|
The biggest art exhibition of the year in Galway Arts Centre will kick off this Friday, January 28, when The Gathering, a solo collection from Roundstone based artist Rosie Mc Gurran will be officially opened. The Gathering represents 10 years of work from the Belfast born artist who has made Connemara her home and who has put Inishlacken Island at the heart of her work for the last decade.
Since 2001, Rosie has curated and exhibited at the annual Inishlacken Project, an initiative which invites artists to produce work on the now uninhabited island off the coast of Roundstone.
“I started visiting Roundstone in 1989 when I was a student of art at the University of Ulster and I kept going back after that,” she explains from her home, which offers her a fine view over the small island.
In the 1950s Inishlacken had attracted Northern Irish artists such as Gerard Dillon, James MacIntyre and Paul Henry as well as other renowned painters including Arthur Campbell and Nano Reid
“I realised that all these great artists had come here when they didn’t have cars and they certainly had no money,” says Rosie. “It was like a cultural corridor between Northern Ireland and here. And I thought ‘wouldn’t it be nice to do it again’, to create a 21st century archive of visual art of this special place which has no cars, and no electricity, and no people living there, just holiday house.”
Since being established, the Inishlacken Project has seen some 70 Irish and international artists come to Inishlacken for extended periods to create work inspired by the island.
While working on the residency scheme, Rosie developed her own painting style, exhibiting in her gallery in Roundstone and taking part in group shows in venues such as the Royal Ulster Academy (October 2010) and Europe’s Edge, Group Show at Tromso University, Norway (December 2010). She has won many prestigious awards for her paintings and the show in Galway Arts Centre will allow people to get an overview of her work over the last decade.
“It’s like an artist’s journey, when you can see it all together,” she says of The Gathering, adding that just one piece in the show predates the Galway years.
“It was made in Belfast, but it had a link with Roundstone.”
When she looks at each painting now, it’s like a flashback of her life. January 27, 2011 - 7:00am
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.
|
