The art is in Claremorris.

I’m just back from spending most of the weekend in Claremorris in County Mayo. I was very happy to be selected for the Claremorris Open Exhibition a second time (my first time was in 2007). It’s a prestigious open submission show. Each year a prominent curator, usually from the London art scene is asked to select the show. This year the task went to Lisa Le Feuvre, she’s a writer, curator and senior lecturer at Goldsmith’s college or art in London. About 300 artists applied and Lisa selected 41 artists for the exhibition, which takes place in several venues around the small County Mayo town, forming an art trail.

View from my hotel room.

The nice thing about this exhibition is that it’s full of juxtapositions. Claremorris is a small rural town, but for three weeks every year it gets to present some of the most relevant contemporary art this country (and places further afield) has to offer and for the curators who are used to living in busy London it’s a very different experience to what they’re used to. Given it’s high standing, the exhibition now being in it’s 33rd year, it gets submissions from recent college graduates as well as established artists. The first time I was in it I had just completed third year in college and I got to exhibit, and won an award alongside people like Susan McWilliam, who went on to represent Northern Ireland in last year’s Venice Biennale. It was a big deal for me at the time, and it was also my first exhibition outside of the college.

This year Loretto Cooney, who was in my year in college also got in, as did our former college tutor Fionna Murray and Anne O’Neill who just finished her ceramics degree this year. Fionna won this year’s top artist award (there were three prices awarded this time) so I’m really happy for her!

One of Fionna’s pieces.

Anne O’Neill’s video installation.

I should also give The Claremorris Arts committée a mention, since they’re doing such an amazing job. Marayde O’Brien is incredibly committed and hard working and it was great to see her again and they made sure we all had a great night. In the usual fashion the participating artists are first treated to a dinner in the hotel in the main street. Then it’s time to have a walk around the galleries and then there’s an opening and prize giving ceremony. I talked to Lisa, the curator, afterwards and she’s lovely. She really enjoyed the experience of adjudicating the show, which is obviously very different from being in London, and was so impressed with the standard of the work.

One of Loretto’s paintings.

The rest of the night was spent in Ward’s bar, as is tradition, and we all had a great time! Nice to talk to friend as well as new faces, and we stayed on until we were pretty much kicked out after two.

Today some of us had another proper look at the exhibition and I got to know that I had sold one of my pieces, which is always great to hear. The last time I was there I left Claremorris with only happy memories and this time was no different!

Got a photo of me with my pieces taken today before I went back to Galway. The one with the lego houses to my left sold, it’s also the image used in the catalogue.

You can see more photos from the opening in the Pictures section and I’ve created a new page for this series of paintings called “A Comment on...”