EVA is pleased to announce selected artists for the Platform Commissions programme, ahead of the 39th EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2020—Laura Fitzgerald, Aine McBride, Emily McFarland, Eimear Walshe, Cathal McCarthy & Fiona Woods.
Platform Commissions is a new initiative that focuses on the commission of ambitious and impactful projects by artists based in Ireland. The selected artists will develop projects that will be presented as part of the broader biennial programme, variously addressing ideas of environmentalism, land use, and housing activism.
Selected artists
Laura Fitzgerald (b. 1983, lives and works in Dublin and Kerry) is an artist that creates woven narratives of personal and political reflection in video, drawing and text, often referencing the artist's own rural background and general anxieties of international artistic professionalism. Recent exhibitions include: RHA Futures, Series 3, Episode 2, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2018); Between Structure and Agency + Saoirse Wall, LUX Touring Programme, various venues, UK (2018); Art Works, VISUAL, Carlow, selected by Emma-Lucy O’Brien, Orla Barry & Seán Kissane (2018); Lucian’s Neighbours, IMMA, Dublin (2018) curated by Janice Hough.
Aine McBride (b. 1987, lives and works in Dublin) is an artist that works with sculpture and photographic elements, often using construction and utility materials to create installations that resonate with the personal and public spaces of the built environment. Recent exhibitions include work suite, mother's tankstation, Dublin (2018); Habitat HQ, Douglas Hyde Gallery (offsite), Trinity College, Dublin (2017); Hannah Fitz, Áine McBride, Daniel Rios Rodriguez, Marcel Vidal, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2017); and Effort, Dada Post, Berlin (2017). Áine McBride is a residential artist at Fire Station Artist Studios, Dublin, and is represented by mother’s tankstation, Dublin / London.
Emily McFarland (b. 1987, lives and works in Belfast and Glasgow) is an artist that uses video and installation to reflect on narrative constructions of counter-culturalism and political protest. Recent exhibitions and screenings include The Complex Seer, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry-Londonderry (2017); Draft Systems, WRO Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw (2017); In the Jungle of Cities, Glasgow International, Glasgow (2016). Emily McFarland is a recipient of the PS² Artist Development Programme funded by the Freelands Foundation; and the Arts Council Northern Ireland ACES Award (2017-18); and is a co-founder of the artist run publishing imprint—Soft Fiction Projects.
Eimear Walshe (b. 1992, lives of works in Longford) is an artist, writer, and educator that uses academic study in Queer Theory and Feminist Epistemology in the production of sculpture, publishing, performances, and lectures. Recent projects and presentations include Separatist Tendencies for The Deviant Programme, Van Abbemuseum (2017); The Department of Sexual Revolution Studies, Van Abbemuseum / Design Academy Eindhoven (2018); and Miraculous Thirst: How to get off in days of deprivation, curated by Daniel Bermingham, Galway Arts Centre (2018).
Cathal McCarthy (b. 1970, lives and works in Limerick) and Fiona Woods (b. 1966, lives and works in Co. Clare) is a collaboration between Cathal McCarthy's work as an independent community activist who has spent 10 years documenting the regeneration process of Limerick city, and Fiona Woods' work as an artist, curator, and researcher who has been consistently engaged with ideas of political activation and public space. Fiona Woods' recent projects include Free*Space, (ongoing); The Laboratory of Common Interest, Limerick (2019); Contested Sites (2015 - 2018); Walking Silvermines (ongoing); one kind and another, US and Ireland (2015).
Platform Commissions
Platform Commissions is a programme initiative by EVA International that focuses on the commission of works and projects by artists based in Ireland. Platform Commissions for the 39th EVA International were selected by Merve Elveren (Curator, Guest Programme, 39th EVA International) and Anne Tallentire (artist), chaired by Matt Packer (Director, EVA International).
39th EVA International
Opening on September 4, 2020 and continuing until November 15, 2020, the 39th EVA International will be presented as an integrated programme of artist commissions, exhibition presentations, and educational projects, compassed by reference to the "Golden Vein"—a 19th century descriptor of the Limerick region. A full programme announcement will be made in Spring / Summer 2020.
