Exciting new exhibitions set to open at Waterford Gallery of Art

Two new exciting exhibitions will be officially launched when they open to the public Waterford Gallery of Art next week.

BODIES will showcase artworks including new commissions from the Waterford Art Collection inspired by the human form. The exhibition will feature life drawing, carved marble feet, a glass hand as well as paintings from the likes of William Orpen and Mainie Jellett.

There will also be more recent works and new acquisitions to the collection by Áine Ryan, Eamon Gray & James Horan, Cúan Cusack, photography by HK Stuart, and, most auspiciously, the launch of the newly OPW and Waterford City and County Council commissioned portrait of Dr. Mary Strangman by Una Sealy RHA. Sealy, based in Howth, Dublin, has previously been awarded for her portrait of local artist Caoilfhionn Hanton. 

Dr. Mary Somerville Parker Strangman (1872 – 1943) was born in Waterford, enrolled at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1891, and received her licence in 1896. After training and lecturing in Britain, she became the second woman to earn the fellowship of RCSI in 1902.

Establishing a practice in Waterford, Dr  Strangman also volunteered at various local women’s charities and published several research articles on alcoholism and morphine addiction. Her increasing activism in women's health, particularly combatting tuberculosis, as well as women’s suffrage led her to being elected Waterford’s first woman Councillor in 1912. Retiring from public office in 1920, Dr Strangman continued in general practice and as physician at Waterford County and City Infirmary.

Dr Mary Strangman was honoured in Waterford in March this year, when the Large Room at City Hall was named in her honour. 

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Also launching will be GROUND (two-unfold) by Susan Connolly. It is the first iteration of Connolly’s exhibition GROUND (100+one), originally commissioned by the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. This body of work reflects and reappraises 100 years of Irish abstract painting and takes its cues from ‘Decoration’ (1923) by Mainie Jellett, considered the first Irish abstract painting. 

Originally from Kildare, Susan is now based between Belfast and Waterford where she is a lecturer and Course Leader in the Visual Art Department of South East Technological University.

The BODIES and GROUND Exhibitions will open at Waterford Gallery of Art, O’Connell St, Waterford at 6.30pm on Thursday, next December 5. 

The exhibitions, which are free for members of the public to attend, will be open Wednesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.