Sean Rainbird and Diana Copperwhite In-Conversation
Monday 24th July | 2pm-2.45pm
The Printworks, Market Street, Galway
Galway International Arts Festival
Sean Rainbird, curator and former Director of the National Gallery of Ireland discuses Diana’s practice in idea and form, and his just-published essay for the Onomatopoeia catalogue - Figure, Skin, Disrupt, Construct. A Word A Start and An Ending.
This is a moving round the gallery event.
Context
Presented on the occasion of Diana Copperwhite Onomatopoeia, a Highlanes Gallery national touring exhibition, which opens on Sunday 16th July at 2pm at Galway International Arts Festival. Installed in the former Printworks on Market Street, the exhibition promises to compel and exhilarate. Diana has made six new large-scale works on paper for this iteration of the exhibition; and we are including a new installation area where the audio recordings from the Painter to Painter Series can be heard.The exhibition runs for the two week festival, closing on Sunday 30th July. Opening hours for the exhibition there are Monday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm, with late closing at 8pm for Thursday, Friday & Saturday.
About
Sean Rainbird was Director of the National Gallery of Ireland from 2012 to 2022.He completed the refurbishment of the historic Dargan and Milltown wings and created new areas of collecting. These included photography and recent works by contemporary artists. From 2006 to 2012 he was Director of the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. Between 1987 and 2006 he was a curator, then a senior curator, at the Tate Gallery. He has selected many exhibitions, most recently a Sean Scully show from April to October 2023 at Houghton Hall, Norfolk.
Diana Copperwhite’s work stems from an idiosyncratic practice that embraces the temporal nature of painting practice. This encompasses working with large-scale wall installations, large canvases, drawing and an ongoing interest in the human portrait. Born in Limerick, she studied at the Limerick School of Art and Design from 1987–92, received a BA in painting at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1994 and an MFA at the Winchester School of Art and Design, Barcelona in 2000.
Her work is in public collections including the Irish Museum of Modern Art;
Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane; the National Gallery of Ireland; the Arts Council of Ireland; the Rothko Center, Latvia; Limerick City Gallery of Art; Highlanes Municipal Art Gallery; the State Art Collection, Ireland; Contemporary Irish Art Society; Mariehamn Stadsbibliotek, Aland, Finland; the British Council; Hesburgh Library, Notre Dame University, United States and private collections across the world. She has exhibited widely, including in London, Dublin, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Barcelona, New York.
