June 7, 2013 – September 8, 2013
OPEN SUBMISSION 2013
A €3000 art prize, now in its 34th year.
Adjudicators Stephen McKenna PPRHA and Amelia Stein RHA.
One of the longest running and most respected Art Prizes in the calendar, the exhibition that results from this Open Submission will enjoy a full three-month exhibition in the peerless VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, from June 7th to September 7th.
They encourage wall-mounted works in all media, from oil-on-canvas to works-on-paper to photography, and they also encourage sculptural works in three dimensions, as well as audio visual works.
The adjudicators will invite five noted artists to participate in the Open Submission.
A Three Pillars Collaboration: The Carlow Local Authorities Art Office has contributed to the prize fund, and VISUAL Centre will host the exhibition.
June 8, 2013 – September 8, 2013
BEASTS OF ENGLAND, BEASTS OF IRELAND
Curated by Stephen Brandes
8 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
Main Gallery, Visual Centre for Contemporary Art
Since Aesop, and indeed further back into history, human values have been projected onto animals as a vehicle for exploring our relationships with one-another and the world around us. This exhibition considers some of the ways animals have been deployed symbolically within contemporary art practice.
The exhibition borrows its title from Old Major’s anthem in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a prime example of an allegorical tale, where human politics are conveyed through animal characters.
UKartist Ben Long’s nine-meter high sculpture of a rearing horse fashioned from aluminium scaffolding will take centre stage in the Main Gallery.
Other artists in the exhibition, include Djordje Ozbolt (Serb/UK), Polly Morgan (UK), Frances Upritchard (NZ/UK), Dan Hays (UK), Yuriy Norshteyn (Rus) and fromIreland, Stephen McKenna, Garrett Phelan, Isabel Nolan and Martin Healy.
Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow Arts Festival (Eigse 2013) and the Carlow Local Authorities Arts Office co-present this exhibition exploring the symbolic, metaphorical and emotive value of animals with a selection of contemporary Irish and international artists.
Over the Summer months, a number of artist engagement workshops, talks, masterclasses and public interviews will take place.
Stephen Brandes is a practicing artist, based in Co Cork. Born in Wolverhampton, UK, he moved to Ireland in 1993. In 2005, he co-represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale and has since continued to show his work both nationally and internationally. Stephen has curated several exhibitions, most notably ‘Superbia’, Ballymun, Dublin, 2002; ‘Traffic’, by Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Visualize Carlow, 2009 and ‘When Flanders Failed’, RHA Gallery, Dublin, 2011 with Matt Packer.
June 8, 2013 – September 8, 2013
EXTINCTION
An exhibition of Contemporary Illustrators
Studio Gallery, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art
8th June to 8th September
Curated by Derry Dillon
Seven of Ireland’s leading Illustrators – chosen for innovation, wit, style, uniqueness and exceptional talent – were asked to respond to the subject of ‘extinction’, and to contextualise their submission with a viewing cabinet of influences and miscellany.
Steve Simpson is a freelance illustrator/designer working in the areas of packaging design, illustration and art for children’s books.
Steve McCarthy creates illustrations of charm and humour and with a distinct approach to each project and playful use of type and drawing his work spans a variety of media.
Olivia Golden is a Cork-based illustrator who has a broad skill-set in design and illustration and works comfortably in both traditional and digital media.
Stephen Maurice Graham is a Belfast-based illustrator whose work bristles with subtle narratives, eclectic form and playful colouration.
Current Children’s Laureate Niamh Sharkey is the author and illustrator of many of our favourite children’s picture books including I’m a Happy Hugglewug and The Ravenous Beast. With a distinct and playful painterly style, she is admired by a wide audience both in Ireland and abroad.
Phil McDarby is a Wicklow-based artist who visits the woods every single day for inspiration and produces distinct fantasy and science fiction artwork for advertising, production design, branding, and animation.
The Project Twins are the Cork-based FitzGerald brothers whose work uses bold graphics and visual wit to create striking illustrations to clearly communicate a subject matter.
The resulting exhibition will showcase some of the very best work emerging from Ireland’s rich bank of Illustrators, and in the context of a contemporary art gallery their practices will be given a chance to stand amongst other most traditional artists media.
June 8, 2013 – September 8, 2013
[uhn-der-bel-ee]
An Exhibition by Derry Dillon
8th June – 8th Sept
Venue: VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art
Blending the familiar with the peculiar, Underbelly is a collection of illustrations, prints and sculptures that looks at the local landscape through a somewhat skewered eye.
This exhibition lifts the mossy rock on the county’s rich history and peers at the oddities residing beneath. Unveiling a cluster of quirky characters captured in a series of bizarre scenarios, the collection presents dubious historical facts which Dillon uses to describe the residents of Carlow—from gregarious pistol-happy Lords standing astride the River Barrow to B-movie monsters residing on Mount Leinster.
June 8, 2013 – June 21, 2013
Sojourn – An exhibition by Saidhbhin Gibson
Arts objects and drawings by Saidhbhin Gibson will spend time – as the title suggests – among the artefacts of Carlow County Museum, creating a unique dynamic around their guest appearance there.
Saidhbhin takes our history of harnessing nature, our techniques of refinement and domesticity and asks us to ponder the value we place on objects and the natural world, and how we quantify that value.
She uses thread, rock, thistle fluff, lichen, a horse chestnut twig, white picot lace – and a range of drawing materials and paint in her drawings – to make delicate intrusions into the work already present in the display cases.
An exhibition of artwork presented by Carlow County Museum and Carlow Local Authorities Arts Office
There will be a walk through of the exhibition Sojourn and Carlow County Museum with Saidhbhín Gibson and Dermot Mulligan, Museum Curator,Thursday, 13th June, 6 pm. All are welcome.
June 8, 2013 – September 10, 2013
Wood Art Collaboration 2013
This exhibition brings together ten of the most intriguing and creative wood artists practising today from all over the world, alongside ten of Ireland’s leading practitioners. This group of twenty – sculptors, furniture makers, carvers, and turners – will work together under the artistic direction of Terry Martin, writer and artist from Australia. They will create individual and collaborative work – culminating in the assembly of a large-scale sculpture in the form of a wall, approximately 12 feet in length. The major work will be shown in the Link Gallery of the VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art from 8th June for three months, and will be a centrepiece of the Carlow Arts Festival (Éigse 2013).
The artists are from America, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France and Ireland. ‘Although made of wood,’ says Terry, ‘the wall will be based on the Irish dry stone walls that dominate so much of the Irish countryside, with each artist allocated a volume of wood to work on and asked to unveil a narrative that they want to place in the wall.’
August 25, 2013
Family Art Workshop – 7-12yrs
A series family art workshops based on the exhibition Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland. These are ideal for 7-12 year olds with parents present.
Animal Shadow Puppets (create and take part in an animal puppet show
PLACES ARE LIMITED SO PLEASE BOOK ON 059-9172400 These workshops always sell out….