Outriders show in Lisdoon

North Clare artists Fiona O’Dwyer and Fiona Woods will exhibit in the Town Hall Pavillion, Lisdoonvarna, as part of the curated show by Clare artist Maria Kerin, entitled Outrider Artists.

The exhibition is being held as part of the Merriman Summer School and explores this year’s theme Thriving at the Crossroads: Rural Ireland in a Globalised World.

The show, which features drawings, photo-works, prints and sculpture by both artists will be open to the public over lunch at the Town Hall Pavillion from Thursday until Sunday during the Merriman Summer School.

Both artists and the curator of this exhibition, Maria Kerin, are part of Outrider Artists of which there are seven, all living in North Clare. Since 2009, they are interested in friendship as praxis, theory and practice that has evolved from being located in the rural for over two decades.

The location of the West of Ireland has shaped, informed and offered alternative working methods and inspired them to create a new model of working together, to engage trans-locally, through friendship, in the form of episodes. Their website outriderpress.wix.com/outriders, outlines these episodes.

Outrider artists have a legacy of founding artist-led initiatives in North Clare over the past two decades: The Courthouse Studios, Ennistymon, Mrua Gallery, Bellharbour, Trading Spaces, Ennistymon, Ground Up and Ground Up Collective. Their work is thriving, as they have embraced living on the coastal edge of Ireland and specific synergy of the rural into their art.

Supported by Clare Arts Office they have created 18 episodes and this year alone, they have hosted artists from Kildare, London and Estonia and Outrider artists have made art in Estonia and Lithuania. More exhibitions are planned to take place in Estonia at the end of the year.