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