HAROLD’S Cross artist Eoin MacLochlainn will compete for the biggest prize in Irish contemporary art at Vue 2016, which takes place at the Royal Hibernian Association Gallery from November 3-6.
The €5,000 Vue Contemporary Art Prize, presented by Savills, will be awarded to the 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.
A total of 19 of Ireland’s leading contemporary art galleries have each nominated an artist as a contender for the prize. RHA director Dr Patrick Murphy, who has an extensive track record as a curator of contemporary Irish art, will adjudicate.
MacLochlainn has been nominated by the Olivier Cornet Gallery where he completed ‘Diaspora’, a series of paintings exploring Irish emigration in the 21st century.
“My current body of work examines the human dimension to the ‘boom and bust’, looking at notions of ‘home’ and thinking about Irish emigration and diaspora,” he explained. “It was inspired by a poem by Cathal Ó Searcaigh entitled ‘Na Bailte Bánaithe’, a poem about how spirits haunt the land, long after the people who lived there have gone.”
Last year’s prize was awarded to abstract artist Richard Gorman who collaborated with Stoney Road Press for his series, ‘Kan’.
Opening hours for Vue 2016 are 6-8pm on Thursday, November 3; 11am-8pm on Friday, November 4; 11am-7pm on Saturday, November 5; and 12-6pm on Sunday, November 6.
We wish Eoin the best of luck.