Polish art in Gorey show
The work of talented Polish artists from all over Ireland adorned the walls of this year’s PolskaEire Festival exhibition in Gorey Civic Offices and Library.
‘Polish Artists in Ireland -From Landscape to Abstract’ was opened by Cllr. Joe Sullivan, accompanied by Hanna Pruchniewska, the Mayor of Puck in Poland with which Gorey Council signed a letter of intent of cultural co-operation last year.
Running alongside the art exhibition was a collection of photographs by the Gorey-based photographer Joseph Dixon of scenes from North Wexford and Puck.
Mr. Dixon brought his exhibition of Wexford photographs to Puck last October and while he was there, he took pictures in Poland and the photographs of both areas were exhibited together during the festival under the title ‘Your home, my home’.
The art exhibition included more than 30 works selected by a panel of judges -Dr. Danua Dettlaff,art historian; Kate Cos, artist; James Merrigan of the Gorey School of Art and Joseph Dixon- from a much larger collection of works submitted by professional and amateur artists around the country in response to an invitation from the organisers, including Ola Riguet of PolskÉire Festival Gorey.
Prizes were presented in both the photography and art categories. Beata Piekarska-Daly was awarded first and overall prize in the painting section for ‘Irish Sea’ and Tomasz Litwin received a commendation for ‘Night Landsdcape’.
Grzegorz Czyzewski received a commendation in the photographic section for ‘Drops’ while Magdalena Smolnicka won first prize.Joseph Dixon presented the phogoraphic awards while Kate Kos presented the art awards.The exhibitions were part of the annual national PolskaEire Festival.