A snapshot of the last ten years as seen through the IMMA Collection

A snapshot of the last ten years as seen through the IMMA Collection
A Decade opens at IMMA today with major new acquisition; Willie Doherty, Remains

Pierre Huyghe, Block Party, 2002 – 2004, Super 16mm film transferred to video, Duration 5 min 45 sec Edition of 6. Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art, Purchase 2005.

IMMA Collection: A Decade
28 April 2016 – 8 January 2017

IMMA presents IMMA Collection: A Decade – a snapshot of how the National Collection of modern and contemporary art has developed over the past 10 years. IMMA’s remit is to collect the art of now for the future, to reflect key developments in visual culture and to keep them in the public domain for future generations. Great works of art entering IMMA’s Collection shape future conversations about art, Ireland and the world we live in and expand the reputation of contemporary Irish artists globally.

Commenting on the exhibition Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator: Head of Collections, IMMA said: “The large number of donated works featured in this exhibition reflects IMMA’s almost exclusive reliance on gifts and private philanthropy in recent years. As a result of significant funding cuts IMMA has not had the resources to have a viable acquisitions budget since 2011. As a result, the practice of younger and mid-career artists from the past five years are glaringly absent from the IMMA Collection story. It is particularly through purchases that IMMA can best fulfil its vision and mission to chart the nation’s artistic memory and it is therefore vital that IMMA resume purchasing such critically important Irish and international works as a matter of urgency.”

Works selected for IMMA Collection: A Decade explore memory, identity and place, and questions of globalism, the environment and connectivity – from the local to the universal.  The exhibition includes many of the wide range of media represented within the IMMA Collection; painting, sculpture, drawings and prints, photography, film, video, installation and performance and include works by both Irish and international artists, giving you a sense of the huge variety of artistic practice in contemporary art.

A key display within the exhibition is Remains, 2013, by Willie Doherty, a powerful fictitious film based on real events. As part of a spate of punishment shootings in 2012 in Derry by the dissident Republican group Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD), a father was ordered to bring his son and another boy, a cousin, to a specified location to be kneecapped. Such punishments were administered by the IRA to control drug use or anti-social behaviour during the conflict in the North of Ireland but are now used by dissident republicans to exert control. Commenting on the work Doherty stated “I revisit these same locations in Remains to explore the idea of the generational nature of the conflict, how it passes through families and the vicious circle that people can get caught up in".  Remains is one of a selection of significant acquisitions that are the result of generous donations to the IMMA Collection, including works such as Cape Siren (2008) by Philip Taaffe, significant gifts from the Novak/O’Doherty Collection, David Kronn Collection, the Graphic Studio and a diplomatic gift of works from the Federal Government of Mexico. 

Other key works include Block Party (2002-2004) by French artist and filmmaker Pierre Huyghe celebrating the block party as a force of community and cohesion with New York City neighbourhoods, Clarendon Road (2000-2005) by Howard Hodgkin, deploying his characteristic brushstrokes and saturated colours to respond to the view of a London house, and Vulture (Dragon) (2010) by Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington.

The works are shown in a series of rotating displays, the next works in the exhibition will be shown from July 2016.  Admission is free.

Associated Talks and Events
A series of talks, events and digital resources will focus on aspects of IMMA Collection’s newly installed exhibition displays.  Entitled A Decade, the exhibition brings together many works that resonate with ideas of identity, memory and place. Speakers will include Tim Robinson (writer, artist and cartographer), Willie Doherty (artist) and others.

The series will also consider how a museum can best fulfil its mission to chart the nation’s recent artistic memory. Key topics will look at the place of collecting, of philanthropy and the role of the State in the funding of art for the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. 

Please see www.imma.ie for more details.

Curators Lunchtime Talk: Drop In                                                                                                                        
Fri, 27 May, 1.15 – 2pm / Meeting Point / Main Reception
Join Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections, IMMA for an exhibition walkthrough of A Decade, where she will explore the curatorial context of the works on display, consisting of purchases, donations and loans in the past decade.

For a full programme of talks and events please visit www.imma.ie

 

IMMA launches major new private fundraising initiative to support contemporary art in Ireland after years of devastating cuts


Gerard Byrne, artist, Sarah Glennie, Director, John Cunningham, IMMA 1000 founder, Jesse Jones, artist and Grace Weir, artist at the IMMA 1000 launch.

IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, today launched a new fund designed to support the future of contemporary art in Ireland – IMMA 1000. A reaction to the devastating cuts experienced by the Arts sector in recent years IMMA 1000 is initially a three year fundraising programme 2016 – 2018. The fund launches with €60,000 which IMMA plans to double in year one through donations of €1,000 each from 60 visionary individuals.

IMMA Director Sarah Glennie said; “IMMA 1000 is a new fund specifically created to support our work with Irish artists in the drastically altered social and economic environment we find ourselves in today. Severe cuts in arts funding since 2008 have had a devastating effect on supports available directly to contemporary artists, and as a result artists simply cannot afford to live and work in Ireland, creating a huge concern for the future of Irish art, and contemporary Irish culture.”

“Artists tell us about ourselves, they challenge us; they create space for difference, debate and imagination. Their voice is an essential part of a vibrant and dynamic society and it is essential that we value artists and create a sustainable base for them in Ireland. With IMMA 1000 we want to create a support infrastructure for working Irish artists today, securing the ecosystem for the future.”

IMMA 1000 will do this in three key ways;
– Supporting artists to live and work in Ireland through bursaries and the IMMA residency programme.
– Supporting artists’ income through commissions and exhibitions.
– Supporting artists’ work through the purchasing of work for the IMMA Collection.

IMMA has been supported in this initiative by Goodbody as the exclusive corporate founding partner for IMMA 1000. As Ireland’s longest established stockbroking firm, Goodbody understands the importance of creating a legacy today for future generations. That’s why it has made a firm commitment to contribute significant funds to this important initiative over three years.

“Goodbody has high regard for IMMA and the work it does. We believe artists deserve a secure place in Irish society,” said Roy Barrett, Goodbody Managing Director. “Goodbody wants to help to build and sustain the cultural institutions that make art viable in Ireland. IMMA 1000 is a project of real ambition that we are honoured to support.”

IMMA 1000 was conceived on behalf of IMMA by businessman John Cunningham, Director CheckRisk, who responded to a talk by IMMA Director Sarah Glennie to a group of business leaders in 2014. He was struck by the critical difficulties, outlined by Sarah, facing artists in Ireland following the economic crisis. John, together with a group of founding donors, has already raised €20,000 for the initiative creating, with Goodbody, a founding fund of €60,000 in year one.

“In the business world we frequently hear concerns about ‘brain drain’ in Ireland; where the most talented and promising graduates and young leaders are leaving the country due to the economic crises, creating a void in the future ecosystem. We should be equally alarmed about the hundreds of artists who are no longer able to live and work in Ireland. Artists are crucial in forming and communicating our valuable cultural identity, a vital asset to Irish business abroad and a vital need for Irish people at home. We have to do something tangible to create the future we want for our country, and I want a future with Irish art, something we can achieve together through IMMA 1000.”

Speaking at the launch, leading Irish artist Gerard Byrne, also an IMMA Board member, said;
 
“As an artist working in Ireland for the last twenty years I’ve seen first-hand how critical it is that our arts institutions are enabled to support artists’ ongoing practice and the making and collecting of their work. Artists have a significant contribution to make to a country’s wellbeing and as an artist working internationally it is very clear to me the benefits to a society where artists are valued. We must value our artists and IMMA must be enabled to invest in their future by investing in the present. Simply put, IMMA 1000 can support this investment.”

Why Now?
Substantial cuts in arts funding since 2008 have had a devastating effect on supports available directly to contemporary artists. Arts organisations such as IMMA have also seen cuts of close to 50% in their government funding resulting in fewer acquisitions for public collections, fewer commissions of new work and reduced artist fees.

Overall these combined cuts create an overwhelming reduction in the funding that institutions such as IMMA can use to directly support artists. The commercial art market in Ireland also faces considerable challenges. As organisations slowly start to rebuild after years of successive cuts it is essential that IMMA is able to actively support Irish artists so that Ireland will remain a viable place for them to live and work into the future. If not, the effect of their loss will be felt for generations to come.

Find out more about IMMA 1000 here.

-ENDS –
For more information and images please contact [email protected] or [email protected] 01 612 9920

Additional Information
IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) is Ireland’s national institution of contemporary and modern art. Based in its home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, IMMA is celebrated for its vibrant and dynamic exhibition and education programmes.

IMMA is the home of the national collection of modern and contemporary art. Now numbering over 3,500 works, we ensure that this collection is accessible to visitors to IMMA and beyond, through exhibitions, collaborations, loans, touring partnerships and digital programmes. Visited by over 475,000 people in 2015, IMMA is one of Ireland’s leading cultural institutions and a key source of creativity and inspiration for visitors of all walks of life. One out of every eight IMMA visitors experiences visual art for the first time through their IMMA visit and it is hugely important to us to create an enjoyable and engaging experience of contemporary art for everyone. We are driven to inspire a curiosity and appreciation of Irish contemporary art amongst our audience and the wider Irish public.

Above all else we are committed to supporting artists’ work. Together with artists and other partners we work to support the development, understanding and enjoyment of contemporary art in Ireland. As Ireland’s contemporary visual artists continue to strengthen their work is increasingly recognised on the international stage as well as making an invaluable contribution to contemporary Irish society. Artists are a key voice in any contemporary society and IMMA is committed to supporting Irish artists’ ability to live and work in Ireland.

Related Bios

John Cunningham
John Cunningham has been in business for over 30 years holding senior positions in Irish Permanent, Friends First, Ross Bank, Zurich Bank and Alexander Mann Solutions. He is currently a Director of CheckRisk and is consulting to a wide range of organisations. He is a graduate of the Marketing Institute, Smurfit Graduate School and Insead. He is Chair of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, Director of The Irish Youth Foundation. He is Chair of the judging panel for the CSR awards for Chambers Ireland. John has interests in travel and collecting art.

Gerard Byrne
Gerard Byrne (b. Dublin 1969) is a visual artist working with photographic, video, and live art. In 2007 he represented Ireland at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He has also participated in dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, 2012; Performa, New York (2011); the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Auckland Biennial (2010); Gwangju Biennial (2008); Sydney Biennial (2008); Lyon Biennial (2007); Tate Triennial (2006); and the Istanbul Biennale (2003). Solo exhibitions of his work include Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen (2014); The Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2012); IMMA, Dublin (2011); Milton Keynes Gallery (2011); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2011); Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland (2010); The Common Guild, Glasgow (2010); Lisson Gallery, London (2009); ICA Boston (2008); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (2008); Dusseldorf Kunstverein (2007); Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2007); MUMOK, Vienna (2006); BAK, Utrecht (2004); Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003) and the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2002). In 2006 he was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn award. He is represented in London by Lisson Gallery and in Stockholm by Galerie Nordenhake.

Grace Weir
Grace Weir represented Ireland at the 49th International Venice Biennale and has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. She is currently Artist-in-Residence in the School Of Physics, Trinity College Dublin. As part of the IMMA Collection her film work Dust Defying Gravity, 2003, has been shown since its purchase in 2004 in many group exhibitions and beyond IMMA in venues across the country.

Working primarily in the moving image, Grace Weir makes a critical appraisal of film through film-making, in a practice that fuses documentation with highly authored situations. Weir probes the nature of a fixed identity and these questions are underpinned by the theories under her scrutiny, whether it is relativity, intentionality, film theory, the duality of light or the philosophy of time and history. She is interested in issues that are not unspecified because something is missing but because of their nature and content. Weir is interested in the slippages between the conceptual and experiential in different fields of enquiry. She examines how the imperfect world of direct experience plays a role in our understanding of theoretical concepts. Researching facts not as self-evident objects in the world but as processes, Weir takes a transdisciplinary approach in her research. The resulting work is wide ranging, from structural cinematic works to ‘footnote’ videos, web projects and installations. 

Jesse Jones
Jesse Jones (b. Dublin 1978) has been selected to represent Ireland at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 and an exhibition of her work No More Fun and Games is currently showing at the Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, until June 2016. She completed an MA in visual arts practice at DLIADT in 2005 and has worked and exhibited extensively at home and abroad.
Jones’s practice reflects and re-presents historical moments of collective resistance and dissent. In her films and videos she explores the gesture of the revolutionary action, and finds resonance in our current social and political landscape. Jones’s work takes many forms; from gallery based film and installation to large scale public events. She has collaborated with diverse groups; from opera singers and marching bands to activists, in a practice which aims to excavate the hidden meaning within our popular collective consciousness. She has completed a fellowship in Location One New York.
She has had a solo show in REDCAT Los Angeles (2011), and work commissioned for Collective Gallery in the UK.

She has shown internationally at the 9th Instanbul Biennial and Nought to Sixty at the ICA (2008). Her recent exhibitions include Artsonje centre Seoul (2013).

 

The outsider’s perspective: Patrick Hennessy and Carol Rama open at IMMA

On Thu 24 March 2016 IMMA launches its Spring programme with two major solo exhibitions from Irish artist Patrick Hennessy, and Italian artist Carol Rama; both born in the same decade and both neglected by the official art circles of their time. Although extremely different artists, one a realist painter, the other not faithful to any particular movement, Hennessy and Rama both explore human sexuality, gender and identity while challenging the political and social culture of their time.

Patrick Hennessy De Profundis is the first major exhibition of the work of the post-war realist painter Patrick Hennessy RHA (1915-80) since 1981. Re-examining and repositioning Hennessy’s work as part of the IMMA Modern Irish Masters Series this exhibition reflects on what Hennessy’s work might mean to audiences today.

At a time when gay men were subject to social and legal persecution for the simple fact of their sexual orientation, Hennessy and his lifelong partner Henry Robertson-Craig bravely chose to exhibit works that clearly marked them as homosexual. They have almost no peers in Irish art, but Hennessy’s late work demonstrates an engagement with the emerging international queer-art movement of the 1970s.

A prolific artist, Hennessy created portraits, landscapes, equine studies and still-lifes that found a steady market in the Irish and international art world, but he also created works unlike anything being made in Ireland at the time. Fusing realism with a Surrealist subjectivity learned in Paris, he painted human figures isolated in the landscape, male nudes and portraits of handsome African men that puzzled Irish critics who branded him ‘something of an outsider’.

‘A strange and exotic presence in Irish art’, ‘standing alone’, ‘very un-Irish’, where just some of the terms used by critics writing about Hennessy’s work in Dublin in the 60s and 70s. The label ‘Surrealist’ was generally used to explain-away Hennessy’s images that were not easily read. In reality many of his works were comprised of visual codes that signified clear narratives of homosexual life. While these codes were impenetrable to some; they were readily interpreted by those around his circle that included artists like Francis Bacon, the Two Roberts (Colquhoun & MacBryde), John Craxton and Lucian Freud; as well as the writers Elizabeth Bowen, Cyril Connolly, Brendan Behan and others.

Also opening the same day is The Passion According to Carol Rama, an exhibition of almost 200 works by artist Carol Rama (1918 – 2015). It is the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to date and comes to Dublin following exhibitions in MACBA, Barcelona, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, and EMMA, Finland.

Ignored for decades by official art history, Carol Rama is now recognised as essential for understanding developments within contemporary art. Her influence can be seen in the work of a later generation of artists such as Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker, Sue Williams, Kiki Smith and Elly Strik. Rama was belatedly recognised in 2003, receiving the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious international art exhibitions.

Divided into four thematic sections this exhibition is a guide through Rama’s many creative moments. Neither exhaustive nor retrospective, The Passion According to Carol Rama acts as an attempt to recognise and restore a life’s work still unknown but nevertheless set to become a classic. 

The early work of Carol Rama, made when she was just twenty years old, is inscribed with experiences of institutional confinement and death. These works question Fascism’s heroic ideals of health and virtue while also confronting Modernism’s representations of sexuality, disability and femininity. Her watercolour figures from this period were censored as ‘obscene’ by the Italian government of 1945.

By the 1960s, Rama had moved towards the creation of ‘bricolages’: organic maps made from taxidermy eyes, fingernails, mathematical symbols, syringes and electrical circuits. Evolving her practice again in the 1970s Rama began to work with rubber from bicycle tyres; a material closely associated with her life as her father had a small bicycle factory in Turin. Rama treated rubber like a taxidermist treats skin – she dissected the tyres using them within her work to create different surfaces and textures. Punctured, flaccid, decomposing and aged by light and time, Rama’s rubber tyres are like our bodies: vulnerable material transformed by their history. 

During the 1980s, Carol Rama returned to figurative modes of working – perhaps inspired by a sudden recognition of her early work by the curator Lea Vergine in 1980. She also began to identify with the figure of the ‘mad cow’ – referencing the mad cow epidemic that was sweeping across Europe at that time – and developed an animalist ethic: a kind of expanded feminism that looked beyond the centrality of humans. In doing so, Rama’s work can be seen to transcend species, gender and sexuality, and affirm a community of all living things.

Exhibition conceived by the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (MAMVP), organised by MACBA and co-produced with PARIS MUSÉES / MAMVP, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, IMMA – the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino. Curated by Teresa Grandas (MACBA) and Paul B. Preciado (documenta 14).

Fully illustrated catalogues are available to accompany these landmark exhibitions. Patrick Hennessy De Profundis is designed by Niall & Nigel at Pony with text by Seán Kissane, Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA, and contributions from art writer Robert O’Byrne, artist James Hanley and a biography Kevin A. Rutledge. The Passion According to Carol Rama includes contributions from Anne Dressen, Maurizio Cattelan, Melissa Logan and Alexandra Murray-Leslie (Chicks on Speed), Lea Vergine, Teresa Grandas, Paul B. Preciado, and an interview by Corrado Levi and Filippo Fossati with the artist, amongst others.

Both are available from the IMMA Shop, in Gallery and online

ENDS –

For further information or images please contact
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected]  T: +353 (0)1 612 9921 or Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920

Additional Notes for Editors

About the artist – Patrick Hennessy RHA (1915-80)
Patrick Hennessy was born in County Cork in 1915 and moved with his family to Scotland in 1921. He was trained as painter in the academic tradition at Dundee College of Art, where he was greatly influenced by his tutor, the leading Scottish landscape artist James McIntosh. Hennessy excelled at Dundee and on graduating won a scholarship to travel to Europe. Between 1938-39 he went to Florence, Rome and Venice studying the work of the old masters. He then settled in Paris, the centre of Surrealism and avant-garde culture, where he worked for a time under Fernand Léger.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was part of the influx of artists and writers who returned to Ireland like Louis le Brocquy, Gerard Dillon, and the White Stag Group – led by Basil Rákóczi and Kenneth Hall. These outward-looking artists formed the backdrop against which Hennessy made his work.

He showed annually at the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Dublin Painters Society until the mid-50s when he was instrumental in the founding of the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery which would go on to represent some of Ireland’s leading artists. In the late 50s he gained a level of international success having regular exhibitions in the UK and North America where he found a steady market for his work. In 1959, due to ill-health he spent the winter in Tangier, Morocco. This was a turning point in his life and career as he would spend less and less time in Ireland before finally settling in Tangier in the early 70s.

The title of the exhibition, De Profundis, is taken from a painting by Hennessy that shows Dublin in ruins. It derives from Psalm 130, ‘From the depths I cry to thee O Lord’, but more notoriously it is the title of the last work of prose written by Oscar Wilde and addressed to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. It was highly unusual for an Irish (or British) artist or writer to quote Wilde in a positive way. Wilde was synonymous with the shame that dare not speak its name and artists distanced themselves from him. Hennessy exhibited this work at the RHA in 1944 and frequently afterwards.

This exhibition re-examines and repositions Patrick Hennessey’s work as part of the IMMA Modern Irish Masters Series, a strand of programming that looks at the post-war period to shed light on artists who have been critically neglected; but also to reflect on what their work might mean to audiences today.

About the artist – Carol Rama (1915 – 2015)
Born in Turin, Carol Rama was never academically trained or faithful to any particular art movement. Instead Rama developed a body of work over seven decades that is as unique as it is obsessive. Carol Rama experimented with alternative materials, developing techniques for inventing new spaces of desire. Her work challenges dominant narratives around sexuality, madness, animalism, life and death.

Associated Events

Curators Conversation: The Passion According to Carol Rama
Wednesday 23 March, 6.30 – 7.30pm, Johnston Suite

Curators Teresa Grandas (MACBA) and Paul B. Preciado (documenta 14) explore how Rama’s work offers anarchic representations of female sexuality, gender and politics which allow an essential revision of avant-garde movements of the last century. Followed by the exhibition preview and opening party. This talk is free but booking is required. Book now

Modern Irish Masters Series| Patrick Hennessy De Profundis
Sun 10 April, 3 — 4pm / Johnston Suite / FREE

Seán Kissane (Curator, Exhibitions, IMMA) presents a keynote lecture offering a new perspective on the work of Irish artist Patrick Hennessy. This talk will give rich insights into Hennessy’s images which address themes such as war, religion, gender and sexuality.  This talk is free but booking is required. Book now

Curators Lunchtime Talks
Join IMMA curators for insightful exhibition walkthroughs, where a thematic selection of artworks are explored in detail. These talks are free and no booking is required, just turn up on the day.

Friday 6 May, 1.15 – 2pm / Meeting Point, Main Reception / FREE
The Passion According to Carol Rama with Rachael Thomas, Head of Exhibitions, IMMA.

Saturday 23 July, 1.15 – 2pm / Meeting Point, Main Reception / FREE
Patrick Hennessy De Profundis with Seán Kissane, Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA.

Seminar | Gender, Identity and the State, Date to be announced
Comprising of presentations by artists, writers, curators and educators, this seminar address issues of gender, sexuality, identity and the state as it relates to the work of artists Hennessy, Rama and others. Participants will draw on critical and queer theory across a wide range of disciplines. Further details to be announced.

IMMA announces landmark Lucian Freud Project for Ireland alongside an expanded 2016 programme of new work

IMMA announces landmark Lucian Freud Project for Ireland
alongside an expanded 2016 programme of new work celebrating the radical thinkers and activists whose vision for courageous social change in Ireland and beyond remains relevant to us today.
 


Reflection (Self Portrait), 1985 (oil on canvas), Freud, Lucian (1922-2011) / Private Collection / © The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Image

IMMA is pleased announce highlights from our 2016 exhibition programme today, Tue 8 March 2016. To watch the 2016 programme film, with contributions from Jaki Irvine and Duncan Campbell, click here 

Sarah Glennie, Director of IMMA, said: “We are delighted to announce today that the IMMA Collection has secured an important long-term loan of 50 works by Lucian Freud (1922-2011); one of the greatest figurative painters of the 20th-century. From September 2016, the IMMA Collection: Freud Project will be presented in a new, dedicated Freud Centre in the IMMA Garden Galleries for five years. With this extraordinary resource IMMA will create a centre for Freud research with a special programme of exhibitions, education partnerships, symposia and research that will maximise this exciting opportunity on offer in Ireland.”

“Ireland’s commemoration year 2016 presents an important moment to examine the role of the artist in shaping our contemporary society, and we have commissioned a number of leading artists to create and present new work that reflects the legacy of Ireland’s past as a means to understand our present. Irish artist Jaki Irvine is developing a new work based on her novel Days of Surrender (2013) that tells the story of Elizabeth O’Farrell and her partner Julia Grenan, two out of several hundred women who took an active part in the Rising yet were almost erased out of history. British/Japanese artist Simon Fujiwara’s new project The Humanizer places Roger Casement’s extraordinary biography at the core of an imagined new Hollywood biopic, while Irish born artist Duncan Campbell is working on his first film based in the Republic of Ireland, which takes as a starting point a series of American anthropological studies of Gaelic speaking rural communities in Ireland in the 60s and 70s.

“Artists will take over our courtyard this summer for an ambitious new project; A Fair Land, presented in collaboration with Grizedale Arts. Echoing the role artists played in creating and articulating a new vision for Ireland pre-1916, A Fair Land will be developed and activated by a range of artists and creative practitioners with the aim of creating new, artist-led visions for a functioning future society.”

“These new commissions are presented alongside major solo exhibitions by Irish artist Patrick Hennessy, who is the second study in our Modern Irish Masters Series, and Italian artist Carol Rama, both born in the same year and both neglected by the official art circles of their time. In the Autumn we present a major exhibition of artist Emily Jacir, whose work explores silenced historical narratives, movement and resistance, and in a new invited curators initiative Indian curator Sumesh Sharma and Irish curator Kate Strain will present projects at IMMA that reflect their individual practices and bring new curatorial perspectives into IMMA’s programme”

These new art projects are presented as part of an exciting on-going initiative, New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson, which allows IMMA to continue to support artists’ vital work in a strand of programming that recognises and nurtures new and emerging talents, new thinking and new forms of exhibition-making. Tim Scanlon, partner at Matheson, said, “Nurturing new talent is central to what we do in Matheson. Our on-going involvement with IMMA on the New Art at IMMA programme continues to be an exciting way for us to support new and emerging talent.”

Sarah Glennie continued; “The focus of IMMA’s 2016 programme is to celebrate the radical thinkers and activists who paved the way for courageous social change, whilst reflecting on the artistic and cultural community who played an active role in the period leading up to 1916. They imagined creativity as central to the new society and in 2016 we consider their legacy and their ideals, many of which we are still working towards today over a hundred years later. We ask what artists can tell us about our collective cultural identities and the societies we live in today whilst considering the role artists can play in helping us remember, reflect and commemorate. We explore these questions through the lens of contemporary arts practice; creating a space for difference, debate and imagination in Ireland’s year of national reflection.”

The IMMA Collection: Freud Project launches in 2016 and this important body of work, on loan to IMMA from a number of private collections, will be the focus of several major programming initiatives for the next five years. Lucian Freud is one of the greatest exponents of figurative painting in the 20th-century and the works on loan to IMMA include a selection of Freud’s finest paintings, as well as numerous etchings. Ranging across six decades these works will focus on many of the artist’s key areas of interest, including paintings of the same person at different ages, self-portraits, and double portraits. With this extraordinary resource IMMA will create a centre for Freud research with a special programme of exhibitions, education partnerships and symposia that will maximise this important opportunity for Irish school children, third level students, artists and Irish audiences of all ages, examining what it means to have works like these in the public domain. The lengthy duration of the loan will mean that the audience can build a relationship with Freud, really get to know these works and understand how Freud painted. The evolving programme of curated exhibitions and events will allow us to explore, with our audiences, Freud’s role and legacy in 20th-century art and what these works mean today for contemporary art.

The Freud Project is a major addition to the IMMA Collection, and in 2016 we will also present IMMA Collection: A Decade, providing a snapshot of how the National Collection has developed over the past ten years. Works selected explore themes around memory, identity and place, questions of globalism, the environment and connectivity; from the local to the universal. Featured artists include Pierre Huyghe, Willie Doherty, Niamh O’Malley, Eva Rothschild, Dorothy Cross, Tim Robinson, Peter Hutchinson, Philip Taaffe, Howard Hodgkin, Maria Simonds Gooding, Amanda Coogan and others.

The exhibition highlights major acquisitions to the IMMA Collection during the last decade, and emphasises the importance of IMMA rebuilding resources to continue to purchase major Irish and international works for the nation. IMMA has not had an institutional acquisitions budget since 2011 and works such as Cape Siren (2008) by Philp Taaffe or Remains (2013) by Willie Doherty are just two key acquisitions that would not have been impossible without the generous support of donors.

As always our exhibition programme will be accompanied by a rich and varied programme of live performance, events, talks, and learning programmes which will provide audiences of all ages exciting opportunities to enjoy our programme, opening up conversations and bringing the audience deeper into the thinking and making of contemporary art. This includes the continuation of our programme of talks and events entitled Art I Memory I Place, which takes place in the particular context of the ‘decade of centenaries’. Focusing on artists whose work addresses themes relating to memory and place, the purpose of this programme is to broaden and deepen the current discussion about the subject of remembrance and commemoration and to take account of such work. The thematic of IMMA’s 2016 programme will be further explored in a major symposium, co-curated by Annie Fletcher, Chief Curator, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.

Summer Party 2016, with a music programme curated by Cillian Murphy
At the heart of this activated programme opening IMMA up to new audiences is our annual Summer Party. Now in its third year, the IMMA Summer Party will return on Saturday 16th July with more art, music, performance and food events designed to open up the beautiful buildings and grounds of IMMA, day and night. Cillian Murphy will curate the music programme in 2016. Once the singer and guitarist with a rock band, actor Cillian Murphy has a visceral love of music and an impeccable ear. Having previously collaborated with the likes of Feist, Money, I Break Horses, Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll, Mark Garry, Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene, Irish music blog Fractured Air, and The Frank and Walters, this will be his first curation of a live music programme.

A full programme of events is available on www.imma.ie

– ENDS  –

For more information or images please contact [email protected] 01 612 9922
 
Additional Information – IMMA Exhibition Highlights 2016
For additional information on each exhibition please click the hyperlink to reach the exhibition page.

The Passion According to Carol Rama
24 March – 1 August 2016
This first substantial exhibition of Italian artist Carol Rama’s work comprises of almost 200 works and comes to Dublin following exhibitions in MACBA, Barcelona, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, and EMMA, Finland. Born in 1918 in Turin, Rama was never academically trained or explicitly faithful to any particular movement, except for the period of the “Movimento di Arte Concreta” (MAC). Instead, she developed a body of work over seven decades that is as unique as it is obsessive. Belatedly recognised in 2003, she was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.

Patrick Hennessy De Profundis
24 March – 24 July 2016

‘A strange and exotic presence in Irish art’, Patrick Hennessy RHA (1915-80), was one of Ireland’s most successful post-war realist painters. At a time when people were persecuted for their sexual orientation, Hennessy made works containing narratives of homosexual life that align him with the emerging queer-art movement of the 1970s. This exhibition re-examines and repositions Hennessey’s work as part of the IMMA Modern Irish Masters Series.

IMMA Collection: A Decade
28 April – 31 December 2016

IMMA Collection: A Decade provides a snapshot of how the Collection has developed over the past 10 years. Works explore themes around memory, identity and place, questions of globalism, the environment and connectivity; from the local to the universal. Featured artists include Pierre Huyghe, Willie Doherty, Niamh O’Malley, Eva Rothschild, Dorothy Cross, Tim Robinson, Peter Hutchinson, Philip Taaffe, Howard Hodgkin, Maria Simonds Gooding, Amanda Coogan and others.

Simon Fujiwara The Humanizer
20 May – 28 August 2016

Berlin based, British/Japanese artist Simon Fujiwara’s new project ‘The Humanizer’ places Roger Casement’s extraordinary biography at the core of an imagined new Hollywood biopic that takes the life of the compelling yet baffling figure of Roger Casement through the conventions of the Hollywood narrative machine, exposing our modern day desire for the perfect Hollywood hero in an age where everyone is somebody.

A Fair Land
15 August – 4 September

IMMA is collaborating with Grizedale Arts who, following a period of research and development in IMMA’s residency programme, will create, in collaboration with IMMA, an extraordinary new project that examines the ‘usefulness’ of art by inviting artists and creatives to take over the iconic IMMA courtyard this summer. Echoing the role artists played in creating and articulating a new vision for Ireland pre-1916, A Fair Land will be developed and activated by a range of artists and creative practitioners with the aim of creating new, artist-led visions for a functioning future society which visitors to IMMA during August will be invited to help inhabit, debate and enjoy. Artists and collaborators include Jonathan Meese, Renzo Martens, Suzanne Lacy, Ryan Gander, Karen Guthrie, Publicworks, Deirdre O’Mahony, Consiton Youth Club, Rhona Byrne, villagers from the Japanese mountain village of Toge, Gareth Kennedy, Seodín O’Sullivan, NÓS workshop, Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF), NCAD, and IADT with many more to be announced.

Invited Curators at IMMA: Sumesh Sharma and Kate Strain
September – early 2017

This new invited curators initiative will see Indian curator Sumesh Sharma and Irish curator Kate Strain presenting projects at IMMA that reflect their individual curatorial practices and bring new curatorial perspectives into IMMA’s programme. Sumesh Sharma co-founded the Clark House Initiative, Bombay in 2010 where he presently is the curator along with being the invited curator to the biennale of African contemporary art – Dak’Art 2016, Senegal. His practice deals with alternate histories that are informed by the Black Arts movement, Socio-Economics, Immigration in the Francophone and Vernacular Equalities of Modernism. Kate Strain is a Dublin-based curator researching the overlap between performance and performativity in visual arts practice. Ongoing projects include The Centre For Dying On Stage, Department of Ultimology, On Curating Histories, and the paired curatorial practice RGKSKSRG. She has worked in a curatorial capacity at Project Arts Centre, the National College of Art and Design, Trinity College Dublin, and internationally on collaborative projects in Torino, Amsterdam and Graz.

Emily Jacir: Europa
21 October – 5 February 2017

IMMA presents the first survey exhibition of artist Emily Jacir’s work in Ireland. Emily Jacir: Europa brings together almost two decades of sculpture, film, drawings, large-scale installations and photography and focuses on Jacir’s dialogue with Europe, Italy and the Mediterranean in particular. Known for her poignant works of art that are as poetic as they are political and biographical, Jacir explores various histories of migration, resistance and exchange.

IMMA Collection: Freud Project, 2016 – 2021
From Mid-September 2016

The IMMA Collection has secured an important long-term loan of 50 works by Lucian Freud (1922-2011), regarded as one of the world’s greatest realist painters. The works, on loan from a number of private collections, will be presented in a dedicated Freud Centre in the Garden Galleries for five years and will be titled IMMA Collection: Freud Project, 2016 – 2021. With this extraordinary resource IMMA will create a centre for Freud research with a special programme of exhibitions, education partnerships, symposia and research that will maximise this important opportunity for Irish school children, third level students, artists and all audiences in Ireland and abroad.

Jaki Irvine If The Ground Should Open…
November 2016

Taking her novel, Days of Surrender (2013), as a starting point Jaki Irvine’s new film work If The Ground Should Open… (2016), will be presented alongside a live performance event. The novel tells the story of Elizabeth O’Farrell and her partner Julia Grenan, two out of several hundred women who took an active part in the 1916 Rising yet were almost erased out of Irish history.

Duncan Campbell
December 2016 – early 2017

Following his first major exhibition in Dublin at IMMA in 2014, Irish-born artist Duncan Campbell (Turner Prize Winner 2014) is working on his first film based in the Republic of Ireland. Stemming from research in the IFI (Irish Film Institute) Archive, Campbell’s film will take as a starting point a 1960’s UCLA anthropological film study of rural Kerry, and a number of US anthropological studies from that period. Campbell reflects on the tension of the anthropologists’ projections onto the Gaelic speaking peasant cultures of their studies and the complexities of a society whose precarious existence faces threats of immigration, industrialisation and reform.  As with many of Campbell’s films this new work uses a combination of archive material and self-shot footage and uses a study of the past to throw a new perspective on our present.

IMMA takes art onto the streets of Dublin as part of the exhibition What We Call Love

IMMA will be providing a moment of contemplation amongst the frenzy of Christmas advertising with the artwork “Untitled” (The New Plan), 1991, by Cuban-born American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996). As part of the exhibition What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now (12 Sep 2015 – 7 Feb 2016) Gonzalez-Torres’ artwork will be presented on six billboards across six sites within Dublin city centre normally used for prime advertising space.
 
The billboards are on view from 16 to 30 December 2015 in the following locations:
1. 10 Ushers Island, Dublin 8
2. Townsend Street, Dublin 2
3. 109 Pearse Street, Dublin 2
4. 126 East Wall Road, Dublin 3
5. Talbot Street, Dublin 1
6. 145 Parnell Street, Dublin 1

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ artworks are known for their quiet, simple forms and minimal aesthetic. The artwork “Untitled” (The New Plan), 1991, is made by reproducing a specific colour image of denim fabric, a photograph by Gonzalez-Torres, exclusively as billboards. The work is intentionally open to interpretation and driven by viewer interaction. The artist specified that the work was intended to be installed in a variety of locations in diverse neighbourhoods.

Key to Gonzalez-Torres’s practice was the cultivation of an empowered audience, activating his work through participation and the capacity to construct meaning from the visual cues and open-endedness he created in the artworks. Using an already socially-accepted visual form – such as the public billboard – allowed Gonzalez-Torres to subtly communicate to people outside of the gallery space, and within the environment of daily life in the city.

As part of a concurrent exhibition by New York based Irish artist Les Levine IMMA is also presenting a group of unique cibachrome photographs of key media billboard campaigns which the artist staged during the 1980s and ‘90s, in major cities across the world. Presented as part of the exhibition IMMA Collection: Les Levine: Using the Camera as a Club – Media Projects and Archive. It is interesting to note that Levine was making these works around the same time that Gonzalez-Torres made “Untitled” (The New Plan).

For images and additional information please contact:

Aoife Flynn E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 99 21

Note for Picture Desk: The artworks will be in place at the sites listed above from 16 to 30 December and press images are also available. Full caption for artwork is: Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (The New Plan), 1991, Billboard, Dimensions vary with installation

Additional Notes for Editors

Felix Gonzales-Torres: This Place
The Mac in Belfast is currently showing Felix Gonzales-Torres: This Place (30 Oct 2015 – 24 Jan 2016) the largest presentation of the artist’s work in Ireland to date. The exhibition also presents the artwork “Untitled” (For Jeff) on billboards across 24 locations around Belfast.

What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now
12 September 2015 – 7 February 2016

The exhibition What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now explores how the notion of love has evolved within the 20th century. How have seismic sociological changes concerning sexuality, marriage and intimacy, alongside developments in gender issues, affected the way we conceive love today? How does visual art, from Surrealism to the present day, deal with love and what can these artistic representations tell us about what love means in our contemporary culture? Featuring modern and contemporary masterworks from the world’s leading collections by Abramoviæ, Brancusi, Dalí, Duchamp Ernst, Giacometti, Oppenheim, Picasso, Warhol, Yoko Ono, and many. Admission: €8.00 full price, €5.00 concession (senior citizens and the unwaged), under 18’s and those in full time education free.

Les Levine
A pioneer of media art Les Levine has, since 1976, been a prolific billboard maker, producing major media campaigns throughout North America, Europe and Australia. As a media sculptor Levine works in a similar way to an advertising company, developing ideas or issues that he is concerned with, thus subverting the language of mass advertising to interrogate social and political anxieties. Similar to the working of an advertising company Levine then works with various manufacturers to have his concepts realised, i.e. billboard printers, photo printing houses and media buying agencies. His billboard campaign, entitled Blame God, was shown throughout the city as part of IMMA’s From Beyond the Pale season of exhibitions in 1994.

-ENDS-

21 December 2015

Seamus Nolan: F**K IMMA │ What We Call Love

Live Event: Sunday 20 December 2015, 7pm – 8.30pm
IMMA Chapel

Exhibition: 6 January – 7 February 2016
Project Spaces

As part of the exhibition What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now (12 Sep 2015– 7 Feb 2016), IMMA is delighted to present F**K IMMA (2015) a new commission by Irish Artist Seamus Nolan (Hotel Ballymun, 10th President).

Led by Nolan, F**K IMMA is the work of various artists operating within the terrain of dissent and negation, inhabiting the boundaries of classical and contemporary, of male and female, and of the formal and informal institute. This new work offers a political and provocative observation on the idea of love by examining the notion of community as an expression of love and the contrasts between formal and counter-cultural community spaces. Nolan’s unique commission positions itself in a wholly immersive parallel to the meaning of ‘love’ in society. In employing the language and strategy of conflict and agitation, the title F**K IMMA, is a statement; an immaterial and linguistic appropriation.

Nolan’s commission is presented in three parts. Working with a community of squatters in central Dublin, Nolan is first documenting their space, how they occupy it and how elements of it are delineated and decorated.

The second part invites a small group of the public to experience a unique live performance evening taking place in the historic surroundings of the IMMA Chapel on Sunday 20th December 2015. Through this live event, which will also be filmed, Nolan invites you to experience an unconventional and powerful performance by Dublin based collective Doom Opera that will challenge the conventional idea of love. Their set will respond to the theme of love and resolution taking the formal classical cannon of Vivaldi and Wagner and reinterpreting these works though progressive discord rock. Filmed live, this set will be followed by a performative presentation by Stewart Home, the English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian and activist, on his research on occultist theories of love.

The coming together of these films contrast formal space with informal, stained glass with graffiti, classical music with discordant doom metal, formal culture with counter culture. The resulting film will be exhibited in the Project Spaces from 6 January 2016 until 7 February 2016.

A limited audience is invited to be part of the live event which will be filmed and presented as part of the final artwork. If you would like to be a part of this special event please email your expression of interest to: [email protected] with the heading ‘Seamus Nolan audience’ by 5pm Thursday 17 December.

Seamus Nolan was commissioned to create a new artwork for the exhibition What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now which is part of an exciting new initiative, New Art at IMMA. Proudly supported by Matheson this strand allows IMMA to continue to support this vital work through programming that recognises and nurtures new and emerging talent, new thinking and new forms of exhibition-making.

For images and additional information please contact:
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T:+353 (0)1 612 9922
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920

Further information for Editors:

SEAMUS NOLAN
Seamus Nolan is a Dublin based artist whose work practice explores the legitimacy of its own appropriation, interrogating the fabric of our social and cultural make up, to reveal the narrative of identity formation within common materials and activities. The subject operates between object and performance, assimilation and participation. Works include ‘10th President’ Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, a project which proposed the President of Ireland would temporarily hand over his office, ‘The Trades Club Revival’ which saw the revival of the traditional working man’s club in Sligo. The attempted hijack of a Ryanair flight for St Patrick’s day ‘Flight NM7104’. A refusal to participate in Irelands international art event  Dublin Contemporary 2011, and an attempt to sell the derelict house of Barbara Luderowski the founder and co-director of The Mattress Factory Pittsburgh.

Other works include Corrib Gas Project Arts Centre, a solo show which looked at the Corrib Gas Pipeline and the North Mayo community affected by its development, ‘every action will be judged on the particular circumstances’ a collaboration with the 5 peace activists acquitted for disarming a military aircraft in Shannon Airport, and ‘Hotel Ballymun’ which saw the transformation of a residential tower block on the outskirts of the city transformed into a boutique hotel by a group of local participants and organisations.

DOOM OPERA
Doom Opera is an ensemble conceived and arranged by Dublin based singer and performer Siobhan Kavanagh. Interpreting the works of Wagner, Schubert, Vivaldi and Harthy the ensemble combines classical and contemporary instrumentation to explore the themes of tension and dissonance relative to notions of love.

STEWART HOME
English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist, Home will present his research on occultist theories about love and the balancing of male and female in partners in love… no longer the two sexes but the third in whose company male and female travel. Stewart Home, is best known for his novels such as the non-narrative 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess (2002), his re-imagining of the 1960s in Tainted Love (2005), and earlier parodistic pulp fictions Pure Mania, Red London, No Pity, Cunt, and Defiant Pose that pastiche the work of 1970s British skinhead pulp novel writer Richard Allen and combine it with pornography, political agit-prop, and historical references to punk rock and avant-garde art. "Over the past 30 years I have worked across a variety of media including performance, music, film, writing, installation, graphics etc. Within these practices I have attempted to continually reforge the passage between theory and practice, and overcome the divisions not only between what in the contemporary world are generally canalized cultural pursuits but also to breach other separations such as those between politics and art, the private and the social."

SEAN FITZGERALD
Sean Fitzgerald is a freelance artist/illustrator and animator. His work is on t-shirts, record covers, badges, DVD’s, on the net and anywhere punks reside. Designer and writer of Protestzine from 1989 to 2009, he has worked with bands such as Extreme Noise Terror, Phobia, Coldwar, Raw Noise, Abaddon Incarnate, Subhumans, Riistetyt, Coitus, Distrust, Death Dealers, Opposition Party and loads more.

Stage Times, Sunday 20th December
Doom Opera 7:10 – 7:45pm
Stewart Home 8:00 – 8:30pm

14 December 2015

– Ends –

IMMA presents a major exhibition of new work by renowned Irish artist Grace Weir

7 November 2015 – 6 March 2016

IMMA presents the first Museum exhibition by one of Ireland’s most compelling and respected artists Grace Weir. 3 Different Nights, recurring is the largest exhibition of Grace Weir’s work to date, comprising some 30 works. Working primarily in the moving image and installation, Weir is concerned with aligning conceptual knowledge and theory with a lived experience of the world. She probes the concept of a fixed identity and her unique approach to research is based on a series of open conversations and experiments with scientists, philosophers and practitioners from other disciplines.

Interested in those moments in time before definition occurs, Weir’s works in the exhibition explore the dynamic of practice and representation. For Weir meaning becomes tangible through activity and the works make reference to both the act of making and the mediums in which they are made, including where time itself forms the work. The exhibition title 3 different nights, recurring references a note made on a Whirlpool galaxy drawing by William Parson’s in mid 1840s. Pre-dating photography, the drawing was repeated over three nights as a form of proof of his discovery of the spiral nature of galaxies.

3 Different Nights, recurring will premier three major new film commissions, A Reflection on Light, Black Square and Dark Room, and two new series of paper works, The history of light (Betelgeuse) and Future Perfect. These new pieces are presented with complementary works that together span over 20 years of Weir’s creative output. The exhibition is presented as part of an exciting new initiative, New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson, which allows IMMA to continue to support this vital work in a strand of programming that recognises and nurtures new and emerging talents, new thinking and new forms of exhibition-making.

Tim Scanlon, partner at Matheson, said, "We are very pleased to be partnering with IMMA on this strand of programming which recognises and nurtures new and emerging talent. We are particularly proud to support the premier of such a substantial body of new work by an Irish artist of this
calibre."

New Films
Three film works receive their premiere in IMMA during this exhibition. A Reflection of Light travels across different locations and histories that surround the hanging of a painting by Mainie Jellett titled ‘Let there be Light’ in the School of Physics in Trinity College Dublin. Having studied under the founder of cubism Albert Gleizes Jellett became one of the key Irish Modernist painters. Her grandfather and uncle were both physicists, the latter stating the Lorentz-FitzGerald Postulate which was a major step towards Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in 1905. Filmed in Mainie’s former house on Fitzwilliam Square, the New Galleries at IMMA and a number of spaces in Trinity College Dublin, the film weaves together events from across time that have brought the painting to this particular location, traversing different fields and disciplines to present a wider context to the concerns of the painting.

The film Black Square explores the making of an image of the black hole that lies in the exact centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. Black in a black sky, these holes are one of the last unknowns in physics. Documenting the film crew as they journey across the Atacama Desert in Chile to the telescopes at the top of Cerro Paranal, where the astronomy team are at work, the film travels to the edge of comprehension, reaching the limits of our ability to both understand and to represent something. Black Square explores the dynamic between what can be understood and what cannot, a mobile threshold where intuition meets calculation, and the limitations of representation in such a place.

The third new film work; Dark Room, was filmed in both Mary Rosse’s original darkroom in Birr Castle which had lain untouched within the Castle from the middle of the nineteenth century and in the reconstruction of this darkroom in the Science Centre in the Castle’s grounds where the entire contents have been moved and reconstructed by conservators. Mary Rosse was a pioneer in photography in Ireland in the 1850s. The two different films, one filmed in the original space and the reconstructed version in the reconstructed space, are shown side by side forming an ambiguous entity whose lucidity comes in and out of clarity. ‘Dark Room’ oscillates between the harmony and dissonance of memory and its mediation through photography.

Presented as an activated project 3 Different Nights, recurring will develop while at IMMA. The research informing the new work will be developed and made evident with a series of performative lectures and experiments, connecting the audience with the scientific and philosophical explorations and collaborations that underpin Weir’s work (details below).

This exhibition is part of a major three-year partnership supporting New Art by law firm Matheson. The relationship will see Matheson supporting approximately ten exhibitions per year and this commitment will enable the commissioning of new work by IMMA.

An extensive catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by, amongst others, Sam Thorne, Peter Brooke and Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith.

Opening alongside Grace Weir on the 6th November are two film works, E.gress by Marie Brett and Kevin O’Shanahan, and Plura by Daphne Wright, in the Project Spaces. E.gress, an audio-visual artwork, produced as part of a collaboration between artist Marie Brett and musician Kevin O‘Shanahan and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. The artwork creatively explores the concept of absence and presence and how ambiguous loss theory relates to the experience of dementia. Daphne Wright’s Plura, commissioned by South Tipperary County Council, is a film work which addresses remembering or loss of memory, and associated struggles with language, conversation and relationships.

For further information, and images, please contact
Monica Cullinane E:
[email protected] T:+353 (0)1 612 9921
Patrice Molloy E:
[email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920
________________________________________________________________________________
Additional Notes for Editors

About the artist
Grace Weir represented Ireland at the 49th International Venice Biennale and has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. She is currently Artist-in-Residence in the School Of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, and won the Trinity Creative Challenge Award this year for her new film work A Reflection on Light. As part of the IMMA Collection her film work Dust Defying Gravity, 2003, has been shown since its purchase in 2004 in many group exhibitions and beyond IMMA in venues across the country. See www.graceweir.com for more.

Associated Talks and Events Series

Artists Discussion | 3 different nights, recurring – Grace Weir
Saturday 7 November, 1- 2pm, Lecture Room
Grace Weir and Sam Thorne (Artistic Director, Tate St. Ives) discuss key works featured in the exhibition. Discussion moderated by Rachael Thomas (Senior Curator: Exhibitions, IMMA).

IMMA + TCD
Lecture-Performance | A past still to come
Wednesday 2 December , 6 -7pm, The Schrödinger Lecture Theatre, TCD   
Grace Weir, Prof Shane Bergin (School of Physics, TCD) and Dr Sean Enda Power (Researcher, Philosophy, UCC) explore concepts of time and recurrence, the paradoxical nature of light and the making of a photograph in a lecture-performance. This will be presented in the same theatre where Erwin Schrödinger in 1943 gave a public series of lectures called What is Life? and is in collaboration with the School of Physics, TCD.

Critical Response| Frances McKee
Wednesday 2 March 2016, 6 -7pm, Johnston Suite
Frances McKee (Director of the Centre of Contemporary Art, Glasgow) draws on his interdisciplinary interests in philosophy, science fiction, cinema and the archive to address a number of compelling narratives that underline Weir’s exhibition.

Booking is essential. Free tickets are available here

E.gress: Marie Brett and Kevin O’Shanahan
Plura: Daphne Wright
6 November – 13 December 2015, Project Spaces
E.gress is a filmic artwork that maps a world of loss and change, exploring how individuals diagnosed with dementia find new ways to adjust to changing world. This multi-layered film, a portrait of living moments on life’s edge, invites us to contemplate loss, love and life itself. The artwork was produced by artist Marie Brett and musician Kevin O’Shanahan following an intensive collaboration with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, informed by the concept of absence and presence and how ambiguous loss theory relates to an experience of dementia. Marie Brett was awarded an Arts Council touring and dissemination of work award for The E.gress Tour 2015/16.  Further details www.mariebrett.ie

In Plura, a film work commissioned by South Tipperary County Council, Daphne Wright uses 18th-century classical sculpture as a source of her work. Wright presents an intricate film work in which a web of fragmented figurative forms are enveloped by the guttural sounds of male and female phonetic voices. The voices and fractured bodies submerge the spectator in a world of remembering or loss of memory recalling a struggle with language, conversation and relationships. Daphne Wright is known for her unsettling yet poignant sculptural installations which use a variety of techniques and materials including photography, plaster, tinfoil, sound, voice and video. Born in Ireland in 1963, Daphne Wright lives between Dublin and Bristol.

– ENDS-

IMMA presents new work by award winning British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews

9 October 2015 – 7 February 2016

IMMA presents Shot at Dawn a new body of work by the British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews that focuses on the sites at which soldiers from the British, French and Belgian armies were executed for cowardice and desertion during the First World War. The project comprises images of twenty-three locations at which the soldiers were shot or held in the period leading up to their execution (of which an edited selection is shown at IMMA). All are seasonally accurate and were taken as close as possible to the precise time of day at which the executions occurred. To mark the opening of the exhibition a discussion with Chloe Dewe Mathews, Paul Bonaventura (independent producer) and Niall Bergin (Manager, Kilmainham Gaol), moderated by IMMA Director Sarah Glennie, takes place on Friday 9 October at 1pm.

 “I spent many months researching the cases of soldiers who had been executed, trawling through courts-martial documents, using old aerial photographs and monastery diaries to pinpoint the precise locations where each man was shot. Academics, military experts, museum curators and local historians enabled my work, and although many of them have dedicated their lives to researching the subject, none have identified and visited the sites of execution in such a systematic fashion. Whether slag-heap, back of a primary school, churchyard, town abattoir or half-kempt hedgerow, these places have been altered by a traumatic event. By photographing and titling them as I have, I am reinserting the individual into that space, stamping their presence back onto the land so that their histories are not forgotten” Chloe Dewe Mathews, September 2014.

Shot at Dawn premiered at Tate Modern in London and Stills: Scotland’s Centre for Photography in Edinburgh in November 2014. Following the showing at IMMA the exhibition will travel to Ivorypress in Madrid in 2016.

Shot at Dawn is commissioned by the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford as part of 14–18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions. Sponsored by Genesis Imaging and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund and by the British Council, Government of Flanders, John Fell OUP Research Fund and Van Houten Fund. This exhibition is part of a series of New Art at IMMA proudly sponsored by Matheson.

This exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated book. Published by Ivorypress, it provides a complete visual record of the commission alongside a critical analysis of the work by the celebrated writer Geoff Dyer and expert contextual essays on cowardice, desertion and psychological trauma brought on by military service by the acclaimed historians Sir Hew Strachan and Dr Helen McCartney. The book will be available from the IMMA Shop at the special exhibition price of €39.95.

For further information, and images, please contact
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T:+353 (0)1 612 9921
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: +353 (0)1 612 9920

5 October 2015

Notes for Editors

Artist’s Biography
Chloe Dewe Mathews (b. 1982) is an award-winning photographic artist based in London. After studying fine art at Camberwell College of Arts and the University of Oxford, she worked in the feature film industry before dedicating herself to photography. Her work is internationally recognised, with solo exhibitions in Britain and Europe and editorial features in the Guardian, Sunday Times and Le Monde. Public and private collections have acquired her work, including the British Council Collection and the National Library of Wales. Her awards include the British Journal of Photography International Photography Award, the Julia Margaret Cameron New Talent Award and the Flash Forward Emerging Photographer’s Award. Her nominations include the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, the Prix Pictet and the MACK First Book Award. In 2014 she was the Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Discussion | Shot at Dawn – Chloe Dewe Mathews
Friday 9 October 2015, 1 – 2pm, Lecture Room
British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews, Paul Bonaventura (independent producer) and Niall Bergin (Manager, Kilmainham Gaol) discuss Shot at Dawn. This discussion is moderated by Sarah Glennie (Director, IMMA) and marks the opening of the exhibition. Booking is essential for talks. Free tickets available, book now

Gallery Talk: Sarah Glennie
Wednesday 25 November 2015, 1.15 – 2.00pm, East Ground Galleries
Sarah Glennie (Director, IMMA) leads a curator’s walk-through of the exhibition Shot at Dawn.  Free tickets available at www.imma.ie/talksandlectures 

Aoife Flynn appointed as Head of Audiences and Development of IMMA

Press statement – August 2015

Aoife Flynn appointed as Head of Audiences and Development of IMMA

The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is delighted to announce the appointment of Aoife Flynn to the new position of Head of Audiences and Development.

Born in Sligo, Aoife has over fifteen years experience in arts management encompassing programming, project management, marketing, strategy, tourism, sponsorship and policy. Passionate about arts marketing and audience development, she specialises in strategic digital marketing and has spearheaded several new media campaigns to encourage new audiences for contemporary arts.

Previously the Development Manager at The Model, home of the Niland Collection in Sligo, she established her own consultancy asquared in 2010. Over the past five years, asquared has worked closely with digital technology to develop audiences for arts and cultural clients. Aoife has recently completed a Masters in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship with Trinity College, Dublin and Goldsmiths, London where she was awarded a distinction (First class honours).

Speaking about the appointment, Director Sarah Glennie said: “I am delighted that Aoife Flynn will be joining IMMA’s team. Aoife brings a wealth of experience and an exciting perspective that will make an enormous contribution to the work IMMA has been doing in recent years to build new audiences for contemporary art in Ireland.”

Aoife added: "As our National Museum for Modern Art, IMMA makes a huge contribution to the communication of contemporary Irish life and our collective identity, both in Ireland and Internationally. I’m honoured to have this opportunity to work with an innovative Artistic Director like Sarah Glennie and the wonderful team at IMMA. I look forward to developing and growing audiences for the museum through maximising the potential of the digital space and building on the strong and dedicated physical audience at Kilmainham."

Aoife will take up her position on Monday 28 September.

About IMMA:

As the national institution for contemporary art, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) aims, in all its activities, to create for the public an enjoyable and engaging experience of contemporary art. It achieves this through a dynamic and changing programme of exhibitions and education programmes based in its home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and working with partners nationally and internationally. 

IMMA is the home of the national collection of modern and contemporary art and takes responsibility for the care and maintenance of this national resource. We ensure that it is accessible to visitors to IMMA and beyond through exhibitions, collaborations, loans, touring partnerships and digital programmes.

IMMA is committed to supporting artists’ work, and works with artists and partners to support the development, understanding and enjoyment of contemporary art in Ireland.

For further information, and images, please contact:
Patrice Molloy  [email protected] / [email protected] +353 (0)1 612 9920
Annette Nugent [email protected]    +353 (0)86 6820971

What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now at IMMA

Press Release – 5 August 2015

WHAT WE CALL LOVE: FROM SURREALISM TO NOW
Major exhibition and accompanying programme of events exploring the modern evolution of love

12 September 2015 – 7 February 2016

Featuring modern and contemporary masterworks from the world’s leading collections by ABRAMOVIĆ, BRANCUSI, DALÍ, DUCHAMP, ERNST, GIACOMETTI, OPPENHEIM, PICASSO, WARHOL, YOKO ONO, and many more.

In September, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) presents one of its most ambitious and compelling shows ever, tackling a subject that is part of everyone’s lives: LOVE.

What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now explores how the notion of love has evolved within the 20th and 21st centuries. How have seismic sociological changes concerning sexuality, marriage and intimacy, alongside developments in gender issues, affected the way we conceive of love? How does visual art, from Surrealism to the present day, deal with love and what can these artistic representations tell us about what love means in our current culture?

Love is a subject of great relevance in Ireland today, as our understanding and definitions of love expand with the changing face of contemporary society. Featuring a fantastic collection of masterworks by some of the most important figures in modern art – such as Constantin Brancusi, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Meret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso; iconic works by the most significant artists of recent times – Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Damien Hirst, Rebecca Horn, Carolee Schneemann, Wolfgang Tillmans – and new commissions by artists Lucy Andrews, Séamus Nolan, Garrett Phelan and Jeremy ShawWhat We Call Love invites the audience to consider what love means to them with a series of talks, events, film screenings and debates alongside the exhibition.

Curated by Christine Macel, Chief Curator at Centre Pompidou, with Rachael Thomas, Head of Exhibitions at IMMA, What We Call Love features almost 200 works, including over 30 works on loan from major collections such as Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate, London; Museé Picasso, Paris; Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, New York; Fondation Giacometti, Paris; British Council Collection; Musee d’art modern de la Ville de Paris; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; Collection institute d’art Contemporain, Rhone-Alpes; Marina Abramović Archives; and from numerous private collections and leading gallerists worldwide.

The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse programme of events as we look at the themes inherent to love.

Speaking about What We Call Love, IMMA Director Sarah Glennie said “IMMA is delighted to be staging this important and fascinating exhibition, which is a great opportunity for audiences to experience, at first hand, 20th century masterworks from some of the world’s most important collections, shown in the context of contemporary art from Ireland and around the world. We look forward to welcoming people to IMMA over the coming months to join us in a consideration of what love means to us all today.”

New commissions in this exhibition are part of the series New Art at IMMA,
proudly supported by Matheson.

Presented with the support of the French Embassy in Ireland.

             
 

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What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now at IMMA: 12 September 2015 to 7 February 2016.
Opening hours: Tue to Fri 11.30am – 5.30pm, Sat 10am -5pm, Sun and bank holidays 12 – 5.30pm.
Admission: €8 / €5 concession (senior citizens and the unwaged).
Free admission for full-time students and all under 18.
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For further information, and images, please contact:
Patrice Molloy  [email protected] / [email protected] +353 (0)1 612 9920
Annette Nugent  [email protected]    +353 (0)86 6820971

EDITORS’ NOTES

Featured Artists:

Marina Abramović and ULAY, Sadie Benning, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brancusi, Brassaï, Victor Brauner, André Breton, Luis Buñuel, Cecily Brown, Miriam Cahn, Sophie Calle, Michele Ciacciofera, Dorothy Cross, Attila Csörgö, Salvador Dalí, Annabel Daou, Vlasta Delimar and Jerman, Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Dupuy, Elmgreen and Dragset, Max Ernst, VALIE EXPORT, Jean Genet, Jochen Gerz, Alberto Giacometti, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Douglas Gordon, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Jim Hodges, Rebecca Horn, Jesper Just, Kapwani Kiwanga, Ange Leccia, Ghérasim Luca, Vlado Martek, André Masson, Annette Messager, Tracey Moffatt, Séamus Nolan, Nadja, Henrik Olesen, Yoko Ono, Meret Oppenheim, Ferhat Ozgür, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Nesa Paripovic, Garrett Phelan, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Carolee Schneemann, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Paul Sharits, Jeremy Shaw, Wolfgang Tillmans, Andy Warhol, Cerith Wyn Evans, Jun Yang, Akram Zaatari.

Events:

IMMA is running a full programme of events for audiences of all ages during the exhibition that will provide audiences with opportunities to learn more about the work in the exhibition and enter into a debate about what love means to us now. Selected events include:

Opening weekend:

Friday 11 September
Exhibition Opening 6.30 – 9.30pm

Preview Lecture – What We Call Love by Christine Macel
Fri 11 Sept, 5.30 – 6.30pm

Christine Macel explores how love is represented in art since the beginning of the twentieth century and is indicative of an evolution of the very concept of love over a period of 100 years, taking you on a journey from Surrealism to now. This talk is followed by the exhibition preview and drinks reception.

Lecture – The Neurobiology of Love by Semir Zeki
Sun 13 Sept, 2 – 3pm

Semir Zeki, (Professor of Neuroesthetics at the University College London) discusses his pioneering research on the organisation of the visual brain and his experimental enquiries into how a visual stimulus triggers an affective, emotional state, similar to our experience of beauty, desire and love.

Family Workshop
Sun 13 Sept, 2 – 3.30pm

Love to have some creative family time together? Join in this hands-on free workshop. Drop-in to Reception at 2pm.

Tea Dance
Sun 13 Sept, 3.30 – 5.30pm

Join us for an afternoon tea dance for the whole family with a live show band, dancers and much more. No booking required.

Guided Tours
Exhibition Highlights: 30-Minute Tours
Drop in: Every Wed, 1.15pm; Sat and Sun, 2.30pm

An informal series of guided tours provides an introduction to the exhibition themes focusing on a select number of artworks that are among the highlights of this exhibition. Tours are led by IMMA
Staff and include the following themes:
— Surrealism and Love
— Love and the Revolution: Conceptual and Performance Art from 1960s
— Love and Identity: Documentary and Installation Works from 1980s to Now

IFI Film Series
Jan – Feb 2016

In collaboration with the Irish Film Institute, Dublin, IMMA will screen a series of seminal Surrealist films, amongst other key contemporary works. Selected films include Luis Buñuel’s L’Age d’or (1930), and Jean Genet’s Un chant d’amour (1949-1950).

Seamus Nolan new commission
Jan – Feb 2016

As part of Séamus Nolan’s new commission, the artist will present a film screening and live performance at IMMA. Nolan’s provocative work deals with how love might in essence embrace the complexities of its contradiction in today’s society.

More events will be added during the exhibition run.
See
www.imma.ie and follow us on social media for the latest updates.

 
About the exhibition:

The exhibition is presented in three chapters:

Surrealism and « l’amour fou », from André Breton to Henrik Olesen
1920s to now

Love is so often linked to popular culture, from cinema and television to media or pop songs, but it has always been inherent to modern and contemporary art. This is especially true of the Surrealists, for whom love was a deep anti-capitalist notion linked to freedom and poetry. André Breton dreamt of reducing “art to its more simple expression, that is love” (Poisson Soluble, 1924).

There will be a core of masterworks presented in this chapter of the exhibition, from Surrealist artists to those in parallel positions (Brassai, Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Ghérasim Luca, Man Ray, Meret Oppenheim versus Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, etc.) as well as archival items and documents (literature, tracts etc.) all exploring the notion of love as passion, or  ‘l’amour fou’, according to André Breton. Some inheritors of the Surrealist spirit such as Rebecca Horn, and some critical positions such as that of Henrik Olesen, will be presented in relation to these works.

Conceptual Art/Performance Art; from Yoko Ono to Elmgreen & Dragset
From the 1960s to now
Conceptual art is also surprisingly focused on the representation of love, from Annette Messager to Jochen Gerz and Sophie Calle. This exhibition will furthermore highlight the work of perhaps less well-known artists Vlasta Delimar and Jerman, Vlado Martek (Zagreb), Nesa Paripovic (Belgrade), Milan Knizak (Prague), or Jean Dupuy (France). Solo rooms will be devoted to specific key installations of work including Paul Sharits, Sophie Calle, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Wolfgang Tillmans.

New Couples; from Louise Bourgeois to Jim Hodges
From the 1980s to now

Contemporary artists have redefined the notion of love and its current meaning in multiple ways, from Louise Bourgeois to Jeremy Shaw, from Dorothy Cross to Garrett Phelan. The notion of love as passion, so much at the core of Surrealism, has evolved with the sociological changes of intimacy toward a tension between romantic love versus marriage and the attempt to build a new form of relationship based on a more egalitarian exchange, that we could call “amour convergent” or “pure relationship”, thanks to the battles of feminism and new intimacy, as discussed in “The Transformation of intimacy” from sociologist Anthony Giddens. The couple indeed remains a subject for many artists from Tracey Moffatt to Jun Yang.

Neuroscience has also focused on love, bringing new kind of representation of love though brain images and inspiring artists like Olafur Eliasson and Jeremy Shaw. Love is also redefined on an ethical level through spiritual questions. There will be some specific rooms devoted to Louise Bourgeois and Miriam Cahn, as well as two new projects from Jeremy Shaw or Michele Ciacciofera.

A catalogue will be published to accompany this exhibition, featuring five major essays from Christine Macel, Georges Sebbag, Eva Illouz, Semir Zeki and Rachael Thomas, as well as specific texts written by Christine Macel, Alicia Knock, Olivier Zeitoun, Victoria Evans, Poi Marr, Ben Mulligan and Seamus McCormack, published by IMMA and DAP Diffusion, New York.

About the Contributors:

Georges Sebbag
Born in 1942, Georges Sebbag is a French writer and doctor in Philosophy. Close to the Surrealist group during the 1960s, he has published more than 20 books on Surrealism. In André Breton l’amour-folie: Suzanne, Nadja, Lise, Simone  (2004), Georges Sebbag focuses on « L’Amour fou », and the concept of love as passion. He currently heads the Jean-Michel Place editions.

Semir Zeki
Semir Zeki is a British neurobiologist whose work on neurosciences was first dedicated to vision and has recently evolved to a focus on love and pair bonding. This interest is obvious in publications such as The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love (NeuroImage. 21, 2004) (with A Bartels). Since 2008 he has been Professor of Neuroesthetics at UCL.

Eva Illouz
Eva Illouz is a Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. One of her major concerns is the way in which capitalism has transformed emotional patterns, both in terms of consumption and production. In her first book, Consuming the Romantic Utopia, she particularly addresses the commodification of romance. Recent publications include Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation. The text she wrote for the What We Call Love catalogue -“Against Desire: A Manifesto for Charles Bovary?”- enlightens the complex challenges of contemporary love and couplehood.

Christine Macel
Born in 1969 and based in Paris, Christine Macel is Chief curator, department "Création contemporaine et prospective", at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. She has curated many exhibitions in the past 20 years including Raymond Hains, Nan Goldin, Sophie Calle, Dionysiac, Promises of the Past, Philippe Parreno, Danser sa vie, Gabriel Orozco, Anri Sala and many more. She has recently curated A History, art, architecture, design from the 80’s to now at Centre Pompidou and is preparing Nel Mezzo del Mezzo an exhibition for Palermo co-curated with Bartomeu Mari and Marco Bazzini (October 2015-January 2016).

Macel is also an art critic and a writer, regularly contributing to many magazines from Flash Art to Artforum, she has also published a referential book Time Taken. The work of time in the work of art (2009) as well as many significant catalogues.

Rachael Thomas
Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Thomas is a Leonardo fellow at Trinity University and contributor to MA/ Art in the contemporary world at NCAD. Thomas has curated various exhibitions including solo surveys of Hélio Oiticica, Haroon Mirza, and Tino Sehgal, the American Fluxus and feminist artist Eleanor Antin, Thomas Ruff, Karen Kilimnik, Margherita Manzelli, Willie Doherty, Sophie Calle and Mark Manders. She initiated and organised with Philippe Parreno the seminal international group show of post relational aesthetics entitled .all hawaii eNtrées / luNar reggae and group shows such as Primal Architecture, which included Mike Kelley, Linder and Conrad Shawcross.

Thomas curated and initiated the Welsh pavilion for Venice Biennale 2001,‘When the Dragon Wakes’ with Cerith Wyn Evans, and in 2008 curated Gerard Byrne at the Lyon Biennale. Thomas was awarded a Millennium Fellowship to produce papers on global frameworks of contemporary art practice at Tate Britain, London. She has lectured on the role of the curator at various symposia and on contemporary Irish art at the Guggenheim with Nancy Spector. As a writer, she has published widely in journals and exhibition catalogues.

About IMMA:

As the national institution for contemporary art, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) aims, in all its activities, to create for the public an enjoyable and engaging experience of contemporary art. It achieves this through a dynamic and changing programme of exhibitions and education programmes based in its home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and working with partners nationally and internationally. 

IMMA is the home of the national collection of modern and contemporary art and takes responsibility for the care and maintenance of this national resource. We ensure that it is accessible to visitors to IMMA and beyond through exhibitions, collaborations, loans, touring partnerships and digital programmes.

IMMA is committed to supporting artists’ work, and works with artists and partners to support the development, understanding and enjoyment of contemporary art in Ireland.

For further information, and images, please contact:
Patrice Molloy  [email protected] / [email protected] +353 (0)1 612 9920
Annette Nugent [email protected]    +353 (0)86 682 0971