Artistic wave from Ireland hits Beijing

After hitting the bars for St. Patrick's Day, take in some Irish culture that goes beyond dark stout beer at a series of exhibitions dubbed "Irish Wave" promoting contemporary art from the country.

Now in its third year, the series presents four exhibitions in Beijing featuring mixed media, oil paintings and installations.

Female Irish artists in China are riding the crest of this year's Irish Wave, a trend that co-curator and artist Fion Gunn is personally invested in.

"When I went to art college, my teacher told me he would prefer to look at me rather than my art," she said of her days at Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork.

However, much has changed over the past 40 years and Ireland's art world has new challenges. "[The debt crisis] has made life very difficult, but perhaps there will be some healthy trimming down of low- and mid-level artists," said Gunn, who added cuts in funding have hurt the lifeline of the artistic community.

It's difficult to ignore the comparison of Ireland's depressed economy with that of developing China. Although there are universal themes represented, differences in treatments used by artists are perhaps indicators of both countries' contrasting economies.

"There are shared sensibilities. Chinese and Irish artists tend to work very well with textures, but Chinese art is all large in scale because they have very big studios. In Ireland, there are mostly small spaces to go around," said Gunn.

Instruments of Pleasure

From March 11 at the National Center for the Performing Arts (6655-0824)

Convergence 3

March 24-April 6 at Space Gallery, 798 Art District, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district (5978-9508)

Intimate Revolution, Discourse on Disappointment

Until March 21 at Siemens Arts Space, 798 Art District, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district (5978-9845)

Hidden Meanings

Until March 22 at Yan Chao Collection Gallery, 21/F Lianri International, 18 Langjiayuan South, Chaoyang district (6566-2581)