Irish artist Patrick Graham and Northern Irish artist Cathy Wilkes have been named the winners of Dublin Gallery Weekend’s inaugural Francis Bacon Awards for Irish Visual Arts. Graham is the recipient of the €25,000 (about $29,000) Lifetime Achievement Award, while Wilkes is being honored with the €15,000 (about $17,000) Mid-Career Artist Award.
Born in County Westmeath in 1943, Graham was one of the first artists in Ireland to embrace Abstract Expressionism. A cofounder of Dublin’s artist-run Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, he is considered one of the country’s most important painters.
The Glasgow-based Wilkes was born in Belfast in 1966. She works across painting, collage, installation, and sculpture and is known for her off-kilter domestic scenes. A 2008 Turner Prize nominee, Wilkes represented Scotland at the 2005 Venice Biennale and Britain at the 2019 Biennale.
Graham and Wilkes were chosen for the laurels by a jury led by Studio Voltaire board chair Emma Goltz and additionally comprising Barbara Dawson, director of Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Brian Cass, head of Hayward Gallery Touring, Hayward Gallery, London; critic and curator Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith; and Mary McCarthy, director of Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
The jury in a statement lauded Graham for playing a crucial role in the resurgence of painting in 1980s Ireland and praised Wilkes for the “bruised beauty and fragile grace” of her work.
The pair will receive the awards, which are supported by French wine estate and sculpture park Château La Coste, during this year’s Dublin Gallery Weekend, which runs November 5–8. Both recipients will be invited to present their work at Château La Coste in Provence, France.