Iontas

Iontas National Small Works Exhibtion, on tour from Sligo Art Gallery.

Íontas National Small Works Exhibition was first mounted in Sligo 1990 and since then has grown and developed into one of Ireland's most popular open submission shows.

In the twelve years of its life, Íontas has received over 10,000 artworks for selection and included over 6,000 artists. It has toured to many of Ireland's premier venues for contemporary art including the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Limerick City Gallery and the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast.

In 2002, instead of taking the form of an open submission show, Íontas has brought together five years of prizewinners (1990 - 1995) and includes 38 artists working in the medium of painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing and photography.

Artists included in the show were asked to submit three works from their current practice. The resulting exhibition shows the development and growth of many artists work through the intervening years. The accompanying catalogue includes the original adjudicators comments from each year to illustrate this.