The November/December Visual Artists’ News Sheet (VAN) is hot off the press! It will be sent by post to all VAI members and arts organisations in the coming days. Guest editor Joanne Laws looks back at a series of prominent projects and themes from 2016.
The topic of commemoration is explored in Helen Carey’s column ‘To Commemorate or Not to Commemorate’ and in the ‘Public Art’ profile of ‘Stormy Petrel’ by Brian Hand, Orla Ryan and Alanna O’Kelly. In his ‘How is it Made? article, Andrew Duggan outlines the multi-venue exhibition ‘Proclamation’, looking at the 1916 centenery in a range of ways.
This theme ties directly into another, which reoccurs throughout the issue: that of feminism and gender equality in contemporary Ireland. Columns by Joanne Laws and Aislinn O’Donnell look at recent visual arts projects that investigate these ideas, while Sarah Browne and Jesse Jones discuss their ongoing commission ‘In the Shadow of the State’. In her profile of the Dublin Live Art Festival 2016, EL Putnam also delves into some of these issues.
Moving further afield, James L. Hayes writes about his recent exhibition ‘A Near Visible Past…’, held in New Orleans, and Kathleen Bitetti profiles public art works by Caoimhghin Ó Fraithile and Michael Dowling in Boston. Other features include Michaële Cutaya’s interview with 2016 Tulca curator Daniel Jewesbury, a report on this year’s Get Together and a look at The Enquiry @IMMA, a research group examining exhibition-making strategies.
‘Organisation’ profiles for November/December focus on Askeaton Contemporary Arts in County Limerick and the MONTO Arts Group, a collective of arts organsations and galleries located in north inner city Dublin.
Reviewed in the ‘Critique’ section are: Paul Murnaghan at Limerick City Gallery of Art; Robert Kelly at Draiocht, Blanchardstown; Sarah Browne and Jesse Jones’s performance event at the Rotunda, Dublin; the group show ‘Glow’ at Catherine Hammond Gallery, Cork; and Gary and John Coyle at The Dock, Leitrim.
As ever, we have details of upcoming VAI Professional Development Programme, exhibition and public art roundups, news from the sector and current opportunities.
Selected articles will be available on the new VAN blog from Friday at: visualartistsireland.com