Press Release - Press Release - Press Release - Press Release

Date: Wednesday 12th May 2010
Press Contact:
Rayne Booth
tel. + 353 1 671 0073
email: press@templebargallery.com

Recipients of TBG&S & HIAP International Exchange and Studio Award ‘10

Temple Bar Gallery and Studios (TBG&S) in association with HIAP–Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme and The Finnish-Institute in London are delighted to announce Irish artist Martin Healy and Finnish curator Laura Köönikkä, as the recipients of the Irish and Finnish exchange and studio award for 2010. Since 2007, the TBG&S and HIAP partnership has supported six artists from Ireland and Finland to undertake new creative work in Dublin and Helsinki for three months of the year.

For 2010, the Award celebrates its fourth year by welcoming a visiting curator, Laura Köönikkä from Finland, to research and develop a new project at TBG&S from 1st – 31st July 2010. The project will focus on the contemporary art scene in Dublin and also create links with the Finnish cultural scene. Irish artist Martin Healy will spend three months at HIAP Studios from 1st June – 31st August 2010 where he will research and develop new film and photographic work in Helsinki. Martin Healy’s residency at HIAP is supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.

The TBG&S and HIAP partnership fosters opportunities for exhibition, exchange and dialogue in the arts internationally. Artists awarded the residency to date are Sonia Shiel (IRE) and Ulrika Ferm (FIN) in 2007, Niamh O’Malley (IRE) and Heli Rekula (FIN) in 2008 and Niamh McCann (IRE) and Antti Leppänen (FIN) in 2009.

Laura Köönikkä (b. 1980 in Pori, Finland) currently works at the Tampere Art Museum and TR1- Art Gallery as chief curator. She is on a leave of absence from her position as exhibition curator at the Pori Art Museum, where she has worked since 2003. She is a member of board in The Finnish Society for Curators. Köönnikkä has curated Finnish and international group and solo exhibitions, the two latest being Young Artist of the Year 2010: Photographer Anni Leppälä and the exhibition of the graduating fine arts students of TAMK Tampere University of Applied Sciences. She has also edited the Anni Leppälä publication.

At the moment Köönikkä is working on a summer exhibition by Anssi Kasitonni, Jani Leinonen and Katja Tukiainen, a Finnish contemporary artist trio who will create a site-specific exhibition to TR 1 - Art Gallery in Tampere. Köönikkä is interested in contemporary art, possibilities to involve audiences in exhibitions and to provoke people to think and talk about art and matters that arise from art and culture, locally and globally.

Martin Healy: "It looks like we are entering white water ... we're completely lost", photographic print (2010)

Martin Healy was born in London. He took part in the Artists’ Residency Programme at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2007 and was awarded the International Studio Programme residency at PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York in 2000/01. In 2008 he was awarded a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Solo exhibitions include Facsimile at Rubicon Gallery, Dublin (2009), Skywatcher at Roscommon Arts Centre (2008), I want to believe at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2007). Group exhibitions include; Invisible, Black Church Print Studio, Dublin (2010); Flicks-The Cinematic in Art, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda (2009); The Open eye Club presents The Human Arc, Tramway T4, Glasgow, Scotland (2008); Based on our current Science, Gallery of Photography, Dublin (2008); Bloody Beautiful 2, Ronmandos Gallery, Amsterdam (2008); Green Screen, Institute of Contemporary Art Newtown, Sydney, Australia (2008); Singing the Real, Iziko South African National Gallery (2007).

For further information on the TBG&S and HIAP International Exchange and Studio Award or images for press, please contact Temple Bar Gallery and Studios by email press@templebargallery.com or tel. + 353 1 671 0073.

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