Friday, 25 January, 2.30pm - Booking essential
Becoming is a mid-career retrospective of the work of Alice Maher, one of Ireland’s most respected and influential artists. Including painting, sculpture, photography and animation, the exhibition includes seminal works such as Berry Dress, 1994, from the IMMA ollection; Familiar, 1995, from the Crawford Art Gallery, and many other works held in IMMA’s own Collection. The title Becoming, hints at some of the main preoccupations of the artist and the themes that will be explored in the exhibition.
Maher’s work is itself in a state of continuous metamorphosis as her themes and interests have manifested themselves in differing states during the past twenty years. Through constant change, reworking and examination, Maher uncovers evermore complex readings and meanings of the world around us.
Alice Maher has exhibited widely in Ireland, England and the United States, and represented Ireland in the 22nd São Paolo Bienal. In 2007, she completed a major drawing installation, The Night Garden, for the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. She is an ARHA member and also a member of Aosdána.
Tour of the Basil Blackshaw Exhibition
with RHA Director, Patrick T. Murphy
Tuesday 12 February, 6pm
Tour of the Chester Beatty Library & Chester Beatty:
the Paintings exhibition Saturday, 23 February, 2pm
This tour will begin with a 20 minute power point presentation on the exhibition Chester Beatty: the Paintings after which the Friends can wander through the exhibition in their own time accompanied by the tour guide if any further questions arise. Chester Beatty: the Paintings consists of a selection of thirty paintings that once belonged to Chester Beatty and today form part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. The paintings are among some ninety works presented by Beatty to the Irish nation in 1950, shortly after his move to Ireland from London. This collection concentrates on purchases of Barbizon School painters (like Corot, Jacque and Millet) and their Realist contemporaries (such as Breton). Unsurprisingly, he was also attracted to the work of Orientalist painters such as Gérôme, Fromentin and Berchère.
After viewing the exhibition the Friends will then receive a short presentation on Chester Beatty Library’s Permanent collection and its highlights. Arts of the Book, a permanent exhibition of almost 600 objects from the Library’s collections displays books from the ancient world, including the world famous Chester Beatty Love Poems (c.1160 BC), Egyptian Books of the Dead and a mix of beautifully illuminated European, Middle and Far East manuscripts.
The Sacred Traditions Gallery on the second floor exhibits the sacred texts, illuminated manuscripts and miniature paintings from the great religions and systems of belief represented in the collections. For more details see www.cbl.ie.
Art for Arts Sake Walking Art TourSaturday, 23 March, 2pm – approx 4.30pm
The Friends of the RHA are invited to take part in an Art for Art’s Sake walking art tour, with the guidance of its founder Jennette Donnelly and Friends Co-ordinator, Michelle Considine. These tours were created to encourage the overall engagement within the arts between the viewer, artist and gallery. They showcase established and commercial galleries, grassroots and artist led spaces, and a variety of studios and alternative exhibition venues.
Founded in 2012, Art for Art’s Sake Walking Art Tours feature artists, curators and gallerists at each space to introduce the venue and exhibition. The tour guides have a wealth of knowledge on practices, concepts and the current art scene. Venues will be announced closer to the event and will consist of a visit to 3-4 spaces over the course of the afternoon.
Tours are free but donations are welcomed to facilitate the development of Art for Art’s Sake. www.artforartsake.org .
Tour of SKIN Exhibition with RHA Director Patrick T. MurphyThursday, 11 April, 6pm
RHA Director Patrick T Murphy will lead the Friends through the exhibition, SKIN – an artistic atlas, which touches on some of the most dominant themes that skin invokes, such as race, gender, age, decay, disease, texture, identity, eroticism, race, adornment and display. Ranging through photography, painting and video it promises to be a challenging and stimulating exhibition.
Among the artists included are John Coplans, Robert Ballagh, Andres Serrano, Sigalit Landau, Jeanne Silverthorne, Jessica Robbins, Gwen Hardie, Marlene Dumas, Barrie Cooke, Dorothy Cross, Phillip Pearlstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nicholas Nixon, Hannah Wilke, Cara Phillips, Cecily Brennan, Byron Kim, Mary Kelly, Ariana Page Russell, Shirin Neshat, Spencer Tunick, Dennis Oppenheim and works by J. Connolly and W. Kirwan from the Wallace Collection, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
The exhibition is accompanied by a full colour catalogue published jointly by the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Irish Skin Foundation.
Booking is essential.
RHA Open Studio Visit Monday, 29 April, 6 - 7pm
The RHA artist studios have a 6 month turnover and are offered to both emerging and more established artists over the course of the year.
Artist’s websites:
donaldteskey.com
draganajurisic.com
michaelhanna.org.
