County Down artist Alison Lowry wins prestigious award

The Friends of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, Banbridge have awarded the Maurna Crozier Memorial Bursary 2020 to local artist Alison Lowry.

The annual bursary, which enables an artist to spend two weeks, all expenses paid, at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, a renowned artists’ retreat in Co. Monaghan, was established in memory of Dr Maurna Crozier who was a founding member of the Friends of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and a board member of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre.

“Maurna had a lifelong commitment to improving the cultural life of Northern Ireland, supporting aspiring artists and facilitating creativity, so we are delighted to award the bursary in her name to a local artist. We hope that Alison’s experience at the Tyrone Guthrie inspires more of her exciting work” said Millie Moore, Chair of the Friends of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery.

Alison Lowry is a glass artist living and working from her studio, ‘Schoolhouse Glass’ in Saintfield. She graduated from the University of Ulster in 2009 and has since won several international awards. She has exhibited in Europe, Asia and North America and her work is held in a number of public collections including the National Gallery of Ireland.

Alison creates challenging sculptural artworks from glass that reference Ireland’s rich textile heritage. Her current exhibition (A) Dressing Our Hidden Truths is an installation in the Decorative Arts & History Museum, Dublin, and is an artistic response to Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and industrial schools.

Dr Riann Coulter, Curator of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery said, ‘I am thrilled that the Friends have awarded the Maurna Crozier Bursary to such a talented and deserving local artist. Back in 2009, we included one of Alison’s first major art works – a stunning glass Christening gown – in the Designers & Maker’s exhibition. Since then, Alison’s career has gone from strength to strength and it has been a pleasure to see her receive the national and international recognition she deserves. At this difficult time, it is particularly important that we support our artists and creative people, many of whom are struggling’.

Penumbra

New exhibition shines a light on female artists

The F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council are delighted to present Penumbra, an exciting exhibition of contemporary painting on show at the Banbridge arts venue from 15 February – 30 May 2020.

Featuring the work of eight artists: Sinéad Aldridge, Hannah Casey-Brogan, Susan Connolly, Sarah Dwyer, Fiona Finnegan, Alison Pilkington, Yasmine Robinson, Louise Wallace, and co-curated by Dr Riann Coulter of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Dr Louise Wallace of Ulster University, Penumbra brings together artists who are connected by their gender, their associations with the island of Ireland and their commitment to testing the limits of painting.

Penumbra can be understood in relation to a number of historical and contemporary exhibitions of Irish female artists, including most recently, Elliptical Affinities: Irish Women Artists and the Politics of the Body 1984 to the Present, at our cross-border partner, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda. Like its predecessors, Penumbra, seeks to address the historical under-representation of women artists in museums and galleries and to shine a light on the wealth of talented contemporary female painters from Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The historical tendency for women artists to be overshadowed is particularly surprising in Ireland where pioneering female painters including Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, Mary Swanzy and Norah McGuinness, were at the forefront of the avant-garde who introduced international modernism to Irish audiences. Today, despite the majority of art students being female, women artists are still under-represented in both the collections and exhibition schedules of many museums and galleries.

Although the artists in Penumbra are united by their gender, their dedication to painting in its broadest sense and their varied connections to Ireland and Northern Ireland are also significant points of connection. Whether they live here, or elsewhere, each artist and their work has been shaped by their individual relationships to place. Ultimately, these artists share a commitment to exploring and expanding the definitions of painting and to engaging in the struggle to create work that is unique, relevant and meaningful.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Dr Cherie Driver, Ulster University.

A seminar on the themes explored in the exhibition will be held in the gallery on Friday 3 April 2020 from  1.00 -4.30pm.

Admission to the exhibition is free. For further information and opening times go to femcwilliam.com, www.facebook.com/femcwilliamgallery or T: 028 4062 3322.