Renewal: Printmakers from the New Northern Ireland

“[T]he works are wonderfully diverse and deeply personal expressions by artists who have indeed contributed to the renewal of their country.”

– Contemporary Impressions

“The exhibition highlights the renaissance taking place that mends Ireland’s cultural history with its current art.”

– Chloe Johnson, The WiRE

A decade after the end of sectarian violence in Ireland, in a groundbreaking exhibition entitled Renewal: Printmakers from the New Northern Ireland, 18 of Northern Ireland’s most significant contemporary printmakers displayed 36 works reflecting the styles, interests, and concerns of the transformative “post-Troubles” years. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland invited the president of International Arts & Artists, David Furchgott, to select standout works from two of the most active print workshops in Northern Ireland, namely the Belfast Print Workshop and the Seacourt Print Workshop located in Bangor, County Down.

The eclectic works of Renewal hint at the richness of Northern Ireland’s creative and economic rebirth after the cessation of political and cultural hostilities in the late nineties. All of them rejoice in the thematic freedoms of the new peace and in a liberated sense of color, form, and subject. Simon McWilliams’s vibrant “Chandelier” weds the utility of factory-tooled forms with the vigor and flair of hothouse flowers; Cecilia Stephens’s luminous monotypes (such as “Ridgeways”) evoke the watery light of Irish bogs and coasts; and Frances Gordon’s slightly unreal renderings of weather-eaten doors suggest the wary, careworn faces of older generations.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland co-sponsored the exhibition at the prestigious Cosmos Club and at IA&A’s Hillyer Art Space in Washington, DC, prior to a national tour to other U.S. venues. The debut of the exhibition was part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland program that was held recently throughout the National Capital region, and was presented in conjunction with Northern Ireland at the Smithsonian as part of the 41st annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall.

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