The May – June 2018 issue of the Visual Artists’ News Sheet is out now and available in galleries across Ireland.
This issue has a timely focus on several important exhibitions currently showing in galleries nationwide. On 13 April, the 38th edition of Ireland’s contemporary art biennial, EVA International, opened in various venues across Limerick city. EVA will run untill 8 July with several off-site projects also taking place in IMMA. Mary Conlon interviews EVA 2018 curator, Inti Guerrero, for this issue, offering insights into Guerrero’s curatorial research and exhibition-making strategies.
Meanwhile, a number of exhibitions and projects are currently taking place across Ireland to celebrate the diverse career of Irish conceptual artist and critic, Brian O’Doherty, who marks his ninetieth birthday this year. Brenda Moore-McCann’s extended essay outlines some of these events, while reflecting on O’Doherty’s vast artistic legacy.
Alice Maher’s solo exhibition, ‘Vox Materia’, is currently showing at The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, and will subsequently be presented at Crawford Art Gallery from 7 September to 24 November. Tina Kinsella interviews Maher about her new bronze sculptures and wood relief prints. In other features for this issue, Lily Cahill reflects on the sculptural practice of Hannah Fitz, an Irish visual artist currently based between Dublin and Frankfurt. Fitz’s solo exhibition, ‘Knock Knock’, is showing in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios until 30 June. In addition, Joanne Laws interviews Alison Pilkington about her touring exhibition, ‘How We Roam’, currently showing at The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon until 2 June, before being presented at the RHA Ashford Gallery in autumn 2018.
Columns for this issue touch on some of the themes underpinning the upcoming VAI Get Together 2018 (which will take place in IMMA on Monday 21 May), particularly the panel discussion, ‘Curating Ireland – New Ways of Working’. VAI NI Manager Rob Hilken outlines ‘New Spaces’, an upcoming exhibition and curatorial mentoring programme taking place in non-traditional venues across the Derry City and Strabane region. Jeanie Scott – the outgoing Director of a-n The Artists Information Company – discusses some of the issues currently facing visual artists in the UK.
A number of conference reports feature in this issue: Logan Sisley reports on the ‘Networked Curator’ event at the Getty Center, Los Angeles; Anne Mullee discusses the Art and Heritage seminar that took place in Kildare in February; and Pádraig Spillane reports from Berlin’s Transmediale Festival 2018.
As ever, we have details of the upcoming VAI Professional Development Programme, exhibition and public art roundup, critique section, news from the sector and current opportunities.
