West Clare artist Carmel T Madigan has been invited to attend and feature in a premier international arts event in Florence in December alongside 800 other specially selected artists from 74 countries worldwide.

Carmel received the unexpected invitation from the internal selection committee of the Florence Biennale, inviting her to exhibit at Fortezza Da Basso in Florence. The premier international arts event encompasses specially selected who are all hand-picked and invited by a prestigious group of art curators, critics, professors and world-renowned artists who come together to form the internal selection committee.
Carmel, who comes from the Bridges of Ross in Kilbaha, is currently focused on creating the three works required for the exhibition and, with 12 pages of shipping instructions, it will be challenging to get everything right for the event, she says.
Her work encompasses a love of and affinity with nature and the natural environment and is expressionist in form and rotates between semi-realism and pure abstraction. She loves the sense of freedom that is generated in a natural, undisturbed landscape, be it in a vast open space or in confined areas like natural hedgerows.
Having grown up less than 60 metres from the Atlantic Ocean, which she visits regularly, the winds, storms, the vigorous ocean and sculptural rock formations always find a way into her paintings. She likes to present the ocean in all its powerful rawness and not in any sort of romantic prettiness. At present, Carmel works mainly from her studio near Barefield in Ennis.
She is extremely excited to be invited to the city known as the birthplace of the Renaissance movement and Leonardo Da Vinci.
As if by coincidence, Carmel explained that she visited the grave of Da Vinci this summer, at Amboise, France. This is where he spent the last three years of his life, doing town planning for the then king of France, Francois I, at Le Clos Luce, a magnificent mansion bestowed on him by the king.
“To get so close to a genius, dead or alive, sends waves of inspiration through the veins,” Carmel said.
Although she has been immersed in painting and creativity from a very young age, she began to produce work professionally about 12 years ago. She graduated from the University of Limerick with an honours degree in business and finance and worked with a number of American multinational companies, most notably, Tellabs Ltd in Shannon, where she held positions in international financial management and reporting. She travelled extensively with her work but “chucked it all in” when computers became user-friendly with the introduction of the Windows Operating System.
From then on, Carmel wanted to create using computer design packages and set about creating her own graphic design agency, which she successfully ran for more than six years. However, she felt the scope of creativity required did not match the artistic process that challenges her mind processes.
The seventh Biennale Internazionale della Arte Contemporanea of Florence will be held from December 5 to 13 in the Fortezza da Basso. Carmel and other participants will have the chance to meet with honorary guests Marina Abramovic, world-acclaimed performance artist, and Shu Yong, a prominent Chinese artist. The event is sponsored by the United Nations under its programme Dialogue between Civilizations and by the president of the Italian Republic.
Carmel has exhibited widely throughout Ireland, and also at Sala Barna, Barcelona. Her works are collected by private collectors internationally and also by corporate bodies.
For more information about Carmel, her work and upcoming exhibitions including her upcoming solo exhibition Gardens in the Wandering Wild at Dromoland Castle in November, visit www.carmelmadigangallery.com.