With a focus on the years between 1976 and the present, Artists’ Studios in Henrietta Street celebrates the creative heritage of one of Dublin’s finest Georgian streets. Over the past half century, many painters, printmakers and sculptors have lived or worked in this inner city street. However, featuring work by fifteen artists, the exhibition is a selection rather than a comprehensive survey, providing an insight into the creative process while highlighting the role these magnificent houses have played in providing studio space and period settings. With several houses now undergoing long-awaited renovation, the role of Henrietta Street as a haven for artists is likely coming to an end, underlying the crisis of studio provision for artists in Dublin’s inner city.
The exhibition includes works by artists Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Eithne Jordan, Geraldine O’Neill, Alice Hanratty, Paul Nugent, Diana Copperwhite, Gwen O’Dowd, Mick O’Dea, Michael Cullen, Fergus Martin, Daniel McKeon, Louise Peat, John Kelly and Charles Cullen. Also included are photographs by Anna Rackard, David Davison and Perry Ogden. Artists' Studios in Henrietta Street 1976-2026 is co-curated by Francesca and Peter Murray.
Several of the artists have used the street as a setting for their work, as with Mick O’Dea's paintings of the interiors and exteriors of No. 5 and 6, where he has maintained a studio for over forty years. The photographer Perry Ogden who has a studio in the basement of No. 5, and photographer Anna Rackard has also recorded several of the houses on Henrietta Street over the years.
Photographs from the Irish Architectural Archive, together with artists’ interiors of the buildings, will help to explain the importance of Henrietta Street, in its early years, during its tenement history, and into the period of restoration and renewal which the street is experiencing today.
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