The Prevailing Art Fund has made its fourth donation

[Brendan Burgess]

This was arranged some time ago, but the Irish Museum of Modern Art wanted to delay the announcement until this week.

I have funded the acquisition of three works by Claire Halpin.

Jigmap Series Iraq, 2015.

Afghan Tour, 2016

Yeoman Yemen, 2019


Commenting on the acquisition of her work Halpin said;

“I am absolutely delighted about the selection of my work for acquisition for IMMA’s Collection - both personally and professionally it is an honour to have my work included in IMMA’s Collection - amongst the many great artworks and artists. For any artist to receive the acknowledgement, affirmation and support of their work by a national cultural institution is hugely important in their career, and for me for the ‘Jigmap Series’ represents a significant body of work and development in my practice”

Halpin’s practice explores themes and concepts around contested territories and histories through painting, video and installation. This new body of work ‘Jigmap Series’, attempts to navigate the complexity of the contemporary theatre of war as battlefield expands to battlespace in the information age. Halpin creates work that raises questions about how we choose to record history and the veracity of painting, photography, and the media in documenting future history.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

This particular donation gave me great satisfaction.

I have been a fan of Claire's work since I came across it during a studio visit in 2006.

It's difficult for an artist like Claire who does not produce work which most people would want to hang in their living room.

But I have followed her progress over the years and she has won many awards and residencies.

These works were among a group selected by international curator Inti Guerrero for 38th EVA International - Ireland's International Biennial of Contemporary Art 2018 to exhibit three large scale diptychs from her ongoing Jigmap Series including Syrial Serial completed especially for EVA International and exhibited spectacularly at Limerick City Gallery.
EVA is an important international exhibition held in Limerick every two years where a mix of works by Irish and international artists are selected by an international curator.

So when IMMA said that they would like to purchase them for their permanent collection, I was delighted to fund it.

While Claire's work is in many public collections, such as the OPW State Art Collection, AIB Art Collection, Imago Mundi Benetton Art Collection, The Four Seasons Hotel, Clarion Hotels, Blackrock Hospice Foundation, Smirnoff Collection, D.I.T Art Collection and Louth County Council Collection and Cavan County Council Collection, getting into the IMMA collection is the ultimate achievement for an Irish contemporary artist.

If you would like to pay a (virtual) visit to Claire's studio and learn a bit more about her work, you can do so here:

The Artist’s Well - Episode 29 - Claire Halpin

Claire Halpin, born and based in Dublin graduated from D.I.T with B.A Honours in Fine Art in 1996 and completed her M.F.A at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen,...

www.youtube.com

She talks about this particular series of work at about 48 minutes.

Claire Halpin Artist

Claire Halpin visual artist based in Dublin, Ireland

clairehalpin2011.wordpress.com

Some biographical information:

Claire Halpin, born and based in Dublin graduated from D.I.T with B.A Honours in Fine Art in 1996 and completed her M.F.A at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland. She has exhibited widely in group exhibitions in Ireland and internationally including;

189th RHA Annual, Dublin; Highlanes Gallery Open 2020, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda; Cáirde Visual, The Model, Sligo; Water Tower Art Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria; The Bulgarians are coming, Standpoint Gallery, London; The Palimpsest/ Rianú Project, The Pearse Museum, Dublin/ Tbilisi History Museum, Georgia and Artisterium VI, Tbilisi International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Georgia.

In 2018 Claire was shortlisted for the prestigious Savills Art Prize which is awarded to an artist who has produced an outstanding body of work in the last year, or made some other substantial contribution to the visual arts in Ireland. In 2017 Claire was also awarded the DLR Open Exhibition Artist Award by art critic Gemma Tipton at Arrival, dlr Open Exhibition, Municipal Gallery, dlr LexIcon.

Claire is represented by Olivier Cornet Gallery since 2016 with solo exhibitions - Glomar Response in 2016 and Raw War in 2019. This multimedia show constituted a milestone exhibition in Claire’s career as it offered viewers a comprehensive survey of the artist’s attempt to navigate the complexity of the contemporary theatre of war and received great response and review from critics, artists, gallery visitors and general public alike.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Claire has a very interesting and topical series of new works which are available to view (and buy!) in the Oliver Cornet Gallery.

Panoramic Pandemic – Dublin, Oil on Gesso, 20cm X 25cm, 2020

As the corona virus pandemic spread and the world went into lockdown, as the numbers of deaths and cases soared, peaked and epicentred – a live stream of images of the “war against the virus” – battlements constructed in the form of huge hospitals built at high speed in China. But that was all over there. Not here yet. Then across Europe, the abandonment of nursing homes, the repurposing of buildings for the infected, and the building of temporary mortuaries, the lines of army trucks delivering the dead to these temporary morgues. And then it was here in Ireland – a temporary morgue to be constructed at IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

I have begun a series documenting some of these sites. Tourist sites, cultural and historical sites, leisure sites – repurposed as temporary morgues, now commemorative sites or monuments to this pandemic. First in the series was the Palacio di Hielo Ice Rink in Madrid, painted using egg tempera on gesso and in the classical form and style of the frescoes of the palaces of Madrid.

The Panoramic Pandemic work use the composition, and style of a romantic era classical landscape in juxtaposition the pandemic unfolds in these calm and bucolic landscapes, the immensity and impact contained within the vignette frame. Panoramic Pandemic II – Dublin is based on the William Ashford 18th century painting A View of Dublin from Chapelizod as the backdrop includes St.Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park and Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

 

[mtk]

v interesting

 

[Brendan Burgess]

These works have just gone on show in IMMA as part of their 30 year anniversary exhibition.

Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now: Protest and Conflict - IMMA

Throughout history artists have been to the fore in activist and resistance movements, bringing both personal and political insights that propose new means of comprehending our present state of Endless War. Chapter Four: Protest and Conflict takes the IMMA Collection as a starting point to...

imma.ie