On the Town: Many of Dublin's gallery owners and curators turned out in force to hear what the Irish Museum of Modern Art has to offer this year. Many foreign delights are promised with important works from China, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Russia and Europe.
IMMA director Enrique Juncosa listed a number of one-man shows to look out for, including Branching Out, by American sculptor Martin Puryear, who travelled from New York for the show, which opened the same day. Also coming, said Juncosa, are shows of works by Italian artist Francesco Clemente, French conceptual artist Sophie Calle and Spanish abstract painter and photographer Juan Uslé.
Watch out for cutting-edge artists such as Brazilian photographer Vik Muniz, British sculptor Marc Quinn and performance artist and painter from Italy Margherita Manzelli, he said.
"There are no radical changes in the functioning of the museum," said Juncosa. "I am very happy with the way it is . . .The aim of the programme is to offer you a very diverse range of options."
The Minister for Arts, John O'Donoghue, who launched IMMA's 2004 programme, noted with pleasure the list of international exhibitions scheduled, many of which are organised in collaboration with leading museums and galleries around the world. The Minister, who had a busy morning, came from the National Museum at Collins Barricks across the river, where he opened two collections - Neo-Celtic Art and All that Glisters.
Among the guests at the IMMA recpetion were Kevin Kavanagh, whose gallery on Great Strand Street, Dublin 1, is currently hosting a show by Colin Martin; Louise Dolan, of the Hallward Gallery in Merrion Square and Barbara Dawson, director of the Hugh Lane Gallery, who was pleased to report that the contracts for the building of the new extension to the gallery have just been signed. The new space on the site of the old National Ballroom is due to be to finished - at a cost of €13 million - by autumn, 2005, she said. The plan then is to open with a show of work by the New York-based artist Brian O'Doherty/Patrick Ireland in spring 2006. "He's probably the only visual artist who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his book, The Deposition of Fr McCreevy," she said.
Martin Puryear's work will be on view at IMMA until Sunday, May 9th