IMMA is delighted to present the third year of the Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection with work from artists Barbara Knezevic, Susan MacWilliam, Mary McIntyre and Helen O’Leary, who have been selected for the 2018 Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection. Each of the artists selected have well-established practices, making work of quality and rigour which has received considerable critical acknowledgment and are not yet represented in the IMMA National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. From thought-provoking sculptures to a haunting video to a photographic installation, each of the chosen works engages with contemporary culture, reflecting the artist’s looking at and thinking about life today. The exhibition is now open, and you can find out more about the four works selected for the Collection in the Exhibition Guide.
In 2016 Hennessy Ireland formed a unique partnership with IMMA to help fund the purchase of important works by Irish and Irish based artists for the National Collection. Works are sought that show excellence and innovation within contemporary art developments, and which represent a signal moment of achievement with the artist’s practice and capture a moment in time of Irish culture. They must also have been made within the previous five years. Artists are nominated by a selection panel and final recommendations are approved by the IMMA Collection & Acquisitions Committee, in line with IMMA’s Collection policy.
Panellists in 2018 included invited curator Hugh Mulholland (Senior Curator, The MAC, Belfast), Cliodhna Shaffrey (Director, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin and IMMA Acquisition Committee member) and Christina Kennedy (Senior Curator, Head of Collections, IMMA), assisted by Claire Walsh (Assistant Curator, Collections, IMMA).
To date, the Hennessy Art Fund has enabled IMMA to purchase the work of twelve artists. In addition to the 2018 selection, works by Kevin Atherton, David Beattie, Rhona Byrne, Mark Garry, Maireád McClean, Dennis McNulty, Ciarán Murphy and Yuri Pattison have joined the Collection through this essential fund.
