Last of the Visioners – a new exhibition at The Model Sligo

There’s a new exhibition coming to The Model, Sligo. The Last of the Visioners opens on Friday
21st of July and running until Friday 8th September

Featuring:
Kevin Jerome Everson / Grace Henry / Paul Henry / Sean Keating / Maurice Macgonigal / Emily
Mcfarland / Kent Monkman / Vukašin Nedeljković/ William Orpen / Nano Reid / George William Russell
/ Tuqa Al Sarraj / Mary Swanzy / Steven Yazzie / Jack B. Yeats
Curated by Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty

Taking the modern Irish painting canon as a popular imaginary for a rapidly changing new republic, Last of the Visioners considers how early 20th century representations of Ireland have come to shape our national and diasporic consciousness. Here, key romantic works by artists who were active during Ireland’s revolutionary period, and formative early years of the Free State, are exhibited alongside contemporary works made in North American and Ireland. Documentary-style media by artists Kevin Jerome Everson, Vukašin Nedeljković, Emily McFarland, Tuqa Al Sarraj, Kent Monkman and Steven Yazzie commune with the visionary paintings of Sean Keating, Grace Henry, George William Russell and Jack B. Yeats, amongst others.

Last of the Visioners presents these selected paintings from The Niland Collection and the collection of
Limerick City Gallery of Art as a ‘promise’ to a burgeoning nation, and gives prominence to more recent
depictions of the ecological realities, partisan violence and enduring colonial gaze that have affected western landscapes in the ensuing years. Displayed through a nonchronological framework, works from the past two decades will give a sense of the present intruding upon, and informing, the past, including a range of alternative perspectives to unsettle the bucolic visions of yesterday. This exhibition tells a story of the Irish that acknowledges our struggles, admits our complicities and builds our capacity for solidarity.

A specially written text by the curators accompanies the exhibition and is available at on themodel.ie or from their reception desk.