The walls wept a warm magenta hue at Highlanes Gallery as artist Ursula Burke opened her major solo exhibition SIREN there on Saturday.
Ursula’s work incorporates sculpture, ceramics, textile works and mosaic sculpture in a compelling combination of surrealist soft sculpture which considers carefully and powerfully the gallery’s original function as a church, from its unique architectural columns and stained glass windows.
The exhibition opened with a gallery talk between the artist and Dawn Williams a curator at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, and with a great attendance from near and far, with former teachers Moira Ni Mhaoláin and friends intrigued by the processes that Ursula discussed, and artist/facilitators, Caoimhe O’Dwyer and Jenny Slater mesmerised by the immense skill in her work, and members of Highlanes Gallery’s Youth Panel and Young Person-Teen Panel – Diarmuid Woodcock, Caoimhe Murphy and Annie Conaghy discussing the interesting influence that art history holds for Ursula.
Other attendees included art historian Brenda Moore McCann, Curator of Trinity College Collection, Catherine Giltrap, and artists Fiona Ni Mhaolair and Jennifer Trouton, who travelled from Belfast, and Conor Horgan who travelled from Dublin, and exhibition partner, Anna O’Sullivan, Director of the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, where Highlanes Gallery will tour the exhibition to in Spring 2025, ahead of its further tour to Wexford Arts Centre, and finally to Rome, Italy.
Ursula Burke’s work explores insecurity in the social realm, power relations in the political arena and post-conflict histories relative to Northern Ireland.
Highlanes Gallery Director, Aoife Ruane, commended Ursula on her ambitious ideas and commitment to imagine such a challenging and sensational exhibition, and congratulated the expert gallery team in the realising of so much of the built elements of the exhibition, including Stephen Hodgins, Gallery Manager, Simon Elliott and Bertie Hetherington.
Siren continues until Saturday 15th June, and Ursula Burke will deliver a much anticipated Evening Masterclass on Wednesday 15th May from 7.30pm-9pm.
Highlanes Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10.30am-5pm, and entry is Free.
