The Mermaid Gallery is located in the picturesque Co Kilkenny village of Inistioge – best known for the Woodstock gardens and arboretum – on the banks of the River Nore. The gallery's name – and logo – derive from the local legend that a mermaid was fished from the River Nore in the 12th century.
It is run by John Kirwan, art dealer, historian and co-author of the pioneering and much-lauded Kilkenny Families and the Great War, a compendium that provided, after 15 years of research, brief biographies of all 2,900 Kilkenny men and women who were involved in the first World War.
The seasonal gallery, which is now in its second year, specialises in early 20th-century Irish art as well as contemporary art.
There’s an eclectic mix of styles – and prices – with, inevitably, a strong local mix including the traditional Kilkenny “Big House” artists – Mildred Anne Butler (Kilmurry House, Thomastown) ; “Shadow” Lady Cuffe (Lyrath House, Kilkenny); and, Baroness Pauline Prozaska (also of Lyrath) – and contemporary artists including Sean Hardie (painter, Skeoughvosteen); mother and daughter Elizabeth and Phoebe Cope (painters, Shankill Castle, Paulstown); Caroline Murphy (sculptor of bronze horses and dogs, Graiguenamanagh); and, Harry Durdin Robertson (painter, Huntington Castle, Clonegal).
But there’s also a national palette with a selection of work by artists associated with the mid-20th century White Stag movement such as Basil Rákóczi, Kenneth Hall and Phelan Gibb.
The gallery rambles through the deceptively spacious ground floor of a house on the village green and is full of the unexpected including paintings of horses by the Dublin-based Polish artist Robert Zuraw.
From next weekend the gallery will also exhibit work by Caroline Couchman (ceramics, bronzes and oils) and Adrienne Symes (oils and etchings).
The Mermaid Gallery, Inistioge, Co Kilkenny, opens on Friday and Sunday afternoons, and all day on Saturdays and bank holidays, throughout the summer
