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Presenting the work of painter Camille Souter (1929–2023) and contemporary artist Alberta Whittle (b. 1980), the exhibition Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman brings together two distinct art practices, spanning a period of seventy years across two generations. Through painting, collage, watercolour, immersive film, sculptural installation, and live performance, the exhibition reveals layered intersections between ecological and humanitarian concerns. This roundtable conversation reflects on the exhibition’s themes, and shares contemporary perspectives from featured artist Alberta Whittle, art historian Dr Sarah Kelleher, and the curator of the exhibition Rachael Gilbourne.

In recognition of Souter’s enduring relevance, speakers reflect on Souter’s independent vision and practice as an artist whose attentiveness to landscape, labour, and lived experience remains resonant today, particularly Souter’s deep connection to place, be it bogland, volcanoes, quarries, or her own home and studio on Achill Island. This provides departure to explore selected installation, painting and performance works by Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle, in which to address questions of extraction and land use, climate and geology, movement, and migration, that variously overlap in the artists’ work. While Souter’s and Whittle’s practice differ in form and emphasis, we consider how the work of both artists is deeply rooted in personal and local experience yet shaped by ongoing global concerns.

Moderated by IMMA curator Rachael Gilbourne, curator of Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman. This public talk is followed by the exhibition preview, launch and drinks reception.


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Preview Artist Conversation of Fisherwomen, Fisherwomen, 2026 Soundcloud

About Speakers

Alberta Whittle is an artist, researcher, and curator. She was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award, and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. Alberta is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art and is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg. She was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar in 2018 and is the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/9. Her creative practice is motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-blackness. She choreographs interactive installations, using film, sculpture, and performance as site-specific artworks in public and private spaces.

Whittle has exhibited and performed in various solo and group shows, including at Jupiter Artland (2021), Gothenburg Biennale (2021), The Lisson Gallery (2021), MIMA (2021), Viborg Kunstal (2021), Remai Modern (2021), Liverpool Biennale (2021), Art Night London (2021), The British Art Show – Aberdeen (2021), Glasgow International (2021), Glasgow International (2020), Grand Union (2020), Eastside Projects (2020), DCA (2019), GoMA, Glasgow (2019), Pig Rock Bothy at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2019), 13th Havana Biennale, Cuba (2019), The Tyburn Gallery, London (2019), The City Arts Centre, Edinburgh (2019), The Showroom, London (2018), National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (2018), RAW Material, Dakar (2018), FADA Gallery, Johannesburg (2018), the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg (2017), FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam (2015), Goethe On Main, Johannesburg (2015), at the Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015), and BOZAR, Brussels (2014), amongst others. Her work has been acquired for the UK National Collections, The Scottish National Gallery Collections, Glasgow Museums Collections and The Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh College of Art amongst other private collections. See more detail on artists website here

Dr Sarah Kelleher is an art historian, lecturer, and curator specialising in modern and contemporary art. She completed her PhD in the History of Art at University College Cork, where her doctoral research focused on contemporary Irish sculpture. She is the co-coordinator of the MA in Contemporary Art Practice at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design along with Pádraig Spillane. Kelleher lectures in modern and contemporary art history and theory at MTU CCAD, Cork, and University College Cork, where she contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across fine art and visual culture.

She has authored catalogue essays and commissioned texts for leading Irish cultural institutions, including IMMA, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, and Limerick City Art Gallery. Dr Kelleher nurtures an independent curatorial practice and is the curator of Kevin Mooney: Revenants, IMMA 2022. In 2014, Dr Kelleher co-founded Pluck Projects with Dr Rachel Warriner. Operating as an independent curatorial platform, Pluck Projects develops exhibitions, screenings, and interdisciplinary events that foreground experimental and process-driven practices. Their collaborative projects have been presented in partnership with organisations such as Cork Midsummer Festival, the Experimental Film Society, and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA).

Rachael Gilbourne is curator of the exhibition Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman, Camille Souter & Alberta Whittle, and is assistant curator of IMMA Exhibitions – Projects & Partnerships.