Exhibitions

IMMA was proud to present Irish Gothic – a major retrospective by one of Ireland’s most accomplished and respected artists, Patricia Hurl. This was Hurl’s first significant exhibition, presenting work spanning over 40 years of the artist’s career.

Spanning more than 80 pieces, many of which were never publicly displayed before, the exhibition provided a deep insight into Hurl’s exploration of the lived experiences of women in Ireland. Her work is both deeply personal, reflecting her own experiences and perspectives, and a powerful commentary on the broader experience of women in Ireland from the 1980s onwards.

One of the central themes of Hurl’s work is the hardship faced by women – mothers, sisters, and friends – who are often affected by profound acts of suffering yet feel powerless to alleviate the pain of their loved ones. Recent works, such as “The Warrior Series,” were inspired by global media coverage of the treatment of women, as well as local events like the Belfast rape trial of 2018.

The exhibition also included early works where Hurl explores the concept of the suburban home as an imperfect ideal. These pieces, including sketchbooks, diaries, and magazine cuttings, provide insight into the evolution of Hurl’s practice and her deeply rooted exploration of women’s experiences.

Scene of the Myth is a major solo exhibition by Dublin-based artist Sarah Pierce, opened in March.  Curated by Rike Frank and the European Kunsthalle, this expansive exhibition featured performances, videos, large-scale installations, and archives.

Pierce, who moved to Ireland from the US in 2000, had 12 works spanning 20 years brought together by Frank to highlight the patterns in Pierce’s art practice. The exhibition explored the relationships between narratives we reproduce and those we seek to leave behind, questioning what it means to gather, reflect, and act in community.

The title, “Scene of the Myth,” was derived from one of Pierce’s essays where she described social infrastructures like academies and museums as moments where historical narratives were re-constituted in the present. It was not a physical place but an occasion where inherited and invented knowledge intersected.

The exhibition was organised around specific themes: Institutes and Protests, Legacies and Exercises, Communities and Migrations. It included projects involving students as performers, demonstrators, and interlocutors, such as “An Artwork in the Third Person” (2009), “Campus” (2011), and “The Square” (2017). Student groups participated in re-learning and re-staging key performance works during the exhibition.

Pierce’s concept of the “community of the exhibition” explored how exhibitions could bring audiences together across generations, geographies, and times. Works in the exhibition reflected this interest in community, addressing topics such as dementia in “No Title” (2017), diaspora in “Pathos of Distance” (2015), and translation in “The Question Would Be The Answer To The Question, Are You Happy?” (2009-12).

“Championing Irish Art: The Mary and Alan Hobart Collection,” was an exhibition dedicated to the Pyms Gallery, London and featured prominent Irish artists such as Jack B. Yeats, John Lavery, William Orpen, and Mary Swanzy.

The exhibition explored the role of Mary and Alan Hobart in establishing a new canon of Irish art, despite political risks taken by the Pyms Gallery during the turbulent 1980s and The Troubles. Founded in 1974 by Mary Hobart from County Monaghan and her husband Alan Hobart, the gallery mounted pioneering exhibitions that introduced Irish art to Britain for the first time in decades.

“Championing Irish Art” focused on artists who had previous exhibitions at IMMA, including Mary Swanzy, William Crozier, Jack B. Yeats, and Cecil King. The exhibition spanned from the First World War to the conflict in Northern Ireland, showcasing works reflecting wartime experiences, rebellion, and responses to political turmoil.

Drawn from the personal collection of the Hobarts, the exhibition reflected their tastes and beliefs, particularly their strong anti-war stance. For almost half a century, Mary and Alan Hobart influenced taste and collected Irish art, and this exhibition highlighted Pyms Gallery’s pivotal role in promoting Irish art internationally.

The exhibition was accompanied by a publication with research by William Laffan, an art historian, editor, and curator, and an afterword by Kenneth McConkey, a Professor of Art History at the University of Northumbria.

“Influence and Identity” was a major exhibition of Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection.  This extensive exhibition featured the works of international photographers from the early through to the mid-twentieth century, a period often referred to as the golden age of portrait photography.

Comprising 83 artworks by master portraitists such as Antony Armstrong-Jones, Richard Avedon, Yousuf Karsh, and Gisèle Freund, as well as renowned photographers Berenice Abbott, Imogen Cunningham, Garry Winogrand, and Brassaï, the exhibition showcased the commanding personalities of celebrated figures in popular culture, politics, and the arts.

Portraiture, as a tool for social documentation, marked individuals’ images and significance in specific times and places, reflecting the unique viewpoints of the artists who created them. The exhibition revealed a wide variety of styles, viewpoints, and themes, reflecting the subjective interpretations of each photographer and their noteworthy subjects, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Miles Davis, Virginia Woolf, and Winston Churchill.

The first solo exhibition in Ireland by renowned American artist Howardena Pindell: A Renewed Language showcased Pindell’s extensive career, spanning painting, drawing, print, and video, focusing on her emergence in the early 1970s in New York as an abstract painter.

Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Pindell’s career began in the 1960s, and she rose to prominence through the late 1970s and early 1980s, becoming a distinguished Professor of Art at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Trained as a figurative painter, Pindell transitioned to abstraction in the 1960s, developing her unique layering techniques.

From the 1980s, Pindell’s work became overtly political, addressing issues of racism, discrimination, and social injustice. The exhibition included paintings, works on paper, and videos, such as “Free, White and 21” (1980) and “Rope/Fire/Water” (2020), reflecting on racial inequality and historical data.

New paintings fresh from Pindell’s studio, exhibited for the first time, showcased her return to concerns of the 1970s and 80s, employing novel “cut and sewn” canvases and celebrating colour. Pindell’s abstract paintings offer visual healing, merging personal narrative with social and political urgency.

The exhibition also featured a keynote talk by Naomi Beckwith, Chief Curator at the Guggenheim, NYC, offering insights into Pindell’s extraordinary career. This exhibition originated from Howardena Pindell: A New Language, organised by the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, and Spike Island, Bristol.

IMMA proudly launched solo exhibitions by two esteemed artists, Jo Baer and Anne Madden in 2023. Both artists have demonstrated unwavering dedication to painting for over seven decades, contributing significantly to contemporary discourse.

Jo Baer’s exhibition, “Coming Home Late: Jo Baer In the Land of the Giants,” presented recent paintings inspired by her stay in Co. Louth from 1975 to 1982. Born in 1929, Baer was a key figure in the Minimalist painting movement in New York in the 1960s, transitioning to ‘radical figuration’ in the mid-1970s. Her series, fuelled by research into Irish Neolithic artefacts and myths, reflects her interest in history and science.

Anne Madden’s exhibition, “Seven Paintings by Anne Madden,” created during the Covid-19 pandemic, followed a sixty-year international career. Madden’s themes explore the transformative forces and cyclical nature of life, referencing ancient forms and mythologies. Her paintings, including “Death of Ann Lovett,” resonate with existential and feminist perspectives.

“Coming Home Late: Jo Baer In the Land of the Giants” was co-curated by IMMA and Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, with support from the Mondriaan Fund and PACE Gallery. These exhibitions continue IMMA’s commitment to showcasing the practices of long-established female artists, emphasising their ongoing relevance and contribution to the art world.

“Self-Determination: A Global Perspective,” was one of the largest exhibitions in IMMA’s history. The culmination of a three-year research and commissioning project, the exhibition featured over 110 artists and in collaboration with museums and institutions worldwide.

Focusing on new nation-states that emerged after World War I, “Self-Determination” explored the role of art and artists in expressing national identities, nation-building, and statecraft. The exhibition, part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012–2023, highlighted shared experiences of early 20th-century new states, featuring historical works from national and international collections, along with new commissions.

The exhibition featured a juxtaposition of historical and contemporary perspectives, including new works by Array Collective, Jasmina Cibic, and Declan Clarke, among others. Key Ukrainian art institutions, lending over 20 artworks, reflected on Ukrainian national identity post-World War I. Additionally, contemporary artists such as Ursula Burke and Ieva Epnere contributed to the discourse on self-determination.

“Self-Determination” explored the formation of new states and the legacies of this period, emphasising the common cultural strategies across several new nation-states. Supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, the exhibition offered a deeper understanding of historical and contemporary perspectives on self-determination, shaping international solidarity and artistic expression.

IMMA was delighted to host the prestigious RDS Visual Art Awards, the foremost platform for visual art graduates in Ireland.  The awards included a curated exhibition opportunity and a prize fund exceeding €35,000.

The RDS Visual Art Awards conduct a comprehensive assessment of graduate work in Ireland, covering all 32 counties.  This competitive process, highly regarded for its transparency, enlisted the expertise of leading visual art professionals in Ireland, and inclusion in the exhibition has a proven positive impact on the career progression of young artists.