pledge to make IMMA the future home of his extensive collection, now over 1000 photographs, will position IMMA as a centre of research and a major force in the field”.

Photographers included are Slim Aarons; Berenice Abbott; Amy Arbus; Peter Arnell; Roger Ballen; Marion Belanger; Dominique Berretty; Karl Blossfeldt; Bill Brandt; Harry Callahan; Elinor Carucci; Vincent Cianni; Tillman Crane; Steve Crouch; Edward S. Curtis; William E. Davis; Michael Deines; Jack Delano; Josh Dennis; Mike Disfarmer; Doug Dubois; Dr Harold Edgerton; Alfred Ehrnhardt; Martine Franck; Gisèle Freund; Adam Fuss; Helen K. Garber; Mario Giacomelli; John Goldblatt; Mark Goodman; Pedro E. Guerrero; Philippe Halsman; Manuela Hofer; Chip Hooper; Rolfe Horn; Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard; Karel Otto Hruby; Robert Glenn Ketchum; Annie Leibovitz; Edwin Hale Lincoln; Eric Lindbloom; Alice Maher; Joel Meyerowitz; Bart Michiels; Richard Misrach; Inge Morath; Richard Mosse; Martin Munkacsi; Asako Narahashi; Simon Norfolk; Nigel Parry; Irving Penn; John Pfahl; Richard Quataert; Eugene Richards; Wynn Richards; Herb Ritts; Ron Rosenstock; Douglas Ryuije; August Sander; Paul Sepuya; Aaron Siskind; Rosalind Solomon; Frank Spadarella; Jerry Spagnoli; Jan Staller; Amelia Stein; Antanas Sutkus; Bob Thall; Terry Towery; Penelope Umbrico; Underwood; Todd Webb; Brett Weston; Ronald W. Wohlauer.

In close collaboration with the Collections Team at IMMA who are guiding the acquisition process, this is the fourth exhibition from the David Kronn Collection Donation, since 2011 IMMA has held three exhibitions from the Collection – Out of the Dark Room, Second Sight and Northern Light – showcasing over 300 works.

For media inquiries, please contact: 

Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 

Additional Information 

David Kronn Photography Collection Donation
28 October 2024 – 26 January 2025
Admission Free
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm.
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm.
Webpage: David Kronn Collection – IMMA  

IMMA Talk
In-Gallery Conversation with Dr David Kronn and Seán Kissane
Friday 1 November at 1.15pm / Drop-in / No booking required 
Join an in-gallery conversation with Dr David Kronn and IMMA curator Seán Kissane who will explore the photographers and themes in the exhibition.  

About Dr David Kronn
Born and brought up in Dublin, Dr David Kronn had an early interest in photography, learning to use a darkroom at his school camera club. He remained an active photographer while he was studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin and when his medical training took him to New York, this interest in photography developed into a passion for collecting pictures. Dr Kronn has shaped a collection, of over 1000 photographs, rich in content, genre and themes that encourages many readings.  

Performed by Crash Ensemble, the Camille Norment Trio and vocalists from Oslo 14
Date: Thursday 24 October at 7.30pm

IMMA presents Camille Norment’s composition Sounds For New Seeds (2023) live for one-night only, Thursday 24 October, in the Great Hall at IMMA. Sounds For New Seeds is composed for an instrument and vocal ensemble that includes the rare glass harmonica, the Norwegian hardingfele, electric guitar and feedback amongst the brass and string instrumentation. The ensemble forms a ring around the audience, and for this event, the piece will be performed by Ireland’s leading new music ensemble, Crash Ensemble, members from Norment’s own core ensemble from Norway – the Camille Norment Trio – and vocalists from Oslo 14.

The performance marks the return of live events by IMMA in the Great Hall and will be the first in over six years. We are delighted to welcome audiences back into one of the most exciting spaces of the museum with Norment’s expansive work Sounds For New Seeds.

Visual artist, composer and performer Camille Norment is at home both in the world of exhibitions and music, exploring the spaces of sound and their relation to bodies, thoughts and actions. Norment’s multimedia installations explore socio-cultural and psychological phenomena through what she describes as cultural psychoacoustics, which is about how context, form, space and the viewer’s body interact in the formation of somatic and cognitive experiences.

In Norment’s work, the power of sound and music is a magic force that envelopes the listening body in its transformation of perceptions and possibilities. Sonic agency, and change through thought and action, can be as quiet as the quiver of a single butterfly on a string, or a whisper that becomes the roar of sonic feedback.

Sounds For New Seeds listens to locate and gestures to produce new seeds for the future, scattering them around and setting them to grow. The piece is not meant as sentimental but rather as impassioned, practical work through sound.

Performance details:
Date: Thursday 24 October
Time: 7.30pm – 8.30pm
Tickets & Booking: €20 full price / €18 conc. Book online here.
Refreshments included in ticket price.
Venue: Great Hall, IMMA.

A composition in six parts for instrumentation and choreography, Sounds For New Seeds was originally commissioned by Bergen International Festival 2023.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957

Additional Information

Camille Norment: Sounds For New Seeds
Date: Thursday 24 October 2024
Time: 7.30-8.30pm
Ticket Prices: €20 full price / €18 concession. Refreshments included in ticket price.
Booking: Online booking at Camille Norment: Sounds For New Seeds – IMMA
Venue: Great Hall, North Wing, IMMA
Doors: Open from 7pm, performance starts at 7.30pm
Refreshments available after performance in the Johnston Suite

Camille Norment
Camille Norment’s work has recently been shown in solo exhibitions at the Bergen Kunsthall (2023); Dia Art Foundation in New York (2022–23); the David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2019); the Oslo Kunstforening (2017); and Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin (2017). Since her solo presentation in the Nordic Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, she has participated in the Kochi-Muziris (2016), Montreal (2016), Lyon (2017), and Thailand (2018) biennials. She has produced several permanent artwork commissions for public spaces.

Camille Norment Trio
Camille Norment Trio features artist Camille Norment on the glass harmonica, electronics and voice with musicians Vegar Vårdal on Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and Håvard Skaset on electric guitar. This unique trio of voices investigates the visceral qualities of resonance, noise, and overtone, creating music that enacts and deconstructs cultural and historical positions relevant to each of the instruments. Each of the instruments have been simultaneously revered and feared or even outlawed at various points in their histories. The sonic worlds they create resonate through a tantalising union of the instruments’ voices and their often-paradoxical cultural histories. Their performance is an organic movement between the composed and the improvised, creating a dynamic soundscape that defies a fixed genre reference. Their mysterious sonic environments hover at the meeting points of folk, rock, classical, experimental music, and more. The Camille Norment Trio has been performing internationally since is founding in 2010.

Crash Ensemble
Crash Ensemble is Ireland’s leading new music ensemble; a group of world-class musicians who play the most adventurous, ground-breaking music of today. Amazingly ordinary people doing extraordinary things – Crash is innovative, adventurous and ambitious.

Led by cellist and Artistic Director, Kate Ellis and Principal Conductor, Ryan McAdams, the ensemble commissions, collaborates, explores, investigates and experiments with a broad spectrum of music creators and artistic collaborators: ‘We love to innovate, with quality always at the heart of everything we do. We are passionate about the music we play. We create experiences; exploring new ways of presenting music and bringing our audiences on new adventures. Community for us is key – our community inspires us to create and experiment more. We value our audiences and our connection with them.’

Crash perform both in Ireland and internationally. The ensemble’s music is available on their own label, Crash Records and they have recordings on Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, NMC, Ergodos and Bedroom Community labels. Many well-known artists from diverse musical backgrounds have performed with the ensemble; Terry Reily, Gavin Friday, Dawn Upshaw, Diamanda La Berge Dramm, Laurie Anderson, Lisa Hannigan, Íarla Ó Lionáird (The Gloaming), Bryce Dessner (The National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Sam Amidon and Beth Orton.

As well as performing throughout Ireland, Crash regularly perform internationally, with appearances in the last few years at the Edinburgh International Festival, The Royal Opera House (London), The Barbican (London), Carnegie Hall (NYC) The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington DC), Virginia Tech (Virginia), GAIDA Festival (Lithuania) and residencies at The Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (UK) and Princeton University (NJ).

Crash Ensemble is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland and Dublin City Council, is a resident ensemble at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland and at Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland.

Oslo 14
The vocal ensemble Oslo 14 was founded in 2014 by Elin Rosseland and fourteen singers. Today, the ensemble consists of a pool of up to 20 improvising vocalists: Gro-Marthe Dickson, Åshild Bergill Hagen, Live Foyn Friis, Petter Hauglum, Guro Eliassen Kverndokk, Hedda Hammer Myhre, Marika Schultze, Karoline Ruderaas Jerve, Sean Bell, and Bendik Sells (artistic director).

Oslo 14’s mission is to explore movement, experimentation, and improvisation. By incorporating both collective and solo improvisation elements into composed works, the ensemble aims to expand the boundaries of vocal music in choral and ensemble formats. Additionally, Oslo 14 frequently works with free improvisation, presenting several concerts each year with entirely improvised material.

Oslo 14 made its debut at nyMusikk’s Only Connect Festival in 2015, performing the commissioned work “Mass for the Witch Woman” by Susanna. Since then, the ensemble has collaborated with a wide range of Norwegian contemporary composers in developing and performing new music, including Lisa Dillan, Sofia Jernberg, Wenche Losnegård, Jessica Slighter, Ole-Henrik Giørtz, Guro Skumsnes Moe, Andreas Backer, Tone Åse, Tine Surel Lange, Eric S. Egan, and Agnes Ida Pettersen. Oslo 14 has also contributed to performances and recordings for Camille Norment’s installation at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and worked with Jøkleba for a tribute concert of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme at the Oslo Jazz Festival the same year.

Since autumn 2021, Oslo 14 has performed at several prestigious events, including the official opening of the MUNCH museum in Oslo, the Bergen International Festival, the Tonehimmel concert series in Volda, and multiple tours across Eastern Norway. The ensemble has also premiered new works by Camille Norment, Elin Rosseland, Guro Skumsnes Moe, and Bendik Sells.