The Absolut Festival Gallery and Visual Arts Programme at Galway International Arts Festival was officially opened on Sunday, 13th July by Orlaith McBride, Director of the Arts Council of Ireland. The Absolut Festival Galleries and visual art exhibitions will open daily from the 14-27 July.
Guests who attended the event included visual artists John Kindness, Enda Walsh, Patrick O’Reilly, Leonie King, Karen Conway, Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea who star in Ballyturk at the Black Box Theatre, and John Mahoney who stars in Chapatti at the Town Hall Theatre.
Artistic Director of Galway International Arts Festival Paul Fahy commented, “Festival 2014 features an expanded Absolut Visual Arts Programme, featuring two new galleries, the Absolut Festival Gallery at Market Street, Galway and The Shed located at Galway Harbour. As momentum gathers pace in the build up to Galway City’s bid for the European Capital of Culture 2020, the Festival’s commitment to re-imagining and transforming buildings as galleries demonstrates the ongoing need for a contemporary municipal art gallery for the city.” Festival Chief Executive, John Crumlish added, “We are hugely grateful to Absolut for their support of our visual arts programme. The partnership has been a very positive one for the Festival and has been a key contributing factor over the last number of years in the continuing development of the programme.
This year’s Absolut Visual Arts Programme features an eclectic mix of Irish and international exhibitions with the introduction of a newly designed city-centre gallery in the former Print Works of the Connacht Tribune on Market Street. With Festival curated exhibitions by Irish artists John Kindness, and Patrick O’Reilly; a stunning sound installation by Canada’s Janet Cardiff, an absorbing new text Room 303 by Enda Walsh presented in installation in a gallery setting; Eduardo Paolozzi who features in two exhibitions in association with London’s Hayward Gallery, and US artist Kurt Perschke’s enormous roving installation RedBall Galway which crosses the boundaries of visual art and spectacle. This year’s programme presents an exciting mix bringing work out onto the streets and breathing new life into old spaces.
Commenting on its sponsorship of the Visual Arts Programme at Galway International Arts Festival for the fourth year Nicola Barrett, Marketing Manager of Absolut said, "The energy and creativity in the Absolut Festival Gallery and throughout the streets of Galway is palpable. Absolut Vodka’s heritage and ethos is about making art as accessible as possible to people by collaborating with and supporting the creative community. It has ultimately become a part of that community itself and we hope that this year’s Absolut Festival Gallery and The Shed, along with the stunning Absolut Visual Arts Programme, will encourage people to fully engage with and enjoy the immense creative talent from Ireland and beyond that is being featured. The contribution of the festival to the arts in Ireland as a whole and especially the visual arts cannot be understated and is something we are very proud to be involved with.”
Other exhibitions in this year’s programme include Liam O’Callaghan’s If and then…(again) at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street; Leonie King’s Inextricably Linked at the Absolut Festival Gallery; Brian Bourke and Jay Murphy’s Commonage at Norman Villa Gallery, and Karen Conway at University Hospital Galway. Paul McAree curates the annual 126 exhibition at the artist led Gallery 126 with two exhibitions at Galway City Museum Maurice Quillinan’s Music on the Water and Windows into Gaza an exhibition curated by Irish painter Felim Egan.
Artistic director Paul Fahy talked all things gallery with The Irish Times. Read all about 'Fantasies in borrowed spaces' here.
More information on all of the visual art exhibitions at GIAF 2014.
The Absolut Festival Gallery, The Shed and other Festival exhibitions will open daily from the 14th – 27th July. Admission is free. For opening times visit www.giaf.ie or phone the Festival Box Office on 091 566577.
