UpStart is a non-profit arts collective which aims to put creativity at the centre of public consciousness during the Irish General Election Campaign in 2011.

UpStart is a non-profit arts collective which aims to put creativity at the centre of public consciousness during the Irish General Election Campaign in 2011. We plan to do this by reinterpreting the spaces commonly used for displaying election campaign posters in Dublin City and are calling on all artists to submit work for this exhibition.

The objectives of UpStart are to encourage a debate on the role of the arts in this state. We hope to highlight the importance of creativity and ingenuity when society is in need of direction and solutions, and to emphasize the value of the arts to public life. We believe that the future development of the country requires a healthy cultivation of the Arts.

image: So filthy spuds would grow in his ears… on Parnell St., Dublin 1

For more info visit www.upstart.ie

James Merrigan, GOTH-HEAD (Part 1), (video still), HDVideo, audio and text (collegiate font), 2011.

GOTH-HEAD refers to obsessions and addictions with the so-called ‘dark’ aspects of culture. It also refers to my art practice over the last 3 years, which has obsessed over such cliches, reinventing cultural beliefs with humour and potential fear from a filmic perspective.

2 previous works were chosen by the curator and 1 work was made by the artist with the theme of “multplicity” in mind. (Multiplicity is the title of the 5th chapter of Italio Calvino’s book, Six Memos, which has been the fundamental influence behind Mary Conlon’s curated project “Six Memos”).

The 3 works, which include video, audio, text , fabricated and found objects, focus on ‘multiple’ reference points from the southern gothic in William Faulkner’s prose to fabricated identity in the tones of cheer-leader chants. The titles of the works are: My Mother is a Fish (2010), Before the Cut(2008) and GOTH-HEAD (2011).

http://jamesmerrigan.blogspot.com/

+BILLION- is an exclusively online ‘affirmative’ art review journal and is committed to reviewing what it refers to as ‘contextually critical art’.

http://billionjournal.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Nov 30th, 2010, +BILLION- will post its inaugural reviews of Alan Butler’s solo show at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios and Bea McMahon’s solo at Green on Red.

Alan Butler, Some Kind of Agit Prop Monster,(2010), Video Still, TBG&S, 2010; image courtesy of Alan Butler.

Circa’s new online issue is now live. They have selected a group of writers to tackle what is in effect Circa ‘s core activity: criticism and criticality .

“It’s a new venture – one linking to the past and looking to the future; please join us.”

See James Merrigan’s ‘response’ to a selection of the texts in his article ‘Stupid Judgement’ here

TULCA – an annual Galway season of contemporary visual art.  Featuring local and international exhibitions, unexpected live-art performances and discussions & talks with artists with admission free to all events.

Established in 2002, TULCA’s vision is to be accessible to a wide-ranging audience. The Festival engages and challenges audiences with new and fresh ideas, and art that audiences want to see. Attention is given to the finer details, such as programming work in interesting venues and ensuring the invigilators are well informed and enthusiastic.

Each year TULCA aims to do things differently, without trying to fit into a prescribed version of a visual art festival.

TULCA 2010 will take place in venues throughout Galway City including:
Galway Arts Centre | Galway Museum |The Fairgreen Building | 126 | Niland Gallery | The Spanish Arch | Nuns Island Theatre | Bar 8 | Aran Ferries | The Dock Shed | Bike Shelters in Eyre Square and Spanish Arch

Curated by Michelle Browne

Runs from Sat Nov 6 – Sun Nov 21 2010

For more info visit www.tulca.ie

image: Farmer’s Daughter, Mary Noonan 2010 (showing in Galway Arts Centre)

COE 2010

Claremorris Open Exhibition

official opening Saturday 4th September at 8.30pm

exhibition runs 4 – 25 September 2010

Selected by curator and writer Lisa Le Feuvre

see www.coearts.org for more details

image above: So filthy spuds could grow in his ears…

watercolour, watercolour pencil, pencil & gold marker on torn paper, 38 cm x 28 cm, Mary Noonan 2010

This exhibition is the second in the second series of Futures, a sequence of exhibitions that endeavours to document and contextualise the work of emerging artists, around who exists a growing critical and curatorial consensus.

The artists in Futures 2010 are selected from a number of sources – from various artist-led initiatives and independent group shows, to a developing peer consensus that attempts an objective view of differ…ent artistic practices that have emerged in recent years.

The artists chosen for Futures 10 are Oisin Byrne, Rhona Byrne, Fiona Chambers, Niall de Buitléar, Damien Flood, Magnhild Opdol and Ailbhe Ni Bhriain.

A full colour catalogue documenting both Futures 09 and Futures 10 will accompany this exhibition.

The exhibition opens on thursday 2nd September and continues until the 24th October.

More info here.

Issue Two of Occupy Paper is available now to read online and download. This issue includes a review of Mary Noonan and Damien O’Connell’s show ‘Island’ in Occupy Space, a review of Dana Schutz’s show in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin and Interviews with Gareth Jenkins, Laura McMorrow and Beth Fox.

click here to read

Graduate Studio

A studio has become available to rent at The Red Stables.

The studio which would be suitable for a graduate is 10 x 18 feet and is available to rent from August 2010 for one to a maximum of three years at a cost of 45 euro per week including  bills.

For  further information on how to apply or  to arrange a viewing of the studio please  contact Dublin City Council  Arts Office on 01 222 7843 or email Victoria.Kearney@dublincity.