CULTURE: Solo and joint exhibitions open in Westport

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the end-of-year exhibition by the 2024 graduates of ATU’s BA in Contemporary Art Practices. With the show marking the end of the creative course’s availability on the Castlebar campus, it was an end-of-an-era exhibition too. The mood was celebratory, while tinged with sadness that this much-loved and valued BA is no longer being offered.
The collection of accomplished works made by the final students to graduate this course combined to create a truly fitting send off. The bright walls and floor space of the ample St Mary’s Hall were filled with a huge array of styles, colours, media, subjects, moods and interpretations.
The work by the ten graduating artists – Michelle Gannon, Marta Baptista, Miriam Byrne, Janine McGinn, Angela Duffy, Claire Finegan, Martina O’Connor, Rachel Corcoran, Paul Meenaghan and Sheila McArdle – was as diverse, individual and stimulating as one can imagine, with a kaleidoscope of preoccupations and approaches explored.
The show came with a beautifully produced and illustrated artist-statement booklet. Another free book – called ‘Stamp’ – was available on the night. It commemorates the part-time art courses run at ATU Mayo from 1999 to 2024 by presenting a collection of works by those who have attended the courses over the years. From the startling opening image, ‘Eostre, Goddess of Fertility’, by Bernadette Bohan, it contains an arresting and impressive selection of art – a wonderful record of creativity and expression over a quarter of a century.

‘Transitions’
But back to this year’s students. It was clear from their impassioned speeches at the exhibition’s opening that the course meant the world to them, creatively and personally, and they sang the praises of the lecturers and staff for their support and encouragement.
Their sentiment was echoed by now-retiring lecturer Dr John Mulloy, who, in his introduction to their exhibition’s booklet said the show represents the culmination of “a process of transformation, and intense engagement with materials and ideas that have had a profound impact on everyone involved, and which they are now communicating to a wider audience.”
Since the show, graduates Michelle Gannon from Castlebar and Rachel Corcoran from Westport have been longlisted for the 2024 RDS Visual Art Awards – congratulations to them both. Those who make it through to the final selection will be invited to show work in this year’s awards’ exhibition at the RHA Gallery, which runs from November 22, 2024, to January 18, 2025.
For anyone who missed the exhibition in ATU, which sadly only ran for one week, a new Westport show offers another chance of seeing these artists’ work. The Custom House Studios and Gallery has just opened two now exhibitions, one of which – ‘Transitions’ – contains works by each of the ATU Contemporary Art Practices 2024 graduates.

‘Story Cloths’
The second show at the Custom House, ‘Story Cloths – Gestures, Journeys and Genealogies’ is comprised of work by Roscommon-based artist Frances Crowe, who explores themes of memory, displacement and trauma through tapestry weaving, or what she calls ‘drawing in thread’. Her richly visual art practice involves ‘gestures of loom and shuttle, warp and weft, creating images that bear witness to the human journey at both personal and inter-personal levels’.
The images reference the loss, trauma and human suffering resulting from geopolitical power struggles and the cultural and economic upheavals impacting those most at risk of deprivation, particularly women and children.
Crowe’s exhibition opened alongside the ATU students’ show last Thursday. It was introduced by celebrated weaver and printmaker Dr Ann O’Mahony, who praised how Crowe uses ‘grid structures (horizontal and vertical) of wool, linen, sisal, monofilament and steel’ to ‘create a complex multi-layered web and point of reference which name and reframe cultural and existential trauma and its impact at a societal, personal and interpersonal level’:
“In gestures of remembrance and witness, the artist creates visceral and poignant images of our life journeys, as we voyage through the stormy seas of memory, life and loss, harsh perplexing realities our culture would prefer to sanitise and forget.
“The personal and the political are juxtaposed powerfully in images of absence and loss. Fractured narratives and shattered and uprooted lives are symbolised in warp and weft. Absent and shadowy figures signify the dark woods and liminal spaces we encounter in the cycles of birth and death; borderlands for which our culture has little guidance or maps to offer. This is the gift of the artist in her powerful woven images.”
An atmospheric and thought-provoking collection sure to leave its mark on the viewer.

• ‘Story Cloths – Gestures, Journeys and Genealogies’ and ‘Transitions’ will continue to run at the Cutoms House Studios and Gallery, Westport Quay, until July 21.