“Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA) is delighted to be part of this generous initiative of the British Council.  This important exhibition will offer visitors an important overview of contemporary British painting by 15 British artists who all have a unique and diverse approach to their work.  Furthermore, I am honoured that LCGA is the only venue in Ireland to have this touring show and so it provides a rare opportunity for visitors to LCGA  to see work of this international standing”  Una McCarthy, Director of LCGA

This group exhibition of fifteen British artists demonstrates the richness and vigour of contemporary painting in the United Kingdom

British painting has a different look and feel in this century: a lighter touch, more conceptual, sometimes ironic and even funny. These paintings show traces of everyday reality and reflections on the age that we live in, whether we consider it to be a post-industrial or digital era or a period of religious, political, financial and social conflict.

The underlying theme of The Painting Show is influenced by Unlawful Assembly (2013), a book of crime fiction stories written by artists Lucy McKenzie and Alan Michael. In the foreword to this book, artist Ed Atkins and gallerist Martin McGeown propose that the plot structures of crime novels, designed to lead the reader on a journey that questions the stability of truth and fiction, mirror the subversive way in which certain painters manipulate their medium, its history and the audience’s understanding of it. The artists in this exhibition have different approaches to experimenting with painting: they play with the romanticism of the act of painting, wryly imitate historical styles and question the relationship between the artist, the subject and the viewer.

The Painting Show brings together new additions to the British Council Collection alongside generous loans, and is accompanied by a catalogue. The exhibition was curated by the British Council and was previously shown at CAC Vilnius in Lithuania in 2016.

The exhibition is part of Perspectives, a programme of art and literature that explores the cultural relationship between the UK and Ireland, 100 years on from the moment of the Easter Rising.

Audio guide
Blind or partially-sighted visitors can discover this exhibition by listening to a free audio guide on SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/artsbritishcouncil/sets/painting-show-audio-guide

Online links:   #ThePaintingShow   gallery.limerick.ie / @limerickgallery

www.britishcouncil.org/visualarts / @Brit_VisualArts  www.britishcouncil.ie / @ieBritish

The British Council’s Visual Arts is a dedicated team of specialists, committed to promoting the achievements of the UK’s best artists and institutions abroad. We connect the UK’s visual arts sector with professionals internationally, focusing predominantly on staging and supporting contemporary art projects in areas of the developing world.

The British Council Collection began in 1938 with a modest group of works on paper and has grown to more than 8,500 artworks, including paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, film and multimedia, by over 1,250 artists. The Collection promotes British artists and artists who have contributed to the development of British art, by purchasing their work at a significant stage in their careers and enabling it to reach a global audience. British Council’s Visual Arts team helps these objects to travel around the world as part of our international exhibitions. We loan works to museums and galleries in the UK and overseas, and we invite curators from around the world to engage with our collection, learn about how we manage it and select works to display in their home country.

For more information about the British Council contact: Mary Doherty, Senior Press Officer mary.doherty@britishcouncil.org