Siobhán Hapaska
Lokremise, Kunstmuseum, St Gallen - RE-OPENED
Lokremise
8 February - 1 November 2020
Siobhán Hapaska’s sculptures contain political, social, and ideological aspects, but also reflect elements of technology and nature.
Siobhán Hapaska
Siobhán Hapaska
Untitled 2019
carbonized oak, white marble powder, aluminium & acrylic twinwall channel
126 x 126 cm / 49.6 x 49.6 in
Siobhán Hapaska
Untitled 2019
carbonized oak, white marble powder, aluminium & acrylic twinwall channel
126 x 126 cm / 49.6 x 49.6 in
Siobhán Hapaska
Untitled 2019
carbonized oak, white marble powder, aluminium & acrylic twinwall channel
126 x 126 cm / 49.6 x 49.6 in
Siobhán Hapaska, Snake and Apple, 2018, aluminium, artificial snakeskin, fibreglass, stainless steel, two-pack acrylic paint, lacquer, 250 x 215 x 205 cm / 98.4 x 84.6 x 80.7 in
Siobhán Hapaska, snake, apple, tree 2018, aluminium, artificial snakeskin, fibreglass, two-pack acrylic paint, oak, lacquer, edition of 3, 146 x 65 x 66 cm / 57.5 x 25.6 x 26 in
Siobhán Hapaska, snake and apples, 2018, aluminium, artificial snakeskin, fibreglass, two-pack acrylic paint, lacquer, 251.1 x 173 x 147.5 cm / 98.9 x 68.1 x 58.1 in
Siobhán Hapaska, Snake and Apple, 2017, aluminium, artificial snakeskin, fibreglass, two-pack acrylic paint, lacquer, 198 x 79 x 85 cm / 78 x 31.1 x 33.5 in
Siobhán Hapaska, Love, 2016, Concrete cloth, fibreglass, two pack acrylic paint and lacquer, oak, 141 x 233 x 102 cm / 55.5 x 91.7 x 40.2 in
Siobhán Hapaska Untitled 2016 carbonized oak, white marble powder, aluminium & acrylic twinwall channel 95.5 x 95 cm / 37.6 x 37.4 in
Siobhán Hapaska, Us, 2016, Concrete cloth, fibreglass, two pack acrylic paint and lacquer, stainless steel, oak 135 x110 x 100cm / 53.1 x 43.3 x 39.4 in
Siobhán Hapaska, Snake and Apple, 2017, aluminium, artificial snakeskin, fibreglass, two-pack acrylic paint, lacquer, 159 x 169 x 66 cm / 62.6 x 66.5 x 26 in
Siobhán Hapaska, Touch, 2016, concrete cloth, oak, synthetic fur, aluminium, steel, two-pack acrylic paint and lacquer, 230 x 95 x 140 cm / 90.6 x 37.4 x 55.1 in
Siobhán Hapaska, Bird, 2016, concrete cloth, fibreglass, stainless steel, 100 x 110 x 100 cm / 39.4 x 43.3 x 39.4 in
Siobhán Hapaska
Repressed Apple
2015
aluminium, artificial snakeskin, fiberglass, two-pack acrylic paint, lacquer
300 x 65 x 77 cm / 118.1 x 25.6 x 30.3 in
the recent incarnation of two advanced souls
2012
aluminium, drop forged scaffold fittings, olive trees, olive tree root balls, motors and various engineering components
97 x 350 x 160 cm / 38.2 x 137.8 x 63 in
Siobhán Hapaska
Downfall
2009–2015
Olive trees, aluminium, electronic motors, electrical cable
dimensions variable
Siobhán Hapaska
Sensory Spaces 5
2014
Olive trees, electronic motors, electrical cable
dimensions variable
Siobhán Hapaska
Intifada
2014
Olive trees, aluminium, electronic motors, electrical cable
dimensions variable
a wolf, an olive tree and circumstances
2013
aluminium tubing, forged scaffold fittings, 2 military ratchet straps, artificial wolf fur, vibratory motor, electrical components, Olive tree
250 x 450 x 260 cm / 98.4 x 177.2 x 102.4 in
Siobhan Hapaska
Wall Piece II
2013
powdered white marble, carbonized crushed olive stone, crushed olive stone, iron powder, silicone polycarbonate
150 x 150 cm / 59.1 x 59.1 in
four angels
2012
Selenite, aluminium, forged aluminium fittings, concrete cloth, LEDs and electrical components
150 x 100 x 100 cm / 59.1 x 39.4 x 39.4 in
light lives in a box
2012
solid aluminum plate, stainless steel fittings, mirror polished stainless steel, leather, brass, micro mosaic limestone, olive oil, candle wicks
Dimensions variable
a great miracle needs to happen there
2011
olive trees “Olea europaea”, lead free solder, brass, steel, cast iron, 9 elements
dimensions of each vary
footings
2011
Jesmonite, iron powder, white granulated marble, slate powder, perlite,vermiculite, olive oil and lit taper.
25 elements arranged in a specified grid
the world at daybreak
2011
steel, travertine spilt faced marble, split faced limestone, moss, aluminium
250 x 96 x 69 cm / 98.4 x 37.8 x 27.2 in
The nose that lost its dog
2010
coyote fur, steel components, leather, stainless steel and copper acupuncture needles, iron powder in resin
48.3 x 39.4 x 33 cm / 19 x 15 1/2 x 13 in
Tick
2009
steel gas pipe, fibreglass deerskin, LED components, slate powder in resin
196 x 214 x 229 cm / 77.2 x 84.3 x 90.2 in
The dog that lost its nose
2009
stainless steel, deerskin, leather, rotator motors, steel cable
56 x 400 cm / 22 x 157.5 in height variable
Playa De Los Intranquilos
2004
fiberglass, two pack acrylic paint, sand, palm tree trunks
synthetic foliage, coconuts, nylon, plastic and glass
dimensions variable
Indestructible
2007
fiberglass, two pack acrylic paint, lacquer, artificial flowers, 9mm bullet cartridges
38.1 x 38.1 x 61 cm / 15 x 15 x 24 in
Here
1995
fiberglass, opalescent paint, acrylic lacquer, lambswool, harness, piped water, oxygen
100 x 400 x 186 cm / 39.4 x 157.5 x 73.2 in
Old Sub
1996
fiberglass, two-pack lacquer paint
165 x 100 x 70 cm / 65 x 39.4 x 27.6 in
Mayday
2001
DVD (12 min 6 sec loop)
Irish Pavilion, 49th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2001
Saint Christopher
1995
wax, human hair, cotton, oil paint
90 x 50 x 70 cm / 35.4 x 19.7 x 27.6 in
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska, LOK, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Photo: Stefan Rohner
Siobhán Hapaska,
Williams Collage Museum of Art, Massachusetts,
20 September 2019 - 26 January 2020
Siobhán Hapaska, Delirious,
Lustwarande, Tilburg, The Netherlands,
June 15 – October 20, 2019
Siobhán Hapaska
Snake and Apple
John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
15 December 2018 – 9 February 2019
Siobhán Hapaska, Strike Site, group exhibition curated by Sacha Craddock,
BACKLIT Gallery, Nottingham, UK,
3 March – 8 April 2018
Siobhán Hapaska
Kerlin Gallery
17th December 2016 - 4th February 2017
Siobhán Hapaska, Disobedient Bodies, curated by Jonathan Anderson,
The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK
18 March – 18 June 2017
Siobhán Hapaska (pictured alongside Donna Huddleston and Carina Brandes) in Dreamers Awake, White Cube Bermondsey, London, UK, 28 June - 17 September. Photography by George Darrell
Siobhán Hapaska, 2116: Forecast of the Next Century,
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University
5 November 2016 – 2 April 2017
Siobhán Hapaska, The Mobility of Facts, Bloomberg SPACE 30 September – 17 December 2016
Siobhán Hapaska, Some Are Nights Others Stars, Towner Art Gallery 23 July - 25 September 2016
Siobhán Hapaska
Love, Touch and Bird 2016
concrete cloth, fibreglass, two-pack acrylic paint and lacquer, oak
141 x 233 x 102 cm / 55.5 x 91.7 x 40.2 in
230 x 95 x 140 cm / 90.6 x 37.4 x 55.1 in
100 x 110 x 100 cm / 39.4 x 43.3 x 39.4 in
Siobhán Hapaska, 2116: Forecast of the next century, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, 25 March – 3 July 2016
Siobhán Hapaska
Magnetism
Hazelwood House
28 June – 27 September 2015
Siobhán Hapaska
La La La Human Steps,
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
7 February 2015 - 25 May 2016
Siobhán Hapaska
Azerbaijan Pavilion
56th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia
9 May - 22 November 2015
Siobhán Hapaska
Sensory Spaces 5
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
11 October 2014 - 25 January 2015
Photo: Hans Wilschut, Rotterdam
Siobhán Hapaska
Magasin 3
Curated by Richard Julin
September 28, 2013 – June 8, 2014
Siobhán Hapaska and Stephen McKenna
30 November 2012 – 19 January 2013
Kerlin Gallery
Siobhán Hapaska
Into the Light: The Arts Council
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland; Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Dublin, Ireland
2012
Siobhán Hapaska
a great miracle needs to happen there
Kerlin Gallery
26th August - 1st October 2011
Siobhán Hapaska
The Nose That Lost Its Dog
Glasgow Sculpture Studios
05 November – 30 January 2009
Siobhán Hapaska
British Art Show 6,
BALTIC The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
2005
Siobhán Hapaska
May Day
Irish Pavilion, 49th Venice Biennale, Venice
2001
b. 1963, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Siobhán Hapaska continually reconsiders the role of the object in contemporary sculpture. At the core of Hapaska’s work is a consideration of human relations. Accepting all the difficulties of our current global condition and its often violent opposing forces and conflicting ideologies, her work strives to find a position of balance and a sense of equilibrium. Hapaska goes about this with a dazzling array of materials, each loaded with history and multiple readings. These materials are persuaded into complex relationships of both potential energy and harmony. Often enigmatic in form, each work or installation betrays a sober exploration of emotion that is undercut with a sense of humour and always devoid of cynicism or pessimism.
Hapaska’s recent work employs a new material, ‘concrete cloth’. This recent invention, a concrete-infused canvas, was developed for the speedy construction of emergency dwellings. Its use by Hapaska accentuates the biomorphic nature of her work but also speaks to the very contemporary concerns regarding housing for refugees and those suffering the effects of natural disasters. In each of these new sculptures, there is a relationship between two elements, each is a resolution of conflict or a system of support.
Recent solo exhibitions include: Kunst Museum, St Gallen, Switzerland (8 February - 21 June 2020); Siobhán Hapaska, John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, UK, (2019); Siobhán Hapaska, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland, (2016); Siobhán Hapaska, Andéhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden (2016); Sensory Spaces, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2014–15); Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden (2013); The Nose that Lost its Dog, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA (2010) and Camden Arts Centre, London, UK, (2007). Recent group exhibitions include: Sense and Suggestion, Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, (2019 / 2020); Shadowplay, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, (2019) Podesta Collection, American University Museum of Art, Washington, USA, (2019); Dreamers Awake, White Cube, Bermondsey, London, UK, (2017); The Hepworth Wakefield, UK, (2017); Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK, (2016); Azerbaijan Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy, (2015); Royal Academy, London, UK, (2010); the British Art Show 6 (2005–06); the Irish Pavilion, 49th Venice Biennale (2001) and Magasin 3, Stockholm and Documenta X (1997).
Hapaska’s work is represented in many major institutional collections including: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA;American University Katzen Museum of Art, Washington, DC, USA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA;Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; The Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland; Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland; Magasin III, Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; The Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Museum of Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China.
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Shadowplay
12 July- 28 August 2019
Dorothy Cross, Aleana Egan, Siobhán Hapaska, Isabel Nolan, Kathy Prendergast
3rd May - 21st June 2018
Siobhán Hapaska
17th December 2016 - 4th February 2017
Siobhán Hapaska & Stephen McKenna
30th November 2012 - 19th January 2013
Siobhán Hapaska
a great miracle needs to happen there
26th August - 1st October 2011
Someone Else's Life
Liam Gillick, Siobhan Hapaska, Callum Innes, Jaki Irvine
14th January - 12th February 2011
FIFTY PERCENT SOLITUDE
Willie Doherty, Maureen Gallace, Liam Gillick, Siobhan Hapaska, Stephen McKenna, Isabel Nolan, Sean Scully, Hiroshi Sugimoto & Paul Winstanley
27th November 2008 - 11th February 2009
Celebrating 20 Years
An exhibition of new work by Kerlin Gallery Artists
28th April - 24th May 2008
SUMMER GROUP SHOW 2007
20 July - 05 September 2007
SUMMER GROUP SHOW 2006
18 August - 30 September 2006
SUMMER GROUP SHOW 2005
Gallery Artists
12th August - 3rd September 2005
Siobhán Hapaska
Cease Firing On All Fronts
22 November - 08 January 2004
Siobhán Hapaska - Siobhán Hapaska / Charles Long / Ernesto Neto
Siobhán Hapaska
2000
Siobhán Hapaska - NICAF ’99 Tokyo
Siobhán Hapaska
1999
Siobhán Hapaska
Siobhán Hapaska
1995
Siobhán Hapaska
Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts
20 September 2019 - 26 January 2020
Art museums are usually hushed spaces where sight is privileged over other senses. But some artworks refuse to play by these rules.
Siobhán Hapaska, Delirious
Lustwarande, Tilburg, The Netherlands
June 15 – October 20, 2019
Siobhán Hapaska is presenting work in Delirious, the tenth edition of the international sculpture exhibition Lustwarande.
Siobhán Hapaska, Snake and Apple
John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
15 December 2018 – 9 February 2019
Siobhán Hapaska solo exhibition of sculptural work from her Snake and Apple series.
Siobhán Hapaska in NGORONGORO II
Lehderstrasse 34, Berlin (part of Berlin Gallery Weekend)
26–29 April 2018
Group exhibition for Berlin Gallery Weekend.
Siobhán Hapaska in Strike Site
BACKLIT Gallery, Nottingham, UK
3 March – 8 April 2018
Group exhibition curated by Sacha Craddock. Featuring work by Ana Čvorović, Anna Fasshauer, Jack Killick, Brian Griffiths, Siobhán Hapaska and Alice Hartley.
Siobhán Hapaska in Dreamers Awake
White Cube Bermondsey, London
28 June – 17 September 2017
Major exhibition exploring the enduring influence of Surrealism.
Siobhán Hapaska in Disobedient Bodies
The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK
18 March – 18 June 2017
Curated by Jonathan Anderson.
Artists include: Jean Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Lynn Chadwick, Naum Gabo, Siobhán Hapaska, Barbara Hepworth, Sarah Lucas, Henry Moore, Magali Reus and Dorothea Tanning. Fashion designers include: Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons, Helmut Lang and Issey Miyake.
Siobhán Hapaska in Strike Site
Pi Artworks, London
12 January – 25 February
Artists: Ana Čvorović, Anna Fasshauer, Brian Griffiths, Siobhán Hapaska, Alice Hartley, and Jack Killick. Curated by Sacha Craddock.
2116: Forecast of the Next Century
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University
5 November 2016 – 2 April 2017
Artists: Amanda Coogan, Maud Cotter, Gary Coyle, Eleanor Duffin, Damien Flood, Siobhán Hapaska, Ramon Kassam, Sam Keogh, Ruth Lyons, Eoin McHugh, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Mairead O’hEocha, Niamh O’Malley, Darn Thorn, Lee Welch, and the Centre for Genomic Gastronomy.
Siobhán Hapaska Artist Talk
Reading Room, Frieze London
7 October 2016, 3.30pm
Siobhán Hapaska will give an artist talk at Frieze London as part of its Reading Room programme on Friday 7 October. Presented by ArtReview.
Siobhán Hapaska in The Mobility of Facts
Bloomberg SPACE, London
30 September – 17 December 2016
Three-person exhibition with Giuseppe Gabellone and Charlotte Posenenske.
Siobhán Hapaska in Some Are Nights Others Stars
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK
23 July – 25 September 2016
Work by Siobhán Hapaska will be included in Some Are Nights Others Stars at Towner Art Gallery. The exhibition brings together international artists whose works embody the contrasting experiences of displacement, loss and separation with the dynamic possibilities of movement, transformation and remembrance.
2116
Glucksman Gallery, Cork
25 March – 3 July 2016
Artists: Amanda Coogan, Maud Cotter, Gary Coyle, Eleanor Duffin, Damien Flood, Siobhán Hapaska, Ramon Kassam, Sam Keogh, Ruth Lyons, Eoin McHugh, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Mairead O’hEocha, Niamh O’Malley, Darn Thorn, Lee Welch, and the Centre for Genomic Gastronomy.
Siobhán Hapaska, Magnetism
Hazelwood House, Sligo, Ireland
28 June – 27 September 2015
Group exhibition
Hazelwood Estate presents Magnetism, a major contemporary art exhibition in the old Snia/Saehan factory that sits on the peninsula at the historic site of Hazelwood in County Sligo.
Curated by Vaari Claffey the show brings large-scale sculptural works by a group of Irish and international artists together with a video programme, compiled to reflect the history of the factory at the site where magnetic video tape was manufactured from 1987-2005.
Siobhán Hapaska, Vita Vitale
The Azerbaijan Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
9 May – 22 November 2015
Venice Biennale exhibition
Siobhán Hapaska participates in 'Vita Vitale', a group exhibition curated by Artwise. It is one of two exhibitions held in the Azerbaijan Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.
Siobhán Hapaska, Face Value
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, London, UK
27 March – 13 June 2015
An exhibition of portraiture from the Arts Council Collection
This exhibition presents portraiture in a variety of medium including painting, collage, bronze and new media. Sitting peacefully against a wall in the gallery will be the hyper-realistic sculpture by Siobhan Hapaska, entitled Saint Christopher. Although initially surprising and unsettling, this man rests in a calm, contemplative manner. Created predominantly from wax and incorporating human hair this work disrupts the safety of the contained 2D works showing that portraiture can occupy and invade a viewer’s space becoming almost too close for comfort.
Siobhán Hapaska, La La La Human Steps
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
7 January – 17 May 2015
The major spring exhibition ‘La La La Human Steps’ in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen features a hundred works of art from the museum’s collection, including work by Siobhán Hapaska. These works all deal with la condition humaine: human failings. Four top choreographers have each created a duet especially for the exhibition.
Siobhán Hapaska, 2014 New City Art Prize
MK Community Foundation, MK Gallery
04 December 2014
The inaugural MK Community Foundation New City Art Prize for the Visual Arts has been awarded to Siobhán Hapaska.
The 2014 New City Art Prize, funded by MK Community Foundation, recognises an outstanding and innovative UK artist, and aims to connect emerging visual artists in and around Milton Keynes to national developments in contemporary art.
Siobhán Hapaska, Sensory Spaces 5
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
11th October 2014 - 25th January 2015
Sensory Spaces is the title of a series of solo exhibitions at the Willem van der Vorm Gallery, the freely accessible exhibition space in the entrance area of the museum. For each edition, one artist asked to turn. Properties of the space in a surprising way to his hand for the fifth edition Siobhán Hapaska create a site-specific work.
Dorothy Cross, Willie Doherty, Siobhan Hapaska, William McKeown, Paul Seawright, New Art New Nature
Ulster Museum
10 October 2014 - 28 June 2015
A new exhibition examining the role of nature in the work of Irish and International artists over the past seventy years opens to the public at the Ulster Museum. New Art, New Nature includes work by world-renowned figures including Henri Matisse, William Scott and Willie Doherty. Paintings by one of Northern Ireland’s most important artists of the last century, William McKeown, will also be displayed at the museum for the first time, together with work by Dorothy Cross, Siobhan Hapaska and Paul Seawright amongst others.
Kathy Prendergast, William McKeown, Isabel Nolan, Siobhan Hapaska, Dorothy Cross, 'Re Framing the Domestic in Irish Art'
Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda
29 April - 29 August 2014
‘Home is no longer a dwelling but the untold story of a life being lived.’[1]
A large-scale group exhibition featuring works by Kathy Prendergast, William McKeown, Isabel Nolan, Siobhan Hapaska, and Dorothy Cross.
Siobhan Hapaska
28 September 2013 - June 2014
Magasin 3, Stockholm
A solo presentation by Siobhan Hapaska opens at Magasin 3, Stockholm, 28 September until June 2014.
Siobhan Hapaska, Site Festival
Goods Shed, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK
4 May - 12 May 2013
Siobhan Hapaska showcases a newly commissioned installation, 'The Sky has to Turn Black Before You Can See the Stars, presented by INDEX, at the Site Festival, Stroud, Gloucershire from 4 May - 12 May.
This installation was created especially for the Goods Shed in Stroud and featuring an astonishing diversity of materials and elements, which organisers say address the themes of dislocation and loss, hope and desolation, conflict and resolution.
Billion Journal
PYRO
14 January 2017
First is Hapaska's overall palette of willow-charcoal-grey with beams of hazard orange and cardinal red. Then it's her forms: heavy, undulating cloth bearing the weight of its material conceit, concrete. Some of the forms look like they are staged, ready to be studied with pencil and paper by young masters. Others are cowled like Philip Guston's KKK, utilising the same volume-making motif of repair patchwork that Guston did: a stitch in time saves nine.—James Merrigan
Visit WebsiteThe Sunday Times
Siobhán Hapaska
8 January 2017
Born in Belfast and based in London, Siobhán Hapaska is one of our most innovative and stimulating artists. Her impressive CV includes the 49th Venice Biennale and such signifiers of international acceptance as Documenta. Her latest show provides the kind of aesthetic jolt one encounters all too rarely in contemporary art.—John O'Sullivan
Visit WebsiteThe Irish Times
Siobhán Hapaska
27 December 2016
With its jagged rhythms and calculated incongruities, Siobhán Hapaska’s recent work at the Kerlin Gallery draws a line under a troubled year. The interruptions and surprises built into the fabric of each piece, whether it is hanging on the wall or a floor-sited sculpture, challenge conventional ideas of wholeness and harmony and coherence. When the surrealist artist André Breton was reading a book by Comte de Lautréamont (the pen name of Isidore-Lucien Ducasse), he leapt on one startling phrase: “As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.” That, Breton thought, was surrealism.—Aidan Dunne
Visit WebsiteRTÉ Arena
21 December 2016
Declan Long discussing the work of Siobhán Hapaska (radio).
Visit WebsiteArtReview
Siobhán Hapaska
October 2016
How do works imbued with a complex mix of materiality, emotion, unease and resilience evolve over time? How much does the space in which they’re created matter? ArtReview meets the London-based artist on a train to Eastbourne—Helen Sumpter
Visit WebsiteIrish Arts Review
Essays on Disharmony
Autumn 2016
Siobhán Hapaska’s complex sculptural installations are often constructed through the juxtaposition of opposites. Her work throws up relationships between things that might seem contradictory at first glance. These contradictions involve not only the themes of her art, but also the materials she uses; the structure of the pieces; and her working methods. Hard/soft; furry/spiky; made/grown; natural/synthetic; machines/plants; urban/rural; human/animal; these are just some of the dichotomies that frequently appear in her sophisticated and meticulously fashioned sculptures. Perhaps these all speak to a more general and overarching theme with vital contemporary relevance: the fraught relationship between culture and nature; or of humans to their environment. And in doing so her work broaches important social and political issues as well as sculptural ones.—Francis Halsall
Visit WebsiteThe Irish Times
A Sligo group show dreams big and succeeds
1 September 2015
The Irish Times
Hapaska’s Downfall consists of 11 olive trees suspended horizontally in a network of packing straps under tension. A motor hums and the trees vibrate. In Greek mythology, we are told, the olive tree symbolises the birth of western civilisation, but Hapaska infuses it with unease and foreboding. Her installation would be entirely at home in the Turbine Hall ...—Aidan Dunne
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