Mary-Ruth Walsh

  Biography

Dublin born, Mary-Ruth Walsh graduated from Goldsmiths College London (MA) and the National College of Art and Design (BA) Dublin. Walsh has participated in national and international exhibitions and the Artist’s Residency Programme in the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) Dublin; RHAs experimental drawing studio (Dublin); Aabenraa Artweek (Denmark) and Basekamp (Philadelphia). Mary-Ruth Walsh’s work is in the collection of Trinity College Dublin and private collections.

'My practice explores buildings from frenetic shopping centers to the desolate loneliness of empty spaces and how architecture affects the way we move and behave in the urban environment. I also see architecture as part of our identity. These explorations are realised in drawing, painting, film-making, sculpture-installation, critical writing and occasionally performance'.

Walsh’s solo and group exhibitions include IMMA (Dublin); Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane (Dublin); RHA (Dublin); CUBEOpen (Manchester); Oonagh Young Gallery (Dublin); Highlanes Gallery (Drogheda); Parlour (New York and Italy); Arts Centres (Wexford and Galway); Cross Gallery (Dublin); Goethe Institute (Dublin) and SCOPE (Miami). Awards include Create Ireland research bursary, Arts Council of Ireland’s Project, Travel Awards and most recently Visual Arts Bursary Award. She is co-founder of Drawing de-Centered https://www.drawingdecentered.com/

Her public work extends beyond the gallery space and is both permanent and temporary.

CV

2003-2004 MA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. Exhibition and Studio Practice (1.1 Hons)

1997-2001 BA (Hons) Fine Art & Art History, National College of Art and Design, Dublin (Thesis 1.1 with award)

Awards & Residencies

2024 Zeitgeist-Ireland 2024 with Drawing deCentered, residency and exhibition.

2022-23 Leitrim Sculpture Centre, residency and exhibition

2022  Centre Culture Irlandais, Paris Residency.

2022  Agility Award, Arts Council of Ireland.

2020-21  Arts Council of Ireland Touring Award to Wexford Arts Centre, Highlanes Drogheda and Limerick City Gallery

2020 Cow House Studios Residency, Co Wexford Ireland

2019 ArtL!nks Bursary Award, Wexford County Council.

2018 Cultural Ireland Award

2016-7 Arts Council of Ireland, Bursary Award.

2016 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. Drawing Studio Award.

2016 Callen Workhouse Union, Callen Co. Kilkenny, mini-residency.

2015 Aabenraa Artweek residency award, Denmark.

2013 Create Ireland, National Development agency for Collaborative Arts research award with the Men’s Shed, New Ross

2013 Artlinks Mentoring Award with Fiona Kearney, Glucksman Gallery.

2011 Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) Dublin, Artists Residency Programme, studio award.

2011 Arts Council of Ireland, Visual Art Project Award.

2009 Studio Residency, Basekamp, Philadelphia, America.

2009 Arts Council of Ireland, Air Travel Award.

2008 Arts Council of Ireland, Air Travel Award.

2008 Wexford County Council Art Collection, juried selection.

2006 Visual Artists Ireland, Media Residency Award, Exercises in Folkatronica.

2005 Arts Council Travel Award to Camden Arts Centre research for Wexford Arts Centre.

2004 Goldsmith’s College London, Alsop Building Award, shortlisted+prize.

2004 Wexford County Council, Visual Art Bursary for Post Graduate studies

2004 Iontas Award, Sligo Art Gallery, Ire.

2001 Arts Council of Ireland, Air Travel Award (New York) 2001 National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Thesis Award.

Solo Exhibitions

2020-21 SKIN DEEP Arts Council of Ireland Touring Award, solo exhibition touring to Wexford Arts Centre, Highlanes Drogheda and Limerick City Gallery. This exhibition was accompanied by an award winning book with essays by Dr. Yvonne Scott and Katherine Waugh. The limited edition, hand-made book was by foldedleaf.ie

2019 Gröelle Pass Projects, Germany, March - April http://www.groelle.de/raum2-exhibitions.php?p=267

2019 Sirius Art Centre, Cobh, solo exhibition commissioned as part of the One, Here, Now project. Curator Miranda Driscoll, special funding award. http://www.siriusartscentre.ie/visual-art/mary-ruth-walsh

2015 Cross Gallery, Dublin. Irish Times review, Aidan Dunne. A Slow Stillness unfolding is ‘essentially part of an ongoing, multifaceted project, it’s a modest show…but beautifully done and packed with ideas’

2013 Irish Museum of Modern Art, Eileen Gray Retrospective, artist’s response and film by Mary-Ruth Walsh

2012 Cross Gallery, Dublin, Nonuments to a New International.

2011 Ever dream of owning a house in Dublin? St. Patrick’s Close Development presents…Real E-State built an estate of houses while circumnavigating planning permission. A performance-installation, supported by the Arts Council and Irish Museum of Modern Art, see below ‘Public Work: Temporary’ for details.

2011 Galway Arts Centre, Ireland, Strangely Familiar Shades of Gray, sculptures, drawings and film response to architect Eileen Gray.

2011 Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Drawing Out Gray Areas, Process Room.

2010 Garter Lane Gallery, Waterford, Nonuments to the Third International.

2007 Wexford Arts Centre, Still Life, commissioned exhibition and panel discussion with chair Gemma Tipton. Circa 122 review.

2006 Sligo Art Gallery, Ireland, White Goods 3.

2004 Goethe Institute, Dublin, White Goods 1 (catalogue)

Selected Exhibitions

2024 Drawing Box International, an exhibition of A0 scaled drawings by 59 artists, November, Leitrim Sculpture Centre in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, Ireland, curated by Diane Henshaw

2024 WALSH / FEUCHT, Duo-show with Mary-Ruth Walsh/Ireland and Sibylle Feucht/Germany at space-o/Düsseldorf, curated by Kai Richter/Dusseldorf. The duo-show is part of Kunstpunkte Düsseldorf/GER. Guided Tour through the exhibition with Beatrice Richter.

2024 ATMOSPHERES II, Das Esszimmer, Bonn, Ger, residency and exhibition. Publication created and designed by Das Esszimmer. Photographs by Das Esszimmer.

2023 ATMOSPHERES I, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, residency and exhibition. Zine created and designed by Drawing deCentered (DdC), essay by Sean O’Reilly, published by DdC. Photographs by Eugene Langan

2022 Beyond Drawing II, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, an international drawing exhibition curated by Arno Kramer. Catalogue forthcoming with essay by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Leith, designed by Oonagh Young, produced by Drawing deCentered. Photographs by Jed Niezgoda.

2022 Re:Group is an independent, artist-led collaboration which has grown out of Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre’s Coffee Meet Ups. This initiative is an Uillinn online international discussion platform, started during lockdown. The artists met in June and July to make and perform work. My exhibited work was in document form, from the Real E-State project.

2020 Drawing de-Centred Courthouse Gallery Ennistymon Co Clare Ireland, open for Cultural Night

2020 (Un)Known Borders with Anne Lildholdt Jensen, Denmark

2020 BEYOND DRAWING Ballina Arts Centre, Mayo Ireland. Curator Arno Kramer

2020 Solas Nua Washington DC Film Screening during lockdown

2019 HERE / there: Wexford meets Wuppertal, a group exhibition of artists working in Ireland and Germany. Curated by Anya von Gosseln and Jürgen Grölle supported by Wexford County Council, Wexford Arts Centre, Kamera8 and Grölle Pass projects Germany.

2018 Solas Nua / Dupont Underground Exhibition March 2018, Washington DC

2018 Drawing de-Centred, Eustace Street Studios, Dublin.

2018 Listening to Aspen, Sirius Arts Centre, curated by Eamonn Maxwell

2018 Still Life in the Contemporary World, Wexford Arts Centre see Aidan Dunne review

2018 Yes to the 8th poster, part of online campaign for Repeal The 8th

2017 Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Culture Night, curated by Stephen Mulhall

2017 Butler Gallery National Drawing Day – Workshop with Drawing Machines

2017 About the House Blue Egg Gallery, Wexford

2016 Open Studio-A Conversation on Drawing Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Dublin. Curated 45 plus artist for the international group exhibition of experimental drawing and performance

2016 Annual Exhibition Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Dublin

2015 Aabenraa Artweek exhibition, Denmark

2014-5 Phoenix Rising: Art and Civic Imagination Dublin City Gallery-The Hugh Lane, curated by Logan Sisley

2013 bagga khans A4art Gallery, Thomas Street, Dublin

2013 Beyond the Frontier artist’s films screened in 19-20th century shop windows curated by Deirdre Southey and supported by Wexford County Council

2013 Newtownbarry House, curator Anya von Gosseln, After & Since. An international tribute exhibition to Eileen Gray.

2013 Port of Waterford Building, Making a Mark, artist’s notebook exhibition.

2012 SCOPE, Miami, Cross Gallery

2011 Centre for the Urban Built Environment, Manchester, CUBEOpen 2011

2011 Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda Arts Festival and Wexford Arts Centre - a UK-Irish touring exhibition, Utopia Ltd. with Brendan Earley, Blaise Drummond, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, David Mabb, Lizzie Sanches, MR Walsh. Co-curators David Mabb and MR Walsh.

2011 The Architectural Association of Ireland, an online project, Building Material

2011 Cross Gallery, Pencil to the Plough with John Beattie, Miriam de Burca, Ian Charlesworth, Felicity Clear, Elizabeth Ellis, Clodagh Emoe, Brian Fay, Joanna Kidney, Marco, Jane Proctor, Tom Ryan PPRHA, Marcel Vidal, Mary-Ruth Walsh and Michael Wann.

2011 SOMA Contemporary, Waterford, Three Colours Blue, curated by Rachael Corcoran

2011 Cross Gallery (coinciding with Dublin Contemporary) Airport for Shadows

2010 Centre for the Urban Built Environment, Manchester, CUBEOpen 2010 www.cube.org.uk

2010 Parlour No.19, Siena, Italy, PAR AVION www.parlourdoor.com

2010 Guild Art Gallery, New York, Structures Within An Intervention.

2010 126 Gallery, Galway and curator-artist Aideen Barry, An Artists Impression: A Curated Publication for the Dock Discourse.

2010 Visual, Carlow, Éigse Retrospective.

2009 parlour, New York City, when all through the house, a nomadic exhibition space,

2009 126, Galway, The 2nd Annual 126 Members' Show.

2008 Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin, Twosome Twiminds, inaugural opening with Shane Bradford (UK), Kris Emmerson (UK) and Mary-Ruth Walsh (Ireland)

2008 Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin, MARK drawings & multiple: Shane Bradford, Kris Emmerson, Amanda Coogan, Damien Flood, Ida Mitrani, Clive Murphy, Caroline McCambridge, Mary-Ruth Walsh

2008 Visual Artists Ireland, The Sugar Club, Dublin, Folkatronica.

2008 Wexford Arts Centre, 24-hour non-stop-art; Arts Council of Ireland Touring Experiment.

2008 Waterford Regional Hospital, Healing Arts Trust.

2007 Wexford Arts Centre, curator Aileen Lambert, Seconds : Multiples.

2006 Invited Éigse, Carlow, Utopias, curator Cliodhna Shaffrey (catalogue) and Irish Times review by Aidan Dunne, ‘Imagining Utopia in Carlow’, 14 June: “The business of constructing Utopias is as much mental as physical, and Mary-Ruth Walsh’s ’White Goods’ is group of works that ingeniously combine categories of objects usually kept separate to produce something ambiguous and provocative…in her video, sculptures and photographs. Walsh’s considerable achievement is to have devised and made objects and images that engender rather than illustrate. ‘White Goods’ is one of the highlights of Eigse”. Also Can’t See That? Catch This, Utopia, Irish Times Magazine Art Listings, 29 April 2006)

2005 Sligo Art Gallery, White Goods 2, Iontas Award Exhibition, (catalogue).

2005 Sligo Art Gallery, Iontas.

2005 Waterford, exhibition for Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre, Grace, (catalogue)

2004 Goldsmith’s College, London, UK. MA Show

2004 Goldsmith’s College, London, MA curator’s-on-going-show.

2004 Farringdon, London, Icescream.

2003 OLS&Co Gallery, Mountgrove Rd., London, nth art, international group show.

2003 Limerick & Sligo Art Gallery, Iontas, a national competition touring Northern Ireland, Limerick and Sligo.

2002 dedalus, curator by Pádraig Timoney, Context Gallery, Derry, toured North Ireland.

2001 Southampton College, New York, Box 2001 by Brian O’Doherty / Patrick Ireland & A Labyrinth in a Box: Aspen 5+6 by Mary-Ruth Walsh.

2001 National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Degree Show (catalogue)

2000 Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin, Odyssey (coordinated 64-tudent show with catalogue)

1999 Vicar St. Dublin, Sensationless.

1998 RHA Gallagher Gallery, Ely Place, Dublin, Absolute Secret.

Public Work: Permanent and Temporary

2015 Guerilla Architecture, Aabenraa Artweek exhibition, Denmark.

2011 Ever dream of owing a house in Dublin? St. Patrick’s Close Development presents…Real E-State an estate of town houses without planning permission. A performance-installation, supported by the Arts Council and IMMA. An estate of houses was constructed adjacent to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in St.Patrick’s Close, where Johathan Swift walked daily. The houses were valued by a registered auctioneer and sold to the general public. The sale was officiated by a solicitor, all this was conducted from the Real E-State offices in St.Patrick’s Close.

2000-2010 A Modest Proposal 1, a permanent small blue house at the National Archives Office, Dublin 8, it’s just below the size requiring planning permission.

Curating / Workshop Projects

2019 Irish Architectural Foundation (IAF) children’s workshop based on architect Marion Mahony Griffin who saw the importance of situating her work in the natural world, and drew nature with a beautiful, distinctive style. This children’s workshop which explores the importance of drawing and nature in architecture, is inspired by Marion Mahony Griffin’s work and teachings.

2018 Irish Architectural Foundation (IAF) Collective Takeover, http://architecturefoundation.ie/event/iaf-collective-takeover-exhibition/ with architect Stephen Miulhall of http://nineteeneighty.ie/

2018 Wexford County Council commissioned curating of Creative Hub, artists studios.

2018 New Ross Architectural inspired online font with Bunscoil Rís, artist Elida Maquise, Wexford Co Co and New Ross Municipal District, a follow on project from Can We Draw You Out?. Font title New Ross Regular for communication and inclusiveness of different nationalities to be launched online as part of Kennedy Summer School 2018 http://www.kennedysummerschool.ie/

2017 Can We Draw You Out? Commissioned by Wexford County Council Arts Office Liz Burns. Coordinated 3 artists to respond to the architecture of New Ross through a week long project exploring diverse drawing practices beyond the gallery space.

2016 Conversation on Drawing, Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Dublin; organised group of 45 artist exhibiting works related to drawing in it’s widest interpretation. https://vimeo.com/182318454

2011 Utopia Ltd, Irish & UK artists group exhibition co-curating with David Mabb.

2004 MA Show, Goldsmiths College, London, UK. MA student representative and co-organiser with team of 4. Financed, designed, distributed catalogue, web site, refreshments etc. Attendance: 5,000

2000 Odyssey, group exhibition, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin, coordinated & co-curated exhibition of 64 fellow student’s work (catalogue)

Reviews/Articles/Catalogue Essays

2018 Irish Times, Aidan Dunne; Four essential visual art exhibitions to see in Ireland this week https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/four-essential-visual-art-exhibitions-to-see-in-ireland-this-week-1.3536086

2016 Royal Hibernian Academy magazine, http://www.rhagallery.ie/school/rha-drawing-studio/

2015 Irish Times, Aidan Dunne; A Slow Stillness unfolding. http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/gothic-fantasy-headless-horses-and-chilly-vistas-visual-art-round-up-1.2348797

2012 McCann, Brenda, A Century of Memories, Muckross Park Past Pupils

2011 Waugh, Katherine, ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ St. Patrick’s Close, Real E-State, essay commissioned by IMMA & supported by the Arts Council of Ireland

2011 The Irish Times Property Section; ‘It’s only a paper house…’ 13 October, 2011.

2011 The Irish Times Weekend Review, Gemma Tipton, ‘And Now Back to the Studio’, Saturday 22 October.

2011 Dnote; Strangely Familiar Shades of Gray http://www.dnote.info/dnotes/mary-ruth-walsh-strangely-familiar-shades-of-gray/

2011 The Phoenix, State of the Arts, 6 May

2011 Paper Visual Art Journal, Utopia Ltd, Kitty Rogers, 29 July

2011 Highlanes Gallery Drogheda catalogue, Utopia Ltd.

2011 Irish Times Magazine Art Listings, Can’t See That? Catch This, Utopia Ltd p25 Dunne, Aidan, 29 April

2011 Irish Arts Review, Curator’s Choice, Marianne O'Kane Boal, Dec 2011- Feb 2012

2007 Tipton, Gemma, Circa Magazine p 72-3. Volume 122

2007 ‘New Take on Still Life’, Irish Arts Review, Summer 2007

2006 Dunne, Aidan, ‘Imagining Utopia in Carlow’, The Irish Times, 14 June http://www.maryruthwalsh.com/ITReview.htm

2005 Phelan, Alan, ‘Exhibiting in Dublin, Closed Shop, Open Door or Back Alley?’

2005 Bennett, Rosie, ‘White Goods and White Goods 2’, Circa, May, http://www.recirca.com/reviews/2005/maryruthwalsh/mrw.shtml

2005 Bennett, Rosie, Goethe Institution & Sligo Art Gallery catalogue

2004 Joyce in Art, The Lilliput Press Ltd, Ireland, Dr. Christa Maria Lerm Hayes

2000-present Catalogues, various

Published Writings

2020 Unfolding Aspen 5+6, image and text from a performance by Katherine Waugh and Mary-Ruth Walsh previously presentation in Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2013 (forthcoming).

2019 Sirius Arts Centre essay on composer Ann Cleare’s commissioned work ‘A Sonic Theatre - ONE HERE NOW’ (forthcoming).

2017 Brian O'Doherty / Patrick Ireland: Word, Image and Institutional Critique. Editor Prof Dr Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes. Valiz, Amsterdam. Walsh’s essay: ‘Plato’s Cave and The Five Senses of the Bishop of Cloyne’.

2014-5 Phoenix Rising: Art and Civic Imagination Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Issue 4, December 2014. Curated by Logan Sisley.

2013 O’Doherty Un-Freezes a Beating Heart, Visual Artists Ireland, March-April

2013 Body Conscious; essay on a year long programme of 3 exhibitions for Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT)

2012 ‘Estate of Mind’: Walsh Discusses Her Conceptual Installation/Performance, ‘Real E-State’, Visual Artists Ireland, Jan-Feb http://visualartists.ie/articles/van-januaryfebruary-2012-estate-of-mind/

2011 Hints of the Outside World, a SOMA & IMMA publication coinciding with the exhibition in SOMA Contemporary Box, Waterford, curated by Paul Hallahan

2009 How is it Made? Interview with Fergus Byrne, Visual Artists Ireland.

2009 Dance Ireland, ‘re-representation of the body: from observations of Fergus Byrne in his studio’, January issue,

2007 Exercises in Folkatronica, Visual Artists Ireland, March issue

2006 The Irish Times, ‘Wonder Walls’, by Gemma Tipton; photographs of Patrick Ireland’s Cassa Dipinta by Mary-Ruth Walsh.

2006 Brian O’Doherty / Patrick Ireland: A Retrospective; catalogue essay for inaugural exhibition, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

2005 Special theme - Art Work, Context: Volume 4 Issue.2. Editor Gemma Tipton

2003 A labyrinth in a Box: Aspen 5+6, Special Theme: Word and Image. CIRCA, issue 104. Guest editor Dr. Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes.

2003 Ab Initio Diploma in Fine Art, document for Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC), Dept. of Education and Science, Wexford & Carlow Institutes of Technology.

2002 A Labyrinth in a Box; Aspen 5+6: Thoughtlines 6, Editor Dr. Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes. Publisher: The National College of Art & Design, Dublin

Seminars, Panels, Public Talks and Work Experience

2006 – present. Lecturing, part-time in studio, critical art debates and art history in the Visual Arts Department of Creative and Performing Arts, Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford.

2019, Cork Centre for Architectural Education, presented my new research and work to MA architectural students.

2018, Trinity College Dublin presented my practice to TRIARC, the Irish Art research Centre https://www.tcd.ie/History_of_Art/research/centres/triarc/ invited by Dr. Yvonne Scott.

2018, KAMERA8 opened Alen MacWeeney’s exhibition ‘The Country of Yeats’ https://kamera8.com/ Wexford

2016, UCD, Prof. Hugh Campbell, invitation to develop and deliver a workshop to undergraduate Architecture students.

2016, Bealtaine Festival, Cow House Studios and Wexford Arts Centre, chair for panel discussion with 3 invited artists.

2015, Undergraduate Awards, Judge for Visual Art, one of the world’s largest academic award programmes. http://www.undergraduateawards.com/

2013, Whitechapel Gallery, London, ‘Unfolding Aspen 5+6’ a presentation/performance by Katherine Waugh and Mary-Ruth Walsh.

2011, National College of Art & Design http://archive-ie.com/page/140246/2012-07-17/http://news.ncad.ie/?p=493

http://archive-ie.com/ie/n/ncad.ie/2012-07-17_140246_5/NCAD_News_8212_Simon_Critchley_on_Faith_of_the_Faithless/

2011, Irish Museum of Modern Art, presentation and dioscussion on Real E-State with Katherine Waugh and Mary-Ruth Walsh https://twitter.com/IMMAIreland/status/123764334638800896

2009, Cow House Studios, Wexford, presenting work to students http://www.cowhousestudios.com/index.html

2007, CREATE, Dublin http://www.create-ireland.ie/events-2007/suburbs-and-cities-2-artists-responses-to-changing-urban-landscapes.html

2006, Trinity College Dublin / Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane new gallery inaugural opening for the exhibition ‘'Brian O’Doherty / Patrick Ireland: A Retrospective’.

Interests

·       Drawing and Architecture.

·       Film and photography

·       Interested in current art practice and debates.

·       Initiate student-led education in teaching.

·       Student representative, Goldsmiths & National College of Art and Design.

·       Enjoy team and solo work, when not gardening, cooking, running or cycling...

Professional Bodies

Current:

VAI, Board Member since 2017.

Arts Council of Ireland, member of Peer Panel 2018.

Previous:

Wexford Arts Centre, Board member, chair of the Visual Arts Committee http://www.wexfordartscentre.ie/board.html

GOMA Gallery, Waterford, Board member http://www.somacontemporary.com/

Membership:

Visual Artists Ireland (VAI), http://visualartists.ie/

Create, Ireland, http://www.create-ireland.ie/

Irish Architecture Foundation, http://www.architecturefoundation.ie/

 CONTACT: maryruthodw(@)gmail.com