Hamilton Gallery wish all our artists, patrons and gallery visitors a very happy Christmas and New Year. We hope you will enjoy this update on current events and we have some exciting news for early in 2024

Ancestral Houses opens in Chongqing

After Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, Chongqing is the fourth largest city in China, with an estimated urban population of 16.34 million as of 2020. The city is a vast and sprawling municipality at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in southwestern China. and when the population is measured to include all it’s municipalities it is in fact the largest city in the world.

All of us at the gallery are delighted that our invited artists exhibition Ancestral Houses has opened at the Luzumiao Arts Centre, under the curatorship of Hong Kong VA Galleries in Yuzhang Chongquing City.

Ireland’s Ambassador to China, Ann Derwin opened the exhibition to celebrate the anniversary of W B Yeats receiving the Nobel Prize for literature. The exhibition will run at Luzumiao Arts Centre until January 10th.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all our participating artists, to Ambassador Ann Derwin and the staff of Irelands Embassy and Consular Missions in China, to Vincent Deng our fantastic curator in China, and to the Luzumiao Art Centre for hosting the exhibition in their wonderful facility.

Ancestral Houses has also been exhibited in June this year for #YeatsDay celebrations at LolliGo Art Space Beijing and in Chengdu city as part of the Chengdu Ireland Week in September.

Ancestral Houses is Hamilton Gallery’s seventh invited artists exhibition which thematically draws upon a major poem by W B Yeats and set against the backdrop of Irelands Decade of Commemoration.

The exhibitions are in complement to the work of the Yeats Society who run the Yeats International Summer School, Yeats Day and #YeatsDay

The exhibition also formed part of Sligo’s Tread Softly… festival programme and in June 2023 was shown in Beijing .

The exhibition comprises an individual work from each of 125 invited artists.

Winter Gathering

Our annual Winter Gathering Exhibition for invited artists is currently running in the gallery. This special show each year is constantly updated as work sold for each artist for Christmas is replaced with new work.

Take an moment for yourself and drop in whenever you are out and about over the Christmas season.

We have just added striking new sculptures to Winter Gathering by renowned Irish sculptor John Behan.

Though recently celebrating his 80th Birthday, John travels to Greece to conduct workshops with refugees who have made perilous journeys across the Mediterranean to reach Europe, or who have undertaken arduous treks overland. Two works in the front gallery are themed on his experiences meeting and working with refugees and displaced people, while the third piece is a celebration of the artistic relationship between Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh.

Rough Crossing by John Behan (Detail) (Bronze, Unique, 39cm (H) / 53cm (L) / 24cm (D)

St Brigid's Well

Lá Fhéile Bride / St Brigid’s Day celebrations 2024

Sligo & Beijing.

2024 marks 1500 years since the death of St Brigid. Lá Fhéile Bríde, on February 1st, also known as the ancient Imbolc or Imbolg Gaelic traditional festival is now a national holiday in Ireland. It carries a burgeoning international celebration of women’s creativity at its heart.

We will be marking the day with very special events here at our Gallery in Sligo and also in Beijing China.

Here in Sligo we are hosting an exhibition of new works by Artist Yoko Akino. Her exhibition coincides with the launch of a new stamp for the Irish Postal Service commemorating of St Brigid on her 1500th anniversary which Yoko has designed.

Alongside Yoko’s exhibition we have also invited five women artists to create responses to Lá Fhéile Bríde & Imbolc in reed and willow weaving associated with beloved woven cross traditions that are carried out across Ireland at this time.

At the instigation of Irelands Department of Foreign Affairs, Hamilton Gallery began a series of invited artists exhibitions in 2019 themed on the creative work and lives of inspirational Irish women; figures such as Eva Gore-Booth and Leland Bardwell. These exhibitions involved works by hundreds of Irish women artists, and they have been shown both here in Sligo, in London, Dublin and Berlin in association with Irelands Diplomatic and Consular missions.

For our most recent Lá Fheile Bride / St Brigid’s Days Exhibition we commissioned a new poem from one of Irelands foremost poets, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin. Eiléan’s poem, St Brigid’s Well, became the thematic inspiration for new paintings by 96 Irish women artists.

We are delighted that St Brigid’s Well, will open for Lá Fhélie Bride and International Women’s Day celebrations in Beijing in late January 2024.