The Commissioner for the Irish Pavilion in 2015 is Mike Fitzpatrick, Director of Limerick’s European Capital of Culture 2020 bid and Head of School, Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT. The Curator is Woodrow Kernohan, Director of EVA International - Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City.

Announcing the details in Alliance Francaise of Ireland’s representation, Culture Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said: “Culture Ireland supports some 300 events throughout the year across the globe. The Venice Biennale is the largest of these and year on year the visitor numbers are increasing. This exhibition provides an unrivalled opportunity for the international art community to engage with Irish contemporary art practice and for Irish artists to showcase their work on an international stage.”

Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick described Sean Lynch’s work “…as a transcendental journey through history and myth, from the Gobán Saor to castaway minimalist sculpture. Lynch’s ethnographic methodology playfully challenges hegemonic structures and entwined flows of capital, migration, and forms a exceptionally unique form of complex narrative mediated through film and object.”

Curator Woodrow Kernohan added: “It is very significant that the Irish Pavilion will be located in the Arsenale main venue this year, as it means that it will seen by everyone who comes to the Biennale. Visitors to Adventure: Capital will be taken on a circular journey by the figure of a wandering stone-carver—starting at a quarry in Cornwall, travelling through the financial heart of London, via regional airports, to a field in Cork and culminating at a roundabout in Wexford. Adventure: Capital tells an alternative history composed of overlooked fragments, hearsay and rumour.”

Since 2005 the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Arts Council have partnered on supporting Ireland’s representation at Venice given the importance of the Biennale for artists’ development and for curators to work in an international context.

The 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia – runs from  May to November 2015 and is widely regarded as one of the most important events on the international visual arts calendar, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors, curators and international programmers and presenters of contemporary arts.

Previous artists who have represented Ireland at Venice include Richard Mosse, 2013, Corban Walker, 2011, Sarah Browne and Gareth Kennedy 2009, Gerard Byrne 2007, Stephen Brandes, Mark Garry, Ronan McCrea, Sarah Pierce, Isabel Nolan and Walker and Walker, 2005 and Katie Holten 2003.

The Irish Pavilion will be based at the Artiglierie of the Arsenale, which will be open to the public in Venice from 9 May to 22 November 2015. The exhibition will open for press and invited guests in Venice on 6th, 7th and 8th of May. 2015 

Biographies
Sean Lynch, artist
Sean Lynch (b. Kerry, Ireland, 1978) lives and works in London and Askeaton, Limerick, Ireland. He studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main and Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT. Recent solo exhibitions include: Modern Art Oxford (2014); Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane (2013); The Model, Sligo (2012); Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2011-12). Selected group exhibitions include Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver (2013); IMMA | Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2011); Camden Arts Centre, London (2010); neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2010). Forthcoming exhibitions include: CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux and Lismore Castle Arts. He was awarded the TrAIN International Artist Residency at Gasworks, London (2012) and since 2006 has co-organised the residency and exhibition programme Askeaton Contemporary Arts in County Limerick. Lynch is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, and is author and editor of many artist publications and bookworks.

Mike Fitzpatrick, Commissioner
Mike Fitzpatrick (b, Limerick, Ireland, 1959) is the Director of Limerick’s European Capital of Culture 2020 bid, following his role as Director of Limerick National City of Culture 2014. Mike is on secondment from his position as Head of School, Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT to facilitate his current role. Previously he acted as Commissioner/Curator for the Irish Pavilion at the 52nd International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia, working with artist Gerard Byrne in 2007.

During his nine-year tenure as Director/Curator of Limerick City Gallery of Art from 2000-9, he curated over eighty exhibitions, working with Irish artists including: John Shinnors, Amanda Coogan, Sean Lynch, Caroline McCarthy, Donald Teskey, Diane Copperwhite, Mark O’Kelly, Tina O’Connell, Jack Donovan, Connolly/Cleary; and international artists including: Lindsay Seers, Simon Starling. As an artist Mike has had solo shows in Limerick, Dublin, Belfast and New York. He has been published several times, including essays and interviews with: Gerard Byrne, Walter Verling, Amanda Coogan, Eamon O’Kane, and fellowships include PS1 New York and the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York.

Woodrow Kernohan, Curator
Woodrow Kernohan (b. Belfast, N. Ireland, 1975) is currently Director/CEO of EVA International - Ireland’s biennial of contemporary art in Limerick City. Prior to EVA International, Woodrow was a Director of photography festival Brighton Photo Fringe, Director of experimental exhibition space Permanent Gallery, and Exhibitions Curator at restoration project The Regency Town House, all in Brighton & Hove, UK. Since joining EVA International, Woodrow has overseen the relaunching and development of the organisation from being an annual exhibition to becoming a Biennial.

In 2012 he worked with guest curator Annie Fletcher for EVA International - After the Future that included 42 Irish and international artists, and in 2014 he worked with guest curator Bassam El Baroni for Agitationism that included 56 artists as part of Limerick National City of Culture 2014. With Permanent Gallery and The Regency Town House, he created projects with over 200 artists between 2004-11 and with Brighton Photo Fringe he coordinated city-wide biennial festivals with over 80 exhibitions in 2008 and over 130 exhibition in 2010. Woodrow studied Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art, Critical Fine Art Practice at the University of Brighton, and Artists Film, Video and Photography at University of the Creative Arts, Maidstone. He is a member of IBA, International Biennial Association and IKT, International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art.