It was art by the baker's dozen. An exhibition of works by 13 artists, representing Ireland in the 1990s, is back in Dublin. Having toured the US and Canada, the exhibition of young and more established Irish artists is now on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
It was unveiled at a welcome-home party this week. The collection, Irish Art Now: From the Poetic to the Political, was drawn together to "mirror the profound changes in Ireland's political, economic and cultural life" throughout the decade of the 1990s.
Declan McGonagle, IMMA's founding director, is the curator of Irish Art Now. He was absent from the opening, being busy as the recently appointed chair of the Liverpool Biennial, which takes place next year between September 14th and November 24th.
Among the artists represented in the collection are Dorothy Cross, Maurice O'Connell, Kathy Prendergast, Billy Quinn, Paul Seawright and Willie Doherty. The work of Fionnuala N∅ Chiosβin, Ciarβn Lennon, Mark Francis, Caroline McCarthy and Abigail O'Brien is also on show.
The exhibition also includes work by Alice Maher, who married artist Dermot Seymour in June this year. Next, the two are off to work in Mexico for three months. Coincidentally, the new Mexican ambassador to Ireland was also present at the opening in IMMA. Agust∅n Basave, who was an elected diputado in the Mexican "Dβil" for the past three years, has just arrived in Dublin to begin his tenure here.
Another artist in the collection, Alanna O'Kelly, arrived from Bannow, Co Wexford, with her three children, Amhairghean Kennedy (11), Kaya Kennedy (8) and Una Maya Kennedy (5) to attend the opening and the dinner later. O'Kelly's next project will be unveiled in June at St Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny.
"It will be a live piece with live performances and live sound," she explains.
Lorraine Wall, artist and a member of the IMMA board, travelled from Ennis, Co Clare, to attend. Two advertising executives, Donal Swift and Peter Price, examined the exhibition before dashing off to the Sugar Club to attend the book launch of The Best of Irish Advertising and Design 2001. They both feature in the publication, having picked up a Cleo award for their Wavin Ireland ads earlier this year.
Dr Margaret Downes, chairwoman of BUPA, who is just back from trekking in Nepal, was with her husband, Desmond Downes. They chatted to Ruair∅ ╙ Cu∅v, an art consultant who is a grandson of ╔amon de Valera and younger brother of the Fianna Fβil TD, ╔amonn ╙ Cu∅v.
Giorgia Sandrelli, an artist from Modena in Italy - accompanied by a friend, Nicola O'Brien, a teacher at St Michael's Holy Faith Secondary School in Finglas - said she hopes to have a show in Dublin in January.
The show at IMMA runs until Thursday, March 7th next year.