Glor Theatre Clare Ireland

WHAT’S ON...

Graphic Studio Dublin at glór Gallery

glór gallery is alive this summer with an exciting range of top class printwork as we celebrate with Graphic Studio Dublin their 50th anniversary.

Established in 1960 Graphic Studio Dublin aimed to teach traditional printmaking skills, (then unavailable in Irish art colleges), and to provide studios and technical assistance to artists to make fine art prints. They currently have sixty-seven members and this exhibition has a selection of work from some of these artists. Including, Meadhbh Arthurs, Jean Bardon, Gerard Cox, Louise Farrelly, Paul Fitters, Niamh Flanagan, Nickie Hayden, Stephen Lawlor, Robert Russell, Siobhan Hyde and many, many more.

Apart from a period in the 18th Century when Dublin became known as a centre for the manufacture of mezzotints, there has been little tradition of printmaking in Ireland. In 1960 Patrick Hickey, Leslie MacWeeney, Liam Miller, Elizabeth Rivers and Anne Yeats founded the Graphic Studio Dublin to teach traditional printmaking skills (then unavailable in Irish art colleges), and to provide studios and technical assistance to artists to make fine art prints. It was opened in a small basement in Upper Mount Street. In 1983 the Studio workshop moved to a much larger premises in the Docklands at Green Street East. The studios moved once again in 2007 to a stunning converted granary building: Distillery House, North Circular Road,Dublin 1.

The workshop has facilities for etching, lithography, and woodblock printmaking. Since the studio’s beginnings in 1960 the awareness of printmaking has grown in Ireland, as has its importance as an artistic media through studio and gallery initiatives such as education and travelling exhibitions.

All of the pieces on display are original prints made in the Distillery House Studio and they showcase the variety of techniques both traditional and contemporary that are in use there.  Jean Bardon’s stunning ‘Peonie Rose with Gold Leaf’ and ‘Dark Iris with Gold Leaf’ showcases the high quality of prints that are produced in Graphic Studio Dublin.  These beautiful traditional colour etchings embellished with gold leaf, represent some of the best botanical fine art prints in Ireland.

Of course the prints of Stephen Lawlor, Robert Russell, Michael Timmins and Nickie Hayden in this show display the usual level of expertise and beauty that we expect from these well know Irish printmakers.

The exhibition will run until Saturday 28th August. All prints are for sale, and the exhibition offers an opportunity to own a beautiful piece of artwork, with prices ranging from as little as €100. . The gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to to 5pm.