TULCA 2019 Curator: Kerry Guinan

Curator Biography

Kerry Guinan is an artist, researcher, and curator based between Limerick and Dublin. She holds a BA in Fine Art & Art History from the National College of Art & Design, 2014. As an artist, Guinan performs ambitious interventions to examine the sociological function of art in the contemporary. These interventions take place both inside and outside the gallery context in a range of private and public spaces.

Between 2013 and 2016 Guinan curated and exhibited with a nameless collective of six artists to subvert rationalist authority through art practice. This included large-scale exhibitions in an 8,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Dublin 8 (2013), Platform Arts, Belfast (2016), and Hotel Maria Kapel, the Netherlands (2016). She has also curated ‘Minus One,’ an exhibition exploring masculinity in an underground car park in Dublin 8 (2013), and exhibited her first solo show, ‘Presenting the Cultural Quarter,’ at A4 Sounds, Dublin in 2017. Guinan has developed several provocative public artworks in Slovenia (An Experiment in Value, 2015), Galway (126 © Kerry Guinan, 2014), Offaly (Freedom of Entry, 2013), and an Irish General Election (Liberate Art, 2016). Her most recent public work Presenting the Cultural Quarter (2017) led to an artistic confrontation with an Garda Síochána.

A researcher in the sociology and philosophy of visual art, Guinan has contributed papers to a number of academic environments, including the National University of Ireland Maynooth (2018), Trinity College Dublin (2017), University College Dublin (2017), and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2015, 2016). She is the author of The Impact and Instrumentalisation of Art in the Dublin Property Market, published with support from Fingal County Council in 2016.

Guinan was awarded the Arts Council of Ireland’s prestigious ‘Next Generation Bursary Award’ to support her practice in 2018. A member of Fingal County Council’s ‘Buildings and Public Places’ Artists Panel, she has also been supported by Fingal Arts Office in 2018, 2016, and 2014.

“I would like to offer my deepest thanks to the Board of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts for inviting me to curate this exceptional festival. Like TULCA, I believe very firmly in art and in artists. My aim for TACTICAL MAGIC is to explore the nature of this belief by asking ‘is art magical?’ Ireland is currently redefining its relationship to religion and spirituality and I would encourage the people of Galway and beyond to engage with the festival to find the thrilling magic that survives the everyday.” Kerry Guinan, TULCA Curator

“We are delighted to announce Kerry Guinan as curator for TULCA 2019. We look forward to working with Kerry to develop an exciting programme for the 17th edition of the festival, TACTICAL MAGIC.” David Finn, TULCA Producer

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
TACTICAL MAGIC
Curated by Kerry Guinan
1 - 17 November 2019
Galway, Ireland