Olivier Cornet Gallery

Ceramics in the Olivier Cornet Gallery

Olivier Cornet originally came to Ireland from France in the late 1980s. His interest in art derives from collecting stamps which featured famous French artists as a teen, as well as his grandmother's amateur painting practice. In the early 1990s, Cornet did his military service as a Cultural Animator at the French Cultural Centre of Lilongwe in Malawi, where part of his brief was to organise art exhibitions.[5]

Cornet organised and curated exhibitions of Irish visual art in various locations in Dublin under the name "Olliart" from 2004. In 2012 he opened the Olivier Cornet Gallery at The Wooden Building, Temple Bar. In 2014 it moved to Cavendish Row, and in 2015 to its current location on Great Denmark Street, the former home of John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury.[6]

The gallery organises several solo exhibitions every year, and is open every day (except on Mondays) with free admission.[7] It represents the artists Annika Berglund, Hugh Cummins, Jordi Forniés, Conrad Frankel, Claire Halpin, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Miriam McConnon, Yanny Petters, Kelly Ratchford and Susanne Wawra.[8][9] [10] It has also exhibited the work of many other artists such as Gerald Davis as well as work by members of its AGA group which currently includes the artists Aisling Conroy, Mary A. Fitzgerald, David Fox, Nickie Hayden, Sheila Naughton and Vicky Smith.[11] The gallery has also been noted, by Irish Times critic Aidan Dunne, "for curating good thematic shows" and, in Irish Arts Review, for its collaborative approach.[12][13] Themed shows have centered around topics such as climate change, the environment, identity, notoriety and fake news, among others. [14][15] The gallery also curates a show annually for the June Bloomsday festival in Dublin, choosing a different theme every time, inspired from or in reference to an aspect of James Joyce's novel Ulysses.[16]

• Official website