David Mach; Diana Copperwhite; Lorraine Tuck; Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara from Grafton Architects; Brian Cross; and Ruby Wallis amongst the highlights.
Galway International Arts Festival is known for extraordinary visual arts experiences and this year is no different as the festival once again presents a compelling programme, featuring installations, sculptures, painting, soundscapes, photography and much more to explore this July.
The Festival is delighted to welcome back David Mach, who wowed audiences in 2018 and 2012 with his evocative installations Rock ‘n’ Roll and Precious Light respectively. Known for his imposing and provocative public art, constructed from mass-produced materials, including car tyres, newspapers and coat hangers, David Mach will premiere a new site-specific installation commissioned by GIAF, The Oligarch’s Nightmare. Visual arts exhibitions and installations also include Onomatopoeia from Diana Cooperwhite, a site-specific, seaside installation Wordspace from Grafton Architects [Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara] in collaboration with Hatchett Sound Furniture; B+ [aka Brian Cross] outdoor exhibition celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, and an intensely moving and powerful photographic exhibition from Lorraine Tuck telling the story of her family living with autism disorder and intellectual disability and much more.
Speaking today Galway International Arts Festival Artistic Director Paul Fahy said “We are delighted to present and commission such a varied programme of work in the visual arts as part of this year’s Festival. From the large-scale central commission from David Mach to the site-specific seaside installation from Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara and Lorraine Tuck’s beautiful photography documenting her family life living with neurodiversity, we have an excellent selection of exhibitions running throughout the Festival. I would like to thank all the artists, installation crews and our partner venues for all their amazing work this year.”
The 2023 Visual Arts and Architecture programme in more detail
The Oligarch’s Nightmare by David Mach17–30 July, 11am–6pm. Late opening to 8pm. Festival Gallery.
Turner Prize-nominated artist, David Mach previously wowed audiences in Galway with his 2012 exhibition Precious Light which featured the enormous crucifixion sculpture Golgotha and 2018’s Festival commission Rock ‘n’ Roll which saw Mach place a yacht, car and a caravan with multiple other objects and debris within a monumental quantity of painstakingly positioned newspapers. This year, GIAF has commissioned him to create a new site-specific installation The Oligarch’s Nightmare a large-scale work dominating the central exhibition space of the Festival Gallery. The exhibition also includes a number of maquettes, montage and sculpture.The Festival Gallery is once again in association with The Dean Hotel, Galway.
Onomatopoeia by Diana Copperwhite 17–30 July, 11am–6pm. Late opening to 8pm Thursday–Saturday.
Diana Copperwhite makes big bold compelling oil paintings which are both complex and energetic. She creates an exquisite tension between abstraction and figuration or representation of any kind. Vibrating spectral bands have become a kind of a trademark in Copperwhite’s recent large paintings. Curated by Aoife Ruane, Highlanes Gallery.
Unusual Gestures by Lorraine Tuck 17–30 July, 11am–6pm. Late opening to 8pm Thursday–Saturday.
Unusual Gestures is an intensely moving and emotionally powerful photographic exhibition. Lorraine Tuck has turned the lens to her own experiences to tell the story of a family living with autism spectrum disorder [ASD], and intellectual disability. Curated by Photo Museum Ireland.
Whistling in the Dark by Ruby Wallis 17–29 July 10am–5pm. Closed Sundays. Galway Arts Centre.
This major new exhibition of photography, collage, film, print and sound work by artist Ruby Wallis is drawn from a collaborative project with writer Philina Sun, A Woman Walks Alone at Night, with a Camera, and new sound work creative in collaboration with musician and composer Mike Smalle. Curated by Megs Morley.
Wordspace by Grafton Architects 17-30 July 8am-10pm. Blackrock, Salthill Promenade.
Wordspace, a seaside installation with audio, features recorded excerpts from the Proteus episode of Ulysses, read by Olwen Fouéré directed by Louise Lowe. Presented as part of Ulysses 2.2, the year-long centenary celebrations of Ulysses from ANU, Landmark Productions and Museum of Literature Ireland. By Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara [Grafton Architects] in collaboration with Hatchett Sound Furniture.
The West is Awake by B+ 18-29 July, 10am-4.45pm. Closed Sundays & Mondays. Galway City Museum.
B+ [aka Brian Cross] was born and raised in Limerick and moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and began photographing the hip hop community soon after. Since then B+ has captured hip-hop luminaries like Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill and the Notorious BIG in intimate moments. This exhibition celebrates the 50th Anniversary of hip hop and features a number of his photographs installed outdoors at Galway City Museum.
Monarch by Luke McMullan 9am-5pm 14 July-8 August. Closed Sundays. Kenny Gallery.
Monarch is a collection of new paintings by Luke McMullan that celebrates the transformative power of renewal and invites the viewer to reflect on their own potential for growth and transformation.
All the Dark Places 17–30 July 12noon–6pm. Interface, Inagh Valley, Connemara. Allow 1 hour approx. to drive from Galway City.
All the Dark Places is a site-specific exhibition curated by Alannah Robins. Eliška Kováčiková, Hardy Langer, Margaret O’Brien, MaryDonnelly and Noel Arrigan approach the subject of landscape through paint, kinetics, multi-media sculpture and installation.
Musica Universalis + Eternal Equations of Love 17–30 July, 12noon–6pm. 126 Artist-Run Gallery.
An exhibition of immersive sound structures and participatory sculpture activated by frequencies of planetary bodies and human touch. Rooted in themes of healing and care, sound artist Anne Marie Deacy and visual artist Eimear Murphy explore sound and tactile exchange as a method in recalibrating a broken humanity. Curated by Lindsay Merlihan and Meabh Noonan.
The Hare’s Collective 17 July - 30 August 2023 11am-6pm. University Hospital Galway.
The Hare’s Corner Collective are four established artists living in rural west Galway; Hilary Morley, Sacha Hutchinson, Ursula Murry and Geraldine O’Rourke. Salthill Reverie is a celebration of place viewed through the eyes of these very different artists using mixed media, paint and drawing.
- Far Away & Close to Home by Enda Burke Tuesday–Saturday 10am–5.30pm. Sunday 12 noon-5pm. Closed Mondays. Outset Gallery.
This multidisciplinary showcase invites viewers to explore a celebration of kitsch décor, bold nostalgia, and religious iconography from Ireland’s past, linked to the present through the artist’s unique voice and visual language. Curated by Tom McLean.
- Infinite Possibilities curated by Simon Fennessy Corcoran 11am-4pm. Closed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Engage Art Studios, Lower Salthill.
The theme for this exhibition was generated by Chat GPT, a language model trained by OpenAI. Curated by Simon Fennessy Corcoran.
Galway International Arts Festival would like to acknowledge the support of its principal funding agencies the Arts Council and Fáilte Ireland; its Drinks Partner Heineken; and Education Partner University of Galway.
