Defining an Arena

Defining an Arena

LUCY AND ROBERT CARTER OUTLINE THE RATIONALE AND AMBITIONS OF THE GRILSE GALLERY.

THE GRILSE GALLERY opened in Killorglin in May 2022 as a screen-printing studio and gallery focused on contemporary prints and drawings. We decided to exhibit contemporary prints and drawings because we are printmakers ourselves, to differentiate the gallery, and because prints and drawings tend to be modestly priced, which makes them accessible to a wide public.

‘Grilse’ (pronounced ‘grils’) is the term for a oneyear-old salmon returning to its home river, which seemed appropriate for a gallery on the banks of the River Laune, in Lucy’s family’s hometown.

Our inaugural exhibition was ‘Between the Lines’(15 May to 17 July 2022), an installation of 100 rarely seen drawings spanning 20 years by Charles Tyrrell, an Irish painter of some renown and a member of Aosdána (as well as being an old friend), which lent us a high benchmark in establishing our credibility.

Most of the work was displayed unframed, many resting on shelves, giving an unusual immediacy and intimacy to the hang. Being primarily a painter, Charlie considers the drawings, although ‘finished’, as not necessarily ends in themselves, but ‘private conversations’ with himself, stating: “They inform me, feed me, and indirectly influence my paint thinking. While I do draw towards the paintings, it is drawing of a different kind. Plotting and planning, defining an arena in which I see possibilities for building with paint. This drawing can be strategic and pragmatic. A step on the way. Rarely seen as an end.”

The show ran from May to July, overlapping with Killorglin’s remarkable K-Fest, a weekend arts festival with an emphasis on emerging artists, using unoccupied spaces as pop-up galleries and venues. ‘Between the Lines’ was opened by Kate Kennelly, County Kerry’s

Arts Officer who warmly welcomed the establishment of a new independent gallery in the region. Her opening remarks reminded us of the scarcity of contemporary art galleries in Kerry, public or private, despite the large number of artists working in the county.

In between shows by invited artists, we screen-print and display our own work. In our previous careers as graphic designers, we have always been collaborators in the arts sector, working with our clients, fellow artists, and makers. We find this the most rewarding aspect of creative work, however satisfying the end result. We collaborated with Charlie on a screen-printed edition of one of his drawings. We have the beginnings of a saleroom with Fermoyle Pottery, displaying selected pieces and artist’s books by Lisa Fingleton and Jenny Richardson.

From October to the end of November, we showed Debbie Godsell’s ‘Residues’, an exhibition of beautiful unique screen-prints relating to the harvest, farm gates, turf reeks, and other distinctive rural elements, which she documented during solitary walks over the past two years. These are seen in the context of an Ireland that is slowly, reluctantly, stepping into the modern age. The sculptural piece, Thresh (2022), combines a 40-metre screen-print, circulating in a continuous loop around a wooden structure, reminding one variously of a printing press, agricultural machinery, and domestic processes.

Her show was opened by Aileen Galvin, one of Ireland’s most experienced arts consultants, having devised and managed campaigns for arts, culture and heritage, festivals and entertainments. She, again, warmly welcomed the addition of Grilse Gallery to the sector and gave a heartfelt call for supporting the arts in local communities.

We are planning to offer residencies to experienced screen printers, to invite guest curators to develop our repertoire, and to host community events. We have been welcomed by the town, which has a thriving culture of music, literature and drama, and by the visual arts community in Kerry. We are excited by the prospect of developing a wider network of friends, collaborators, and supporters.

December saw us staging a Winter Group Show featuring 20 established and emerging Irish artists working in a wide variety of media including embroidery, etching, and screen-printing, drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. The exhibiting artists included Miriam Barry, Regina Bartsch, Paul Bokslag, Cormac Boydell, Edwina Bracken, Fermoyle Pottery, Debbie Godsell, Patrick Groneman, Con Kelleher, Denis Kelly, Rochelle Lucey, Sean MacCarthy, Ava McKenna, Deirdre McKenna, Niall Naessens, Ciara O’Connor, Alan Raggett, Eddie Ryan and Charles Tyrrell. Half of these are Kerry-based, and the gender ratio was equal. The show was introduced by Eamonn Maxwell, advisor to the Arts Council of Ireland.

Plans for 2023 include a two-person exhibition of work by Rachel Parry and Cormac Boydell at Easter; and later in the year, exhibitions of work by visual artist and designer Paul Bokslag, Aisling Roche, Niall Naessens, and by the late British artist, Gerald Laing.

Lucy and Robert Carter are codirectors of the Grilse Gallery in Killorglin, County Kerry. grilse.ie @grilsegallery

‘Between the Lines: 100 drawings by Charles Tyrrell’, installation view, Grilse Gallery, May 2022; photograph by Con Kelleher courtesy the artist and Grilse Gallery.

Niall Naessens, Artist Observing Sunrise 2018, etching aquatint on Zerkall 350g, 33 x 33 cm; photograph by Max Gay courtesy the artist and Grilse Gallery.