Museum extends an invitation to the public
LIMERICK City Gallery of Art’s renovation of its gallery and dynamic new extension are of the 21st century.
The development was funded by the department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht through Access II and Limerick City Council. LCGA is housed in the Carnegie Building, which was built as a library and museum, with funding from Irish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The building has now been extended on three sides, while the gallery collection was re-housed during construction.
The collection’s homecoming is highly anticipated, as previously there was not adequate storage. The art from the permanent collection was hung salon-style, meaning the walls were entirely covered with work. The ample new storage facilities enable the gallery team to showcase the collection to its full potential.
“We renovated the whole of the building,” says Pippa Little, acting director/curator. “It’s given us a new community and education area called the hub, a café and social space and permanent collection storage.
“The exhibitions will take place on our ground-floor gallery and first-floor galleries. The upgraded facilities really do allow for a better experience for everybody, whether it’s artists exhibiting their work or people like moms with kids popping in, or schools or tourists.”
A Brian O’Doherty (formerly Patrick Ireland) work was purchased by the gallery as their 1% for Art Scheme project. The Siege of Ennis is a sculpture from 1970, and will be exhibited for the first time in the gallery, as part of A Vivid Imagination, one of two exhibitions which will launch the new gallery space today.
In 1948, artist Sean Keating delivered the opening speech for the West Gallery extension. Fifty works in the 1948 exhibition have been gathered for a reinterpretation.
Keating praised the people of Limerick for having “a vivid imagination.” Little has revived these words to title one of the new exhibitions. Members of the community have been invited to select the work in the show.
“We selected quite a representative sample of people,” says Little “We have gone for a very community-wide selection, from people who have worked with the gallery previously to artists who would have shown here before or who have strong connections to the gallery.”
John Shinnors is a Limerick-born artist who supports a curatorial scholarship through LCGA. Still Life, Herring, by St George Hare, is the work he chose for A Vivid Imagination. Shinnors recalls the mystique of the gallery; as a child he bravely wandered in the open door one morning to discover a whole new world.
Still Life, Herring, a painting depicting fish, captured his attention, and he remembers lifting his dog up to the painting so that he could smell the fish.
Portrait of Miss Russell, by Mary Swanzy, was chosen by Mary Coll, a broadcaster and writer. The nuances in the painting, such as the clothing and jewellery, indicate the vibrancy of young lady Miss Russell.
Transitive Relationships is the second new exhibition. This show addresses the art being made in Ireland. Little appointed Mark O’Kelly and Bea McMahon as the lead artists in the show and asked them to select work from emerging artists.
“They’re both very active on the Irish art scene,” says Little. “As well as their own works being very interesting and very reflective of what’s happening now, their processes are very interesting. They have a really good knowledge of much younger artists. This is partly due to their teaching practices and partly because its something they’re interested in. I was imagining the idea that if you have a group of people, all the knowledge that’s in that group is more than one person. So the idea was that, with Bea and Mark involved, that the selection would be a wider trawl than if it had just been me.”
The newly extended Limerick City Gallery of Art will be officially launched by Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan, TD, this evening.
* A Vivid Imagination and Transitive Relationships run until March 4. See: gallery.limerick.ie.
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