EXHIBITIONS IN THE IRISH WORKHOUSE CENTRE
5 - 18 September from 11am to 4pm daily
Official Opening: Sunday, 4 September, 5pm-7pm
Official Opening: Sunday, 4 September, 5pm-7pm
INVITED ARTISTS IN THE DOUBLE GALLERY
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Conor Walton
Conor Walton, a leading Irish artist, graduate of NCAD and University of Essex, was shortlisted for the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (2005) and for the Golden Fleece Award (2011).
He is the winner of numerous awards including the Ismail Lulani International Award (2019), ModPortrait (2017), and Portrait Ireland (2005). He also works as a lecturer. His Summer School’s scholarship programme draws many students and his own works appear on postage stamps and book covers in Ireland and abroad. All my paintings are attempted answers to the three questions in the title of Gauguin’s famous painting: ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?’ Conor Walton https://www.conorwalton.com |
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Joan Finnegan
Joan Finnegan is an artist with a reputation that extends beyond Ireland to the UK, continental Europe and the USA. She has taken part in many group exhibitions: Sowing a Seed: Archives to Art in Tuam, and Canvass to Canvas; Women of the West in Ballinasloe, both in Co Galway, which she calls home as well as Liberté, Éqalité, Sororité, and Eclectic XXV, Winter Exhibition, both exhibitions in Enniskillen.
In 2019 she was chosen as one of 9 artists for the 9 Walls Exhibition, Sligo, and took part in the Brittle/Fragile group exhibition as part of ‘Westival’, Westport, and was part of the Summer Exhibition, Ennistymon. In 2020, she was admitted to the Royal Ulster Academy Annual 139th exhibition in Belfast, and showed at the Winter Exhibition, Ennistymon as well as online at the Space Gallery, Corrandulla. In 2021, her work featured in Imagine, Enniskillen, another online exhibition, and in the Winter Open Exhibition, Ennistymon. This year, Joan’s work is featured in both the Galway Arts Festival Group Exhibition in Kennys’ Gallery, and the Summer Open Exhibition, Ennistymon. |
In 2019, she had a successful solo exhibition, Connemara Chroma, as part of the Galway Showcase in Milwaukee, USA and is currently preparing new work for a second solo exhibition in Wisconsin, USA.
She was awarded a BA degree in Fine Art, CCAM, Galway and has won numerous awards, including the GMIT Academic Achievement Award and the Culture Ireland Grant 2019. In addition, she was commissioned by Galway 2020 to create a painting, to be used on their corporate branding, and she is involved in an ongoing collaboration with Connemara Carpets, Connemara, creating new series of wool and silk wall hangings.
Her work features in numerous collections, including those of the Irish Consulate General, Chicago, USA, Galway City Council, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology Art Collection, Irish Water Safety’s National Collection, the Corporate Concierge Ltd., Bermuda and the Dean Hotel, Galway
“I am inspired by the world around me. I take many photographs and use the visual elements to influence but not dictate my paintings, using them as points of departure to create my art. My work simplifies the shapes and elements of the landscape. I push the boundaries of space, colour and form in my work to tell my own visual story. I love colour and there is a sense of mystery and ambiguity to my work; often the images take their being from the viewer’s state of mind. I start by making sketches which are continuously manipulated and I keep working on them until I see something I can work with on canvas. The painting always takes on a life of its own as I work on it, and it directs the changes. I just have to go with the flow! The starting point and the finished painting are usually completely different, and serendipity often has its part to play, too!”
Joan Finnegan
www.joanfinnegan.ie
INVITED ARTIST IN THE DINING HALL
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1845: Memento Mori by Paula Stokes
1845: Memento Mori is a famine memorial and glass installation dedicated to the 19th-century Great Irish Famine, created by Seattle-based Irish artist Paula Stokes.
1845 is significant as it references the year that the potato blight came to Ireland, marking the beginning of a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration. Between 1845 and 1852, over 1.5 million people died, and 1 million emigrated to Australia, Canada, and America. The form of the famine memorial differs in response to specific locations, changing shape and volume depending on light, accessibility, and exposure of each site. Its presentation at the Irish Workhouse Centre in Portumna, Co. Galway is in a space that was once used as both a dining hall and a chapel. The ghostly glass potatoes are scattered across the surface of a long, stark banquet table in undulating piles. It is a powerful visual representation of hunger and the absence of food. Paula Stokes was born in Ireland but moved to Seattle in 1993 to pursue a career in glass. Her glass work has been shown extensively both nationally and internationally. As a modern-day member of the Irish diaspora, Stokes’ glass installations reflect on her own history as an immigrant to examine historical events that have shaped the present. She believes that ‘1845: Memento Mori will resonate with a wide variety of audiences as it reminds us of our own fragile humanity and serves as a connection between shared human experiences in the past and present’. In May 2021, this exhibition opened at Strokestown Park House in County Roscommon. It was also shown at Johnstown Castle Estate in County Wexford, the American Folk Park, Ulster Museum in County Tyrone, the National Museum of Ireland-Country Life in County Mayo, and in St. Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle. This project has been generously supported by the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust, and the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland. www.1845mementomori.com |
1845: Memento Mori, blown and sandblasted glass, 2021
Location: Fishing Turret, Johnstown Castle Estate, Co. Wexford Photo: Colin Shanahan 
1845: Memento Mori, blown and sandblasted glass, 2021
Location: Kitchen, Strokestown House, Co. Roscommon Photo: Barry Cronin 
1845: Memento Mori, blown and sandblasted glass, 2021
Location: Gazebo, Strokestown Park House, Co. Roscommon Photo: Barry Cronin |
INVITED ARTIST IN THE GIRLS' SCHOOLROOM
The Line for Soup
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Dark Shadows by Kieran Tuohy
Each piece, carved in the medium of bog oak immortalizes the stories of our famine ancestors. From ‘The Line for Soup’ to the ‘Gates of the Poorhouse’, the story of the workhouse and the history of the famine emanates from each face, hand, and bone.
Abandoning the normal bogwood sculpturing techniques of bringing out the natural forms in the wood into apparent objects, Kieran unearths his own images from the wood. He is unique in that he creates his own shapes and uses many subtly different textures to achieve the finish he wants, using the natural flaws in the wood to great effect. www.kierantuohy.com |
LOCAL ARTISTS IN THE LONG GALLERY
This exhibition gives local and visiting artists a unique opportunity to exhibit work in the Long Gallery.
This event is proudly sponsored by the Portumna Branch of Athenry Credit Union
Visit: AthenryCU.ie
Visit: AthenryCU.ie
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