IRELAND INVITES celebrates success as artists Breda Lynch and Sana Shahmuradova Tanska are selected for the 24th Biennale of Sydney 

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art), Hugh Lane Gallery and Culture Ireland are delighted to announce the selection of two artists, Breda Lynch and Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, as participants of the 24th Biennale of Sydney, a direct result of the IRELAND INVITES programme.

Launched in early 2023, IRELAND INVITES seeks to enhance international exposure for Irish based visual artists by hosting biennale curators to undertake visits to studio and art institutions in Ireland. The first visiting curator Inti Guerrero, Artistic Director of the Sydney Biennale, 2024 travelled to Ireland as part of the IRELAND INVITES initiative in May of this year.

During his visit Guerrero met with several visual artists from across Ireland.  Artworks by Irish artist Breda Lynch and Ukrainian artist Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, who produced her work while on a Production Residency at IMMA in collaboration with EVA International, have been selected to participate in the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, which takes place from 9 March to 10 June 2024.

Commenting on the selection of Lynch and Shahmuradova Tanska to participate in the Biennale of Sydney, Annie Fletcher, Director, IMMA, Barbara Dawson, Director Hugh Lane Gallery and Sharon Barry, Director Culture Ireland said: “We are thrilled for both artists on their selection for the Sydney Biennale and delighted that IRELAND INVITES was able to play a role in facilitating this wonderful achievement.  Ireland has a strong visual arts practice, and we are excited about the opportunity IRELAND INVITES provides to further enhance the representation of Irish visual artists internationally”.  
 
IRELAND INVITES gives visiting curators the opportunity to enhance their understanding of contemporary art practices in Ireland availing of the curatorial expertise of IMMA, Hugh Lane Gallery and Culture Ireland, who create bespoke hosted trips for each visiting curator.

The programme also welcomed Miguel A. López and Dominique Fontaine this year, co-curators of the Toronto Biennial of Art, 2024 who visited Ireland to coincide with EVA, Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art in Limerick.  Plans are in place to welcome curators representing Hawaii, Karachi, and Berlin in the coming months.

– ENDS – 
 
Contact: For further information and images please contact: 
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] 
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Additional Notes for Editors 

24th Biennale of Sydney 
The 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, takes place from 9 March to 10 June 2024. Visit Ten Thousand Suns – Biennale of Sydney for details.

Inti Guerrero 
Inti Guerrero, together with Cosmin Costinas was announced last summer as the Co-Artistic Director of the 24th Biennale of Sydney which will take place from 9 March to 10 June 2024. Inti Guerrero is currently tutor of the Curatorial Studies programme at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts-KASK, Ghent.  He was the Artistic Director of bap – bellas artes projects, Manila (2018-2022), Curator of the 38th EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick (2018), Artistic Director of TEOR/éTica, San Jose (2011-2014) and the Estrellita B. Brodsky Adjunct Curator at Tate, London (2016-2020).

As an independent curator, Guerrero has curated exhibitions across Asia, Europe, Latin America and West Africa, including ‘Myth Makers” (curated with Chantal Wong) at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2023), ‘Fraccionar’ at Casa Museo Luis Barragan, Mexico City (2019), ‘A Chronicle of Interventions,’ Tate Modern, London (2014) and ‘A Transatlantic Affair: Josephine Baker and Le Corbusier,’ (curated with Carlos Maria Romero) at Museum of Art of Rio-MAR, Rio de Janeiro (2014). He has edited and contributed his writing to numerous books, magazines, and exhibition catalogues and has taught and lectured at different universities, art academies, and institutions across the world.

Over the past 10 years, Costinaș and Guerrero have co-curated a number of exhibitions together including ‘A Journal of the Plague Year’ (Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and San Francisco, 2013-2015) ‘Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs’ (Manila, Hong Kong, Bangkok, 2016-2017), ‘Long Green Lizzards’ – Dakar Biennale, La Biennale de l’Art africain contemporain, Dakar (2018). Both curators are based in Berlin.

Breda Lynch 
Artist, curator and teacher, Brenda Lynch attended the Crawford College of Art, Cork, Chelsea College of Art, London, and the University of Wolverhampton. Lynch has exhibited extensively in Ireland and abroad. International exhibitions include curated group exhibitions in Scotland, England, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Thailand, China, USA, and Australia.

Solo exhibitions in Ireland and Northern Ireland include:’WItch and Lezzie’, Ashford Gallery RHA (2017), ‘Fragments of a Lost Civilisation’, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar (2016), ’The Pit and Other Stories’ , at Siamsa Tire Gallery, Tralee (2014), ’Thursday’s Clinic’ , 126 Gallery, Galway (2013), ‘Strangelove’, Black Mariah, Triskel, Cork (2010),’Song to the Siren’, Galway Arts Centre (2009), ‘Place of the Crows’ and ‘Fleurs Fatales’, Context Gallery Derry (2007) and ‘Dark Brides and Silent Twins’ Limerick City Gallery of Art (2006).

She is represented in several national collections including the OPW – Office of Public Works, NUIG Collection – Galway, Luciano Benetton Italy, Trinity College Art Collection, Limerick City Gallery Collection, University of Limerick Collection, Hunt Museum Limerick and other private collections.

Sana Shahmuradova Tanska 
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska is a Ukrainian artist currently based in Kyiv, a significant part of her childhood was spent in the countryside in the Podillia region, among rivers and forests. In 2014 she relocated to Toronto as an immigrant where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at York University, Toronto, ON in 2020. Following this Sana decided to return to the city of Kyiv which has always inspired her.

Sana Shahmuradova Tanska was on a Production Residency at IMMA from February to April 2023 and was nominated for this opportunity by EVA International ‘Guest Programme’ curator Sebastian Cichocki. The 40th EVA International took place in Limerick, from 31 August – 29 October 2023. Production Residencies support national programming through the provision of space and time leading up to major exhibitions or research projects with partnering organisations and programmes.

About IMMA www.imma.ie   
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.

About Hugh Lane Gallery www.hughlane.ie 
Located in Dublin’s City Centre, in Parnell Square, Hugh Lane Gallery, (originally named Municipal Gallery of Modern Art), houses one of Ireland’s most exciting collections of modern and contemporary Irish and international art. It is also the home of Francis Bacon’s Studio. The Gallery was founded by Sir Hugh Lane in 1908 as part of the dynamic and pioneering Celtic Revival Movement in Ireland at the turn of the 20thcentury. Since its foundation, the gallery’s collection of modern and international art has grown considerably. As rich resource in the visual arts, HLG, where art and ideas meet, participates with many diverse communities nationally and globally through its programmes of engagement, learning, exhibitions, rotating displays, and research.
 
About Culture Ireland www.cultureireland.ie 
Culture Ireland promotes Irish arts worldwide and creates and supports opportunities for Irish artists and companies to present and promote their work at strategic international festivals and venues. Culture Ireland develops platforms to present outstanding Irish work to international audiences, through showcases at key global arts events, including the Edinburgh Festivals and the Venice Biennales.