GIAF presents a programme of powerful visual arts this July

Renowned for it’s extraordinary visual arts experiences, Galway International Arts Festival is delighted to once again present an exciting array of exhibitions and installations this July. The centre-pieces of this programme will be an exhibition including a majore new installation from Ana Maria Pacheco and a new work from John Gerrard which will be in situ at the Galway Docks. The team are delighted to return to the Festival Gallery again at William Street, which has been reconfigured and reimaged for GIAF 2022. The Festival Gallery is presented in association with the Dean Galway this year.

Galway International Arts Festival is delighted to welcome back Brazilian–born artist Ana Maria Pacheco, whose new multi–figure polychrome wood installation, Remember, was created especially for the festival. This exhibition, which will be on display at the newly reconfigured Festival Gallery in William Street will also include earlier works including Shadows of the Wanderer, 2008 and Some Exercise of Power, 1980–1985 alongside a series of new wood reliefs.

Pacheco’s work deals with issues of control and the exercise of power and looks unflinchingly upon the perilous world people encounter as they strive for a better life. Pacheco looks fearlessly into the dark heart of humanity and seeks out the light. She encourages the viewer to get close to her figures and exploits the respective scale of each to challenge the audience’s physical and moral equilibrium.

Flare [Oceania] 2022 by John Gerrard

Following on from the extraordinary Mirror Pavilion (2020 / 2021) John Gerrard returns to Galway International Arts Festival to unveil a new work entitled Flare [Oceania] 2022 on the Galway Docks. Flare [Oceania] centres on a simulated generative form which hovers between a gas flare and national flag. This data object is set within a seascape based on photographs taken by activist and artist Uili Lousi of his heating ancestral ocean near Tonga. Gerrard’s new work represents an ecology in hyper distress and a world faced with the existential threat of rising seas. Flare will be shown as a large–scale 7M x 7M LED wall at Galway Docks and streamed live online. Gerrard has this week opened his first solo show at the renowned PACE Gallery in New York while Mirror Pavilion Leaf Work has just closed following a hugely successful four month run at the Sydney Biennale of Art.

Entanglement by Annex Ireland at Venice 2021

Entanglement by ANNEX, Ireland’s Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2021 at the Fairgreen Gallery, aims to reframe the way we understand data production while exploring its impact on everyday life. ANNEX is a collaboration of artists, architects, and urban researchers who came together to curate the Irish Pavilion in Venice in 2021, including Sven Anderson, Alan Butler, David Capener, Donal Lally, Clare Lyster and Fiona McDermott.

The visual arts programme also includes a new exhibition from Sean Lynch at Galway Arts Centre; at 126 Artist–Run Gallery Ben Geoghegan and Aisling Phelan A Remix of Change curated by Sona Smedkova; a site–specific, international exhibition at Interface Falling in Love Outward curated by Alannah Robins; a set of portraits by award– winning documentary photographer Tamara Eckhardt at Galway City Museum entitled The Children of Carrowbrowne and Wingform an installation of music and light commissioned by Crash Ensemble from Barry O’Halpin and Jack Phelan.

Kenny Gallery artists will reflect on and offer us their view on Galway in Galway Emerges, artists Sioban Piercy and Leonie King present Balancing Acts in the historic setting of Oranmore Castle and Engage Art Studio will showcase contemporary work by artists working in one of the main studio collectives in Galway in its Members Show.