Irish artists Ciarán Murphy, Mairéad McClean and Mark Garry will join IMMA Head of Collections and Senior Curator Christina Kennedy to discuss the thinking and making behind the specific artworks selected for this years Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection. In the context of their individual practices, the panel will consider new directions in their practice and what it means to have work featured and preserved within the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art.

All four works selected for the Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection 2017 by Ciarán Murphy, Maireád McClean, Mark Garry and Yuri Pattison, are currently on exhibition in the Courtyard Galleries, East Ground. They will remain open until 6.30pm for ticket holders.

Visit the exhibition beforehand and enjoy a complimentary Hennessy & Ginger created by the Hennessy Ambassador Paul Tuohy at a post-discussion reception.

Ciarán Murphy
Born in 1978, in Mayo, Ciarán Murphy now lives and works in Kilkenny. His enigmatic paintings take their starting point from a wide-ranging and ever growing archive of images found, collected and carefully arranged into categories by the artist. This unseen archive forms the backbone that haunts the finished works. Through a process of editing, erasing, overwriting or simply replacing what has been painted and unpainted, the work leaves a sense that is not quite of loss, or absence, but rather the presence of a non-thing.

Mairéad McClean
Born in Beragh, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland Mairéad McClean has lived and worked for the past 25 years in London. She is artist and filmmaker whose work disrupts and restructures events from the past, highlighting the unreliability of both history and memory. Through the use of sound, still and moving image, material evidence is re-opened and re-examined and a new vantage point is created. She is an award-winning filmmaker who has produced work around the themes of memory, identity and migration. Her most recent video No More, won the inaugural MAC International Art Prize in Oct 2014.

Mark Garry
Born in Mullingar in 1972, Mark Garry is driven by a fundamental interest in observing how humans navigate the world and the subjectivity inherent in these navigations. He uses a variety of media and mechanisms in his practice, primarily focusing on institution-based installations. These delicate site-specific installations are measured and meticulous systems of construction, combining physical, visual, sensory and empathetic analogues, creating arrangements of elements that intersect the space and form relationships between a given room and each other. They incorporate a specific range of natural and craft materials and processes such as plants, thread, beads, woodcarvings and manufactured materials such as coloured contact, origami, and mechanical musical mechanisms.

Immersed in Irish heritage, Hennessy has evolved to become one of Ireland’s most well-known and cherished brands. Founded in Cognac, France in 1765 by Corkonian Richard Hennessy, the brand’s distinctly Irish heritage has stood the test of time and today draws on over 250 years of knowledge, talent, expertise and passion. It is a brand that is intrinsically linked to the Irish way of life and is complemented by Hennessy’s commitment to Ireland’s unique sociability and skill in creating unforgettable experiences. Hennessy’s Savoir-Faire is evident from its unique heritage, tradition and exceptional craftsmanship which create Hennessy Cognac. Though the Hennessy brand has evolved throughout the years, the true art form of its traditions and methods remains timeless.

The Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection
In 2016 Hennessy Ireland formed a unique partnership with IMMA to help fund the purchase of important works by Irish and Irish based artists for the National Collection. Works are sought that show excellence and innovation within contemporary art developments, and which represent a signal moment of achievement with the artist’s practice and capture a moment in time of Irish culture. They must also have been made within the previous five years.

Artists are nominated by a selection panel, including IMMA Director, Sarah Glennie and Head of Collections, Christina Kennedy and independent guest curator, Roscommon based visual artist Linda Shevlin. Linda has curated, facilitated and managed both large and small-scale visual arts projects including the 53rd Venice Biennale where she was project manager for the representative artists Gareth Kennedy & Sarah Browne and Radical Actions at RMIT Galleries, Melbourne as part of Culture Ireland’s 2016 international programme I Am Ireland. Final recommendations are approved by the IMMA Collection & Acquisitions Committee, in line with IMMA’s Collection policy. The inaugural Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection saw works by artists Kevin Atherton, David Beattie, Rhona Byrne and Dennis McNulty selected. The 2017 artists are Ciarán Murphy, Maireád McClean, Mark Garry and Yuri Pattison, whose selected works are currently on display at IMMA.