A retrospective exhibition of gay Irish artist Michelle Rogers is taking place at Rathfarnham Castle from June 16th to August 10th 2017. Presented by the Office of Public Works in association with The Paul Kane Gallery, Tread Softly will not only exhibit a collection of Rogers’ work, but also unveil two new pieces. Rogers’ work deals with themes close to the LGBT+ community’s heart , as well as environmental issues.

The exhibition will include the painting ‘Funeral Sarajevo’ from her first major Dublin show ‘Dark Heart’ which was a collection of paintings made in response to her Caravan of Conscience trip to the borders of Yugoslavia in 1993.  Its aim was to raise awareness of the atrocities that were being perpetuated there at that time. The Caravan of Conscience was organised by Amnesty International and the artist contingent was sponsored by U2.

The exhibition will also feature representations from all her major shows along the way including Transformations, her first major international solo show in the Museum of Modern Art Guadalajara, Mexico to her recent solo show in the Galleria Civica D’Arte Contemporanea in Siracusa Sicily.

There will also be representations of her street art practice which she has exhibited internationally in response to issues of climate change, xenophobia, church corruption, sexism, bullying and many other issues.

Michelle will also be exhibiting two new works for the first time in Ireland, one a portrait of Panti Bliss, inspired by Carravaggio’s  St. Catherine, and the other, Eco Primavera, a to scale reworking of Boticelli’s Primaver, 202cm x 314cm, contemporised and including over 100 birds, insects, flowers and small animals that are on the IUCN red list of threatened species.

Michelle is a past winner of ‘The Abbey Stained Glass Award’ at the Royal Hibernian Gallery (RHA) a prize for the most promising new talent. She has also received many significant commissions including ‘Out of the shadows’  a 16ft x 6 ft painting to celebrate the contribution and achievement of women at Queen’s University Belfast and an OPW commission for a portrait of President O’ Dailaigh, which was subsequently used as the image for a postage stamp. In April 2016, Rogers was invited as an environmental artist, by Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, to New York to witness the signing of the Paris agreement.

Tread Softly takes place at Rathfarnham Castle from June 16th to August 10th.

For more information, check out Michelle Rogers’ website here.