Press Release June 2004

Janet Pierce's painting is informed by emotional landscapes evoking the rugged seascapes of Donegal, the Scottish Highlands and the boglands of Ireland. Romantic in character, her hunger for transcendence is realized through this contemplation of landscape. The locations she paints are dream places, the spirit rendered in the form of mist, sea, sky and mountains, "each one a placeless heaven rather than a heavenly place" as Séamus Heaney has said of the spaces imagined by Patrick Kavanagh.

Born in Scotland in 1947, Pierce studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Moray House College of Education. After graduation, she moved to Pennsylvania, USA where she had her first solo exhibition in Scranton Museum, PA. Four years later, she moved to Ireland and has lived here ever since.

She has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland, the UK, USA and beyond. Her work is included in several public, private and corporate collections including the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Council of N.Ireland.

She has won many major bursaries from the Arts councils of Scotland, N.Ireland and Ireland and recently won awards from the Sanskritti Foundation of New Dehli, India, and the Fundacion Valpairiso, Spain. She is an elected member of the Aosdana, and is represented by Taylor Galleries Dublin.

Biography:

1947 Born, Edinburgh, Scotland
1965 – 69 Edinburgh College of Art
1969 – 70 Moray House College of Education, Edinburgh
2000 Membership to Aosdana
Lives and works in Dublin

Solo exhibitions include:

2004 Joan Clancy Gallery, Ring, Co Waterford
2003 St Johns Art Centre, Listowel, Co Kerry
2002 Taylor Galleries, Dublin
2001 University College Cork
2000 Galway Arts Centre
Vanguard Gallery Cork
The Glebe Gallery, Donegal
1998 Taylor Galleries, Dublin
Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
Triskell Arts Centre, Cork
1997 The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
Art First, Cork St., London
1996 RHA Gallagher Gallery
Limerick City Art Gallery
Galway Arts Centre
1994 The Model Arts Centre, Sligo
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1993 Taylor Galleries, Dublin

Group exhibitions include:

2003 On the Verge, DCA Fine Art, Venice CA, USA
Celtic Art, DCA Fine Art, Venice, CA, USA
2003 /2/1/0 RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin
1999/8/7/6 RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin
2003 Every Blooming Thing, Botancis Gallery, Dublin
2003 Sanskriti Foundation, New Dehli
2002 Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2002 Fenderensky Gallery, Belfast
2003/00/98 Kellys Strand Hotel, Opera Festival Exhibition
2003/00/98 The Artist in Rural Ireland, MGH Castlebar
New Images from North Mayo, The Courthouse Gallery, Co Mayo
2001 From Past to Present, Draiocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown
2001 Passages from Ballinglen, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, USA
Fellows of the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, The Lavitt Gallery, Cork
Taispeantas Ealaine, An Oireachtais, Dun Laoghaire
1998 Art First, London
Taispeantais Ealaine, An Oireachtais, Guinness Hopstore
1996 Cork RTC Art Fest '96
1994 Sioiru National Maternity Hospital Centenary Exhibition
RHA Gallery Dublin
Six Women Artists, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co Monaghan

Awards include:

2002 Sanskritti Foundation, New Dehli, India
2001 Elected member of the Aosdana
2000 Fundacion Valpairiso, Mojacar, Spain
1999 Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Co Mayo
1998 Artist of the Month, Arts Council of N. Ireland
1996 Arts Council of Ireland – major Visual Arts Bursary
1994 USA – Ireland Exchange, Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts
1993 Cultural Relations Committee – Travel Award
1993 Arts Council of Ireland –Assistance Award
1993 Scottish Arts Council – Assistance Award