From Ballinglen To Cork

Lavit Gallery, 5 Father Mathew St, Cork Mon- Sat 10

Lavit Gallery, 5 Father Mathew St, Cork Mon- Sat 10.30am-6pm Until Mar 14 021-4277749Hard to believe that the Ballinglen Arts Foundation has been up and running for almost 20 years now. Established by two Americans, Margo Dolan and Peter Maxwell, in the village of Ballycastle on the coast of north Mayo, close to the Ceide Fields, the Foundation offers fellowships to artists from both Ireland and abroad.

Fellowship translates into residency: the artist goes to Mayo and is handsomely catered for in terms of living and working space.

Artists have, in general, found the experience rewarding. The fine American painter Stuart Shils was so taken with the place, and with the weather which can be tough, to say the least of it, that his work was utterly transformed. The Lavit Gallery is currently showing work by some 25 Irish or Irish-based artists who have worked at Ballinglen. They include Sinead Aldridge, Ita Freeney, Martin Gale, Geraldine O’Reilly, Eithne Jordan, Bernadette Kiely, Charles Tyrrell, Sarah Walker and Carol Hodder – many but by no means all associated with Cork. Artists who accept the invitation to Ballinglen usually go back again and again. Not only is the place conducive to work, it provides an incredibly rich store of inspiration in the form of its monumental landscape.

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zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom),plus Pimp my Irish BangerNational College of Art and Design Gallery, Dublin

Aidan Dunne

Aidan Dunne

Aidan Dunne is visual arts critic and contributor to The Irish Times