EVA International


EVA International is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place every two years in the city of Limerick, Republic of Ireland. It is known as Ireland's biennial, and is held in even-numbered years.

History

The first incarnation of EVA International was The 77 Exhibition of Visual Art, created by the original committee with the mission statement of providing the public ‘with an opportunity to visit and experience an exhibition not normally available in the region and, at the same time, to stimulate an awareness of the visual arts here’. Between then and 2017, there have been 37 editions of the citywide exhibition.
Each edition is now curated by a different international curator of note, a practice that began with Sandy Nairne in 1979, the only exception to the international rule being Paul O’Reilly, Irish curator of the 1998 edition. The exhibit now has an international focus to its programming, aiming to bring international art to Limerick whilst increasing Ireland's standing in the international art world through invited curators. EVA exhibits have taken place in a number of venues across the city, notably at the Limerick City Gallery of Art, The Hunt Museum, and King John's Castle. For each edition, artists are selected through an open call for submissions, beginning with the first exhibition in 1977. Between 1994 and 2010, the exhibit also included an ‘invited’ selection of artists in addition to those who responded to the open call for artists’ proposals.
Curator Matt Packer was named Director of EVA in March 2017. Packer was previously the Director of CCA Centre For Contemporary Art Derry ~ Londonderry.

Changes in name

The name of the Limerick event has gone through several incarnations, with the original edition being known as the ‘77 Exhibition of Visual Art, Limerick’, the exhibit has variously been known as Exhibition of Visual Art, EVA, and e v + a. Following incorporation as a company limited by guarantee in 2012, the organisation has operated under the business name ‘EVA International’.

Young EVA

Young EVA is the organisation's flagship education programme. Beginning in 1984, this has taken a variety of forms, frequently involving artist-led workshops with school-age groups, often resulting in an exhibition of young participants’ work.

Platform Commissions

Platform Commissions is a programme initiative started in 2018 by EVA International that focuses on the commission of works and projects by artists based in Ireland.

Editions

YearTitleCuratorNotes-
1977The 77 ExhibitionBrian King, Barrie Cooke, John KellyThe 1977 Exhibition of Visual Art took place across the Municipal Art Gallery, the Cummins Gallery, and The National Institute for Higher Education, Castletroy.-
1978The 78 ExhibitionAdrian Hall, Charles Harper, Theo Mcnab, Cóilín Murray-
1979EVA 79Sandy NairneEVA 79 marked the first time that the exhibit was presided over by an invited international curator and adjudicator. Nairne set no specific theme for the exhibition, and wrote ‘I have selected for the exhibition work that I consider to be the highest quality’ from amongst 400 submissions.-
1980EVA 80Brian O’Doherty-
1981EVA 81Pierre Rastany-
1982EVA 82Liesbeth Brandt Corstius-
1983New Work of Past WinnersFor the 1983 edition of EVA, the committee held a reflective event, inviting the winning artists of the EVA prizes awarded at the five exhibits that had been held to date, to submit new or recent work to comprise the year's exhibition. As such, no curator was appointed. An essay by Aidan Dunne reflecting on the success of EVA from its inception was included in the exhibit's accompanying catalogue.-
1984EVA 84Peter FullerPeter Fuller's curatorship was notable for his exclusion of photography on the grounds that it ‘is not art’, and his refusal to award the sculpture prize to any of the selected sculptural works. During the 1984 exhibit, there was an incident in which a local resident attempted to deface David Lilburn's self-portrait, entitled Towards from the Forceps to the Chains of Office and winner of that year's graphics prize. Having been warned of the event, a photographer from the Limerick Leader arrived in time to take photographs of the resident smashing the glass on the print and prevent any further damage being done. The event was a subject of controversy, reported nationwide, and the photographs were later hung alongside the print in another exhibition.-
1985EVA 85Rudi Fuchs-
1986EVA 86Nabuo Nakamara-
1987EVA 87Ida Panicelli-
1988Limerick Exhibition of Visual + Art 88Florent Bex and Alexander Rozhin-
1989EV+A 89: New Work of Past Winners 1984-1988-
1990EV+A 90: Climates of ThoughtSaskia Bos-
1991EV+A 91Germano Curant-
1992EV+A 92Lars Nittve-
1993EV+A 93Gloria Moure-
1994EV+A 94Jan Hoet-
1995EV+A 95María de Corral-
1996EV+A 96Guy Tortosa-
1997EV+A 97Paul M. O’Reilly-
1998EV+A 98: Circus ZZJeanne Greenberg Rohatyn-
2000e v + a 2000: friends + neighboursRosa Martínez-
2001e v + a 2001: expandedSalah M. Hassan-
2002e v + a 2002: heroes + holiesApinan Poshyananda-
2003e v + a 2003: on the border of each otherVirginia Pérez-Ratton-
2004e v + a 2004: imagine limerickZdenka Badovinac-
2005OPEN e v + a 2005Dan Cameron-
2006e v + a 2006: give wayKaterina Gregos-
2007OPEN e v + a 2007: a sense of placeKlaus Ottmann-
2008e v + a 2008: too early for vacationHou Hanru-
2009e v + a 2009: reading the cityAngelika Nollert and Yilmaz Dziewior-
2010e v + a 2010: mattersElizabeth Hatz-
2012EVA International 2012: After the FutureAnnie Fletcher2012's After the Future was EVA International's first edition as a biennial, and the first show under Woodrow Kernohan as director.-
2014EVA International 2014: AgitationismBassam El BaroniAgitationism was a part of the 2014 Limerick National City of Culture programme.-
2016EVA International 2016: Still BarbariansKoyo Kouoh-
201838th EVA InternationalInti Guerrero2018's 38th EVA International was the first edition under Director Matt Packer.
2020Scheduled to open on July 3rd, it has been delayed until September 4th due to the COVID-19 pandemic.-