Open tomorrow 10th January, from 11am - 4pm, and concluding with a closing event on Thursday 30th January. Bones of Contention by artist collective Smiling Dog |Marie Brett, John McHarg & Ed Kuczaj| launches the 2025 exhibition calendar at the MTU Gallery at 46 Grand Parade. We cordially inviting you to view the exhibition and attend the closing event.

'Smiling Dog’ are an arts and health collective made up of an artist: Marie Brett, an art therapist: John McHarg and former head of Dept of Arts in Health & Education, MTU CCAD and art therapist: Ed Kuczaj. Their collective work includes research projects, critical dialogues, multi-media exhibitions, immersive events, published writing and artists’s books. Together they have helped inform and shape arts and health practice in Ireland spanning the last 15+ years with special interest to ‘dialogues of opposition’ – referring to the similarities, differences and overlaps in their respective practices of artist and art therapist, within participatory and health-care contexts. Their new working title ‘Smiling Dog’ references the three headed Cerberus and symbolises their looking to what’s past, current and future, from three distinct headsets.

Bones of Contention is a new body of artwork exhibited at MTU’s Gallery from January 9th to 30th 2025.

Conceptually it explores a series of contested ideas surrounding current arts and health practice; of people working on the edge, of human health and illness issues, and of embodied practice embracing risk and trust. The gallery space will be utilised as an institutional territory, with the artwork mapping a melee of fragility and resilance. Text, paint, and biodegradable materials will be mixed with relics and healthcare totems; viewable from both within the gallery and from the street. You may expect to find soil, dirt, unexpected paraphernalia and semi-precious objects, amid more polite art making materials and sound.

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How do artists and arts therapists sit in contemporary arts + health practice?

Smiling Dog are an arts and health collective exploring how art and art therapy coexist, and what each does in companionship and/or contention in participatory and healthcare contexts.

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For more about artists see - MTU Arts + Culture - Smiling Dog presents BONES of CONTENTION

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