DUBLIN.- The Minister of State for New Communities, Culture and Equality, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD, today (9 April 2015) joined artists, curators and invited guests at the Dublin launch of Ireland's representation at the 56th International Art Exhibition in Venice. Ireland at Venice is led by Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council.

Sean Lynch has been selected as the artist to represent Ireland with a new artwork entitled Adventure: Capital at the Venice Art Biennale 2015. The Commissioner for the Irish Pavilion in 2015 is Mike Fitzpatrick, Director of Limerick's European Capital of Culture 2020 bid and Head of School, Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT. The Curator is Woodrow Kernohan, Director of EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City.

The Venice Biennale has for over a century held its place as the most important international showcase for visual arts and in recent years has attracted some 400,000 visitors. The Venice Biennale represents Culture Ireland's largest financial commitment to international showcasing of visual arts and the Arts Council's largest commitment to developing visual artists' international practice. Adventure: Capital will be Lynch’s most ambitious project to date combining sculptural, video and archival elements.

Speaking at the launch in Alliance Francaise, Minister of State Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said “Culture Ireland supports some 300 events throughout the year across the globe. The Venice Biennale is the largest of these and year on year the visitor numbers are increasing. This exhibition provides an unrivalled opportunity for the international art community to engage with Irish contemporary art practice and for Irish artists to showcase their work on an international stage.”

Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick described Sean Lynch’s work “As a transcendental journey through history and myth, from the Gobán Saor to castaway minimalist sculpture. Lynch’s ethnographic methodology playfully challenges hegemonic structures and entwined flows of capital, migration, and forms a exceptionally unique form of complex narrative mediated through film and object.”

Curator Woodrow Kernohan added “It is very significant that the Irish Pavilion will be located in the Arsenale main venue this year, as it means that it will seen by everyone who comes to the Biennale. Visitors to “Adventure: Capital” will be taken on a circular journey by the figure of a wandering stone-carver – starting at a quarry in Cornwall, travelling through the financial heart of London, via regional airports, to a field in Cork and culminating at a roundabout in Wexford. “Adventure: Capital” tells an alternative history composed of overlooked fragments, hearsay and rumour.”

Since 2005 the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Arts Council have partnered on supporting Ireland's representation at Venice given the importance of the Biennale for artists' development and for curators to work in an international context.

Sean Lynch (b. Kerry, Ireland, 1978) lives and works in London and Askeaton, Limerick, Ireland. He studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main and Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT. Recent solo exhibitions include: Modern Art Oxford (2014); Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane (2013); The Model, Sligo (2012); Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2011–12). Selected group exhibitions include Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver (2013); IMMA | Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2011); Camden Arts Centre, London (2010); neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2010). Forthcoming exhibitions include: CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux and Lismore Castle Arts. He was awarded the TrAIN International Artist Residency at Gasworks, London (2012) and since 2006 has co-organised the residency and exhibition programme Askeaton Contemporary Arts in County Limerick. Lynch is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, and is author and editor of many artist publications and bookworks.