Anita Groener’s work probes both the psychological damage and resilience in human tragedy.
Through the acute choice of materials and scale of work, Groener constructs striking installations. The agency of twigs and weeds is the substance of the discarded. Twine, in Groener’s work, embodies an innate desire to repair and bridge distances, physically, emotionally, and metaphorically. Repetition, another motif, serves to relentlessly resume something already done or said; it is a questioning of perception and a longing to get closer to an understanding of human conscience.
Photograph by Janneke O'Connor
Her work has been exhibited recently at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Jane Lombard Gallery, New York; Columbus Circle, Shanghai; Riverside Museum, Beijing; Art on Paper, New York; Volta Basel with Gibbons & Nicholas; Stedelijk Museum Schiedam; 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville, Arkansas + 21c Cincinnati; Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; Witteveen Visual Art Centre, Amsterdam; Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; the Kilkenny Arts Festival; Poggiali & Forconi Gallery, Florence; Park013, Tilburg, and Rubicon Gallery Dublin. Collections include The Irish Museum of Modern Art; The Arts Council of Ireland; the State Art Collection, Ireland; 21c Museum Hotels; Sun Communities Inc, USA; VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam; Irish National Collection of Contemporary Drawing; AIB; and ABN-AMRO Bank and Facebook EMEA Headquarters. In 2010 she was awarded a residency at the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, CT, USA and in 2014 she was artist in residence at Point B, Williamsburg, NYC, USA. Commissions have included The Poetry Project; Home, a film/poem for Bealtaine Festival; Facebook HMEA Headquarters.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, where she had her formal education, the artist lives and works in Dublin, Ireland.
In 2005 she was elected a member of Aosdána, the prestigious official association of Ireland’s preeminent cultural producers. Until 2014 she was a lecturer in Fine Art at TU Dublin where she also served as the Head of Fine Art from 2004 to 2006. She served as a member of the Public Art Committee of the Grangegorman Development Agency (2014-2021) and of the Arts Council of Ireland Collection Acquisition Committee(2019-2020). She holds a BA in Fine Art from Moller Institute, Tilburg and an MA in Painting from de Hogeschool, Arnhem, the Netherlands.
Ps. Groener is pronounced Ghroo-nur in English ;)
INTERVIEWS + TALKS
ARTS TONIGHT RTE Radio interviews with artist and review of work
Talking about my work for the 'In Focus' series Butler Gallery, 2021
Artist talk about THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY in The Dock, Carrick-on Shannon, 2019
RHA Gallery Talk series, 'On Drawing' Anita Groener, 2017
Talk with Ed Krčma, LAND exhibition in Rubicon Gallery Dublin, 2011