OPW Ireland acquires Yanny Petters's Hedgerow

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is delighted to share the news that Yanny Petters’s work ‘Hedgerow’ (Bramble, Hawthorn, Wild strawberry, Honeysuckle) has just been acquired by the Office of Public Works (OPW) for the Irish State's Art Collection.

This reverse painting on glass (or verre églomisé) was part of the artist’s recent solo exhibition with us. The show, titled 'Fieldwork with Mainie and Albrecht', featured 12 Irish wild habitats. Each painting was also an homage to an artist that has inspired Yanny since childhood.

Here is the artist’s note about this painting in the beautiful catalogue that accompanied the show:

"Hedgerows are vital wildlife corridors and an ancient hedgerow can support up to 3000 organisms. 

In the absence of deciduous forest in Ireland hedgerows help to mitigate flooding and soil erosion and nurture pollinators with their wide variety of plants. They are an iconic feature of the Irish landscape and a wander along a hedgerow reveals a myriad of fascinating patterns and textures.

In the early 1980s I worked as a signwriter making painted glass panels and signs for pubs and shops. Patterns and plant motifs were commonly used and the work of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement were a rich source of inspiration. 

I am paying homage to Morris by reflecting his skill in interweaving plant forms as he did in the tapestries he designed and the soft intertwining shapes in his wallpaper motifs. 

I was delighted to see his work at the Victoria and Albert Museum when I lived in London. Now we can create such designs on a computer, but then it took mathematical precision to make a successful design and Morris was a master of this."

You can also watch a short video where Yanny presents this painting at the gallery.

The OPW acquired ‘Hedgerow’ during Dublin Gallery Weekend 2024, a 3-day series of events presented by the Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA). As Yanny’s exhibition was part of that special weekend which ran from the 8th to the 10^th of November 2024, we were delighted to host 3 main events around the show.

A special talk 'Craft in Contemporary Art Practices' took place on Friday 8 November with the OCG artists Yanny Petters, Annika Berglund and Hugh Cummins who were in conversation with the art historian Jean Ryan. Jean Ryan presented on ‘materiality, function and crafts relationship with the body’ and the panel of artists talked about materiality in their practice. A great conversation beautifully captured by Tony Kearns's photography.

On Saturday 9 November 2024, a very attentive audience attended a brilliant Nature Printmaking demonstration by Yanny Petters and on Sunday 10 November 2024, for the last day of the show (and of Dublin Gallery Weekend 2024), we were joined by various groups for an informal tour/presentation of the show and the artist’s career by Olivier.  A buffet comprising of Korean food and home-made French ratatouille was served on the occasion.

Yanny Petters’s work has joined important public collections in recent years such as the National Gallery of Ireland with the work The Plants We Played With, the National Museum of Ireland with Hand Fan for Habitats and the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew with the work Three trees; Blackthorn, Rowan, Hawthorn and Teasel for Finches, November. The illustrious London gallery boasts 6 works by the artist in their collection. The OPW has acquired other works by the artist over the years: Yellow Flag, for instance, which is now in the collection of the National Botanic Gardens Dublin, and 'Field of Vision, Pyramidal Orchid', which is currently hanging at Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland.