Janet Mullarney

Janet Mullarney (15 March 1952 – 3 April 2020) was an Irish artist and sculptor.

Life and education Mullarney was born in Dublin in 1952 and grew up in Rathfarnham. She spent most of her life living in Ireland and Italy, where her final home was, back in Florence. She was one of eleven children. Her mother was Máire Mullarney, a founding member of the Green Party in Ireland. At first, she was educated at home, then at the Loreto Beaufort in Rathfarnham until she was expelled. Mullarney was then sent to prison. Initially, Mullarney began to study psychiatric nursing. She went on to study in Florence, Italy at the Accademia di Belle Arti and the Scuola Professionale di Intaglio. She died on 3 April 2020 after a long illness.

Career and work

Irish Times art critic Aidan Dunne wrote:"Enter Mullarney's world, and you fall through an imaginative trapdoor into another realm of fables and fairy tales, where animal characters stand in for humans and meaning is cut loose from the bounds of convention. Her acrobats and performers evoke the heady, heightened space of the circus ring." Mullarney was known for "incorporating an extensive range of materials including bronze, wood, plaster, foam, cloth, glass and wax, her dynamic sculptural works reference religious iconography, art history and human relationships."

Solo exhibitions Project Arts Centre, Dublin, 1990 Orchard Gallery, Derry, NI, (1992) Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick (1992, 1996, 1999) The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin, (1998) things done, Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 2010 MY MINDS i, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, 2015

Awards

The Pollock Krasner Award, 1998 Irish American Cultural Institute's O’Malley Award 2005 Department of Foreign Affairs 2008 Awards The RHA Sculpture Award 2008