This beautiful painting by Claire Halpin was part of our 2016 March - April group show Effleurements where it was acquired by the OPW for the Irish State Art Collection. 

This work is part of the artist's Citadel series which was exhibited later that year as part of Glomar Response, the artist's first solo show at the gallery.  'Citadel IV – Sheremetyevo Airport' is a reference to Edward Snowden's sequestration at Sheremetyevo airport before he was granted asylum by the Russian authorities back in 2013. 

"...in this series of paintings, images and locations are isolated from source and context like sets and props suspended in time through paint without context as to their significance as elements in a complex narrative of our contested history. Rendered in a dreamlike aesthetic as if viewed through the lens of a surveillance drone, the indefinite liminal locations of three notorious whistleblowers were explored – Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, Edward Snowden in a Moscow airport, and Fort Leavenworth the military prison where Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment for leaking diplomatic cables to Wikileaks, one of the largest breaches of classified material in US history..."

Claire Halpin, 

Photos of the opening of Effleurements (with guest speaker James Hanley, RHA) can be seen in the archive of the artist's website.

The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) recently acquired a series of diptych paintings by the artist. Click here to check them out.