On the 6th of July, Cairde Visual opened in The Model. The exhibition is Cairde Sligo Arts Festival’s fourth annual open submission show. The exhibition features work from both national and international artists across a diverse range of media with over 100 pieces from 87 artists on display. The exhibiting artists were selected from hundreds of applications by a panel of esteemed judges consisting of Barra Cassidy, Christian Reeves, Emer McGarry, Pat Murphy and Cormac O’ Leary.
Cairde Visual began this year with an engaging artist talk & wine reception. Artist’s Anna Spearman, Ruth le Gear & Daniel Chester were invited to speak about their practice with education curator, Marie Louise Blaney. The thoughtful and playful talk explored the nature of each artist’s practice & their relationship with their environment.
The Artists:
Anna Spearman is an object-maker, a painter and a socially engaged arts practitioner. She initiated and collaborated with The Model on the development of the Sligo Global Kitchen project since 2015. Acting Director of The Model, Emer McGarry, had the honor of presenting The Model Cara Award to Anna Spearman. This award entitles it’s recipient to a two week residency in The Model’s state of the art artist studio. This award will see Anna develop a project for The Model’s Foyer gallery in 2018.
Ruth Le Gear is a Leitrim-based artist. She completed her BA in Fine Art at GMIT Galway in 2007. Her work is interdisciplinary, often combining text with video, photography, audio and other elements. In her practice, she combines empirical approaches, particularly water memory, with more intuitive processes of understanding non- physical phenomena. Ruth’s recent project & publication ‘Water Senses’ is available in The Model Shop.
Daniel Chester is a Leitrim- based artist, originally from Enniscrone, Sligo. Having completed his BA in IT Sligo in 2001, he spent time deepening his practice as a painter, before going on to complete a Masters in Visual Arts Practices in Dun Laoighre College of Art and Design in 2009. Daniel was the joint winner of The Model Cara Award 2016 (alongside Selma Makela, who was recently showed in the foyer gallery) and will be exhibiting in The Model later this year.
The talk was brought to a close with an announcement from Cairde creative director, Tara Mc Gowan, who named the winners of both The Hamilton Gallery Award and the Augural Cosgrove’s Delicatessen Prize. Noel Tighe & Hazel Merrigan were the joint winners of the Hamilton Gallery Award, which entitles the artists to an exhibition in one of Sligo’s newest galleries. Helen Merrigan Colfer was the lucky winner of the Augural Cosgrove’s Delicatessen Prize of €500.
The wine reception that followed was a roaring success with hordes of art-lover’s gathering in The Model to appreciate the colourful collection of work on display. The Model has always enjoyed a good party and spirits were high as the evening wore on. To add to the general delight of the gathering, several pieces were sold on the night in question. Today, the number rounds up at a healthy 10, not bad for an exhibition that has only been opened for a fortnight, eh? So why not drop by before the 06. Aug & take a walk around this eclectic and exciting new exhibition!
Cairde Visual is open till 06. Aug. 17