14 June – 3 July, 2025
opening Saturday 14 June 2025, h 6.00 pm

Galleria Immaginaria is pleased to present the exhibition Artwork Firenze by artist Janet Mullarney on Saturday 14 June 2025 at 6 pm, curated by Claudio Piccini.

This Irish artist’s work encompasses a wide range of materials, and although the influence of medieval wood sculpture plays a strong role, her works often feature a combination of bronze, foam, glass, rubber, papier-mâché, textiles, terracotta, plaster and wax, as well as wood. 

In her work, references to religious iconography and art history are always present, and a sense of the sacred is preserved in the ambiguous creatures Mullarney creates, looking to the animal kingdom as a metaphor for personal human relationships. 

In the artist’s words, ‘Colour, drawing, painting, textures, masks – animal and non-animal, painted and not – help me find an answer in the search for my truth, anonymity and the universal.’

Determined, fearless and unconventional in her approach to life, Mullarney has always described herself as a self-taught artist. Through her travels in Europe, Mexico, North Africa and India, she has acquired a knowledge of Renaissance and Romanesque art, the Chola art of the temples of southern India and the historical and contemporary art of those countries.

As the director of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts in Dublin, Patrick Murphy, explains, ‘her sculptures are a little like Angela Carter’s novels, where the everyday and the ordinary can suddenly plummet into the surreal and the mythic. Tables and stairs, trolleys and mattresses are the props that carry extraordinary characters. Subjects mined from the natural world and anthropomorphised to play out human joy and human tragedy.’