Gwen nominated for €5,000 artist prize
ROSSLARE artist Gwen O’Dowd will compete for the country’s most significant contemporary arts award at Vue 2018 in the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin from November 1-4.
The €5,000 Savills Prize is awarded to the artist who has produced an outstanding body of work in the last year or made some other substantial contribution to the visual arts in Ireland.
Twelve of Ireland’s leading contemporary art galleries have each nominated an artist as a contender for the prize, which is being adjudicated by an independent panel of experts.
Gwen has been nominated by the Graphic Studio Gallery in Dublin, where she completed a recent retrospective print show of her work over 30 years.
Living and working between the north inner city of Dublin and Rosslare, she is well-known for her exploration of print and has been working since 1985 with the carborundum printing techniques in which materials are used to add areas of tone and colour.
Among the aspects of landscape she has covered are the ecological devastation of the Gulf War, the epic Grandeur of the Grand Canyon, the mythically
sexualised landscape of coastal Ireland and the elemental force of the waves.
‘We nominated Gwen because of her recent retrospective print show, which exhibited her work over 30 years and was able to show how it all connected with each other and with people’s lives,” said Peter Brennan of the Graphic Studio Gallery.
The winner will be announced from a shortlist of five contenders at Ireland’s National Contemporary Art Fair Vue 2018.
‘This is the fourth year the Savills Prize has been presented at Vue and we hope the award will become as important to Irish art as the Turner Prize is in the UK,’ said Vue 2018 organiser Patrick O’Sullivan.
‘Savills is the perfect partner to present the Prize as most art is found in homes and businesses, and not just museums’, he said.
VUE is an opportunity for collectors and investors to experience some of the best contemporary art currently being created in Ireland, and to get some expert advice and guidance from leading galleries.
Last year’s prize was awarded to one of the country’s most noted abstract painters, Samuel Walsh.