Delighted to share details on the upcoming Crawford Art Gallery Exhibition BODYWORKS, which includes work from MTU Staff, MTU Crawford College of Art & Design (CCAD) Alumni & Crawford Supported Studios (CSS) member - Yvonne Condon CSS member), Stephen Doyle (CCAD BA Alumni), Debbie Godsell (CCAD MA Alumnus), Leanne McDonagh (MTU Traveller Educational Co-ordinator, CCAD BA & MA Alumnus), and Peter Nash (CCAD MA Alumni)  

This exhibition continues until 20 August, and BODYWORK explores aspects of art making that interrogate how our bodies perform under internal and external forces and through lived experiences.

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More about exhibition:

Bodywork / Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

28 April - 20 August 2023

Over thirty artworks from the National Collection of Crawford Art Gallery and  Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) consider issues around love, familial relationships, gender identity and sexuality, mental and physical health, body agency, marginalisation and prohibition. 

Bodywork explores aspects of art making that interrogate how our bodies perform under internal and external forces and through lived experiences. In doing so, the exhibition offers a space to consider our bodies and how they relate to our understanding of body image. 

The human body is a complex, fascinating, and wonderous entity which becomes both subject and object for the artist. Our bodies can become either the vessel or the weapon of love, empathy, commodification, or manipulation within the realms of community, family, and self.

Selected from recently acquired artworks from the IMMA and Crawford Art Gallery collections, the exhibition seeks to both platform the featured artists and the collaborative partnership of IMMA and Crawford Art Gallery in their acquisition of new works for the National Collection. 

Participating Artists are: Rachel Ballagh, Elizabeth Cope, Yvonne Condon, Stephen Doyle, Rita Duffy, Debbie Godsell, Sandra Johnston, Eithne Jordan, Dragana Jurišić, Breda Lynch, Brian Maguire, Leanne McDonagh, Eoin McHugh, Nick Miller, Peter Nash, Maïa Nunes, Alice Rekab, Rajinder Singh and Jennifer Trouton. 

Bodywork highlights the crucial relationships between contemporary art practice and the body.   ‘In a way,’ as writer Adrian Stokes (1902-1972) observed, ‘all art is constructed in the body’. 

Dawn Williams, curator, comments ‘Bodywork is the act or process of making or repairing bodies and the exhibition considers the body within the artistic process and how the resulting work provides insights on lived experiences whether they be familiar to our own or observations of another’s. Whilst necessarily, the exhibition doesn’t cover all artists that represent the image of the body in their work, it is exciting to see new work acquired for the National Collection through the collaboration of Crawford Art Gallery and IMMA.’ 

An extensive Learn and Explore programme will accompany the exhibition including artist talks, panel discussions and workshops. 

Also opening on April 27 at Crawford Art Gallery is muscle: a question of power. Muscle: a question of power is an immersive experience that takes visitors on an audio guided journey through Crawford Art Gallery’s historic collection of Canova Casts and culminates in a short film exploring the muscularity of professional women.

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More about Crawford Art Gallery 

Crawford Art Gallery remain open until Autumn 2024 after which time it will close for capital redevelopment of the building. 

Crawford Art Gallery is an Irish national cultural institution, dedicated to contemporary and historic visual art, located in a significant heritage building in the heart of Cork city. Offering a vibrant and dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions, it also houses a collection of national importance which tells a compelling story of Cork and Ireland over the last three centuries. 

Originally built in 1724 as the city’s Custom House, the Gallery is home to the famous Canova Casts, gifted to Cork two centuries ago. Featured in the Gallery’s collection of more than 3,000 objects are contemporary artists Aideen Barry, Gerard Byrne, Maud Cotter, Dorothy Cross, Tacita Dean, and Sean Scully as well as much-loved works by Irish artists James Barry, Harry Clarke, Mainie Jellett, Seán Keating, Daniel Maclise, Norah McGuinness, Edith Somerville, and Jack B. Yeats. 

This project is in support of the Night-Time Economy and funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.