It’s great to be back to normal after a long couple of years of unprecedented disruption. However, despite the pandemic, we were as busy as ever, keeping the show on the road, with new exhibitions in the gallery and online, as well as creating new relationships with other artistic, literary, and diplomatic institutions both here in Ireland and abroad. We catch-up on all that’s happened over the past two years.
Every year, we welcome the opportunity to contribute to St. Brigid’s Day & International Woman’s Day celebrations in February, and to commemorate Yeats Day in June, by curating our signature group exhibitions for invited artists. We continued with our signature group exhibitions for invited artists throughout the pandemic. If you missed them, all our past exhibitions are archived on our website.
The Eva Gore-Booth exhibition was opened at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) by Sabina Higgins in February 2020, but due to the pandemic the exhibition was cut short, and we were unable to show it here at Hamilton Gallery until February 2021.
Opening at MoLI February 2020
Opening in Beijing, China March 2022
“I walk through the long schoolroom questioning…” W B Yeats
Amongst School Children, opened at Hamilton Gallery in June 2020, timed to coincide with Ireland’s Decade of Commemoration. As with each of the group exhibitions, the 115 artists were asked to respond to the paralleled social, cultural, and political hopes and aspirations embodied in W B Yeats’ great works, with a contemporary visual interpretation.
Mac Donagh, Kate - 'How can you tell the dancer from the dance’ watercolour on Kozo (From the exhibition “Among School Children”)
“SURELY among a rich man’s flowering lawns…” W B Yeats
Meditation in the time of Civil War, a poignant choice of poem to mark 100 years of Ireland’s Independence, opened here in Hamilton Gallery in June 2021, to coincide with Yeats Day.
Cormac O’Leary - The heart's grown brutal from the fare oil on board . From the exhibition “Meditations in Time of Civil War”
In February this year, a specially commissioned poem entitled St. Brigid’s Well by the award-winning poet Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, was the subject of our group exhibition, running over St. Brigid’s day and beyond. To complement the exhibition, a short film was commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs and produced by Hamilton Gallery, featuring Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin being interviewed by author and journalist Susan MacKay about her life and work. It was streamed on ToBeIrish.ie as part of Lá Fhéile Bríde celebration by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin reading poetry by her friend Leland Bardwell during our very first at our Lá Fhéile Bríde exhibition at Twelve Star Gallery in London.
Running alongside the group shows, we were delighted to present solo exhibitions by:
Bram Stoker, Angela Hackett, Heidi Wickham, Ian Calder, Carolyn Mulholland and Martina Hamilton.
Opening 21 May: Lapis Lazuli | 17 Invited Artists | respond to W B Yeats iconic poem
“I have heard that hysterical women say…” W B Yeats
The Lapis Lazuli exhibition will be part of the Yeats Day celebrations in Sligo on June 13th and will run throughout the summer. Participating artists include Daniel Chester, Tom Climent, Gerry Davis, Diarmuid Delargy, Susan Dubsky, Joe Dunne, Graham Gingles, Bríd Higgins Ní Chinnéide, Brian Mc Donagh, Nick Miller, Gwen O’Dowd, Sorca O’Farrell, Geraldine O’Reilly, Janet Pierce, Sarah Quick, Emma Stroude and Tracy Sweeney.
Photo: Heidi Wickham, Marlin North, Lorna Watkins, and Cormac O'Leary (Cairde Visual organisers) with Martina Hamilton (Hamilton Gallery)
We are thrilled and delighted Hamilton Gallery is the host venue for Cairde Visual throughout July 2022. Now in its 7th edition, this open exhibition will again feature a compelling and dynamic range of work from both Irish and international artists across all media. Cairde Visual is an artist-led initiative which has been founded and facilitated by Sligo based artists. Significant awards associated with Cairde Visual include Cosgrove’s Delicatessen (€1,000 cash award), The Model Arts Centre (Artist Residency Award) and Hamilton Gallery (Solo or duo exhibition)