# EVA International

EVA International (previously known as Limerick Exhibition of Visual Art and e v + a) is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place every two years in the city of Limerick, Ireland. It is known as Ireland's biennial, and is held in even-numbered years.

## History

The first incarnation of EVA International was The 77 Exhibition of Visual Art, created by the original committee with the mission statement of providing the public ‘with an opportunity to visit and experience an exhibition not normally available in the region and, at the same time, to stimulate an awareness of the visual arts here’. Between then and 2017, there have been 37 editions of the citywide exhibition.
Each edition is now curated by a different international curator of note, a practice that began with Sandy Nairne in 1979, the only exception to the international rule being Paul O’Reilly, Irish curator of the 1998 edition. The exhibit now has an international focus to its programming, aiming to bring international art to Limerick whilst increasing Ireland's standing in the international art world through invited curators. EVA exhibits have taken place in a number of venues across the city, notably at the Limerick City Gallery of Art, The Hunt Museum, and King John's Castle. For each edition, artists are selected through an open call for submissions, beginning with the first exhibition in 1977. Between 1994 and 2010, the exhibit also included an ‘invited’ selection of artists in addition to those who responded to the open call for artists’ proposals.
Curator Matt Packer was named Director of EVA in March 2017. Packer was previously the Director of CCA Centre For Contemporary Art, Derry.

### Changes in name

The name of the Limerick event has gone through several incarnations, with the original edition being known as the ‘77 Exhibition of Visual Art, Limerick’, the exhibit has variously been known as Exhibition of Visual Art, EVA, and e v + a. Following incorporation as a company limited by guarantee in 2012, the organisation has operated under the business name ‘EVA International’.

### Young EVA

Young EVA is the organisation's flagship education programme. Beginning in 1984, this has taken a variety of forms, frequently involving artist-led workshops with school-age groups, often resulting in an exhibition of young participants’ work.

### Platform Commissions

Platform Commissions is a programme initiative started in 2018 by EVA International that focuses on the commission of works and projects by artists based in Ireland.

## Editions

| year | title | curator(s) | notes |
| 1977 | The 77 Exhibition | Brian King, Barrie Cooke, John Kelly | The 1977 Exhibition of Visual Art took place across the Municipal Art Gallery (now the Limerick City Gallery of Art), the Cummins Gallery (no longer in operation), and The National Institute for Higher Education, Castletroy (now University of Limerick). |
| 1978 | The 78 Exhibition | Adrian Hall, Charles Harper, Theo McNab, Cóilín Murray | |
| 1979 | EVA 79 | Sandy Nairne | EVA 79 marked the first time that the exhibit was presided over by an invited international curator and adjudicator. Nairne set no specific theme for the exhibition, and wrote 'I have selected for the exhibition work that I consider to be the highest quality' from amongst 400 submissions. |
| 1980 | EVA 80 | Brian O’Doherty | |
| 1981 | EVA 81 | Pierre Rastany | |
| 1982 | EVA 82 | Liesbeth Brandt Corstius | |
| 1983 | New Work of Past Winners | | For the 1983 edition of EVA, the committee held a reflective event, inviting the winning artists of the EVA prizes awarded at the five exhibits that had been held to date, to submit new or recent work to comprise the year's exhibition. As such, no curator was appointed. An essay by Aidan Dunne reflecting on the success of EVA from its inception was included in the exhibit's accompanying catalogue. |
| 1984 | EVA 84 | Peter Fuller | Peter Fuller's curatorship was notable for his exclusion of photography on the grounds that it 'is not art', and his refusal to award the sculpture prize to any of the selected sculptural works. During the 1984 exhibit, there was an incident in which a local resident attempted to deface David Lilburn's self-portrait, entitled Towards from the Forceps to the Chains of Office and winner of that year's graphics prize. Having been warned of the event, a photographer from the Limerick Leader arrived in time to take photographs of the resident smashing the glass on the print and prevent any further damage being done. The event was a subject of controversy, reported nationwide, and the photographs were later hung alongside the print in another exhibition. |
| 1985 | EVA 85 | Rudi Fuchs | |
| 1986 | EVA 86 | Nabuo Nakamara | |
| 1987 | EVA 87 | Ida Panicelli | |
| 1988 | Limerick Exhibition of Visual + Art 88 | Florent Bex and Alexander Rozhin | |
| 1989 | EV+A 89: New Work of Past Winners 1984-1988 | | |
| 1990 | EV+A 90: Climates of Thought | Saskia Bos | |
| 1991 | EV+A 91 | Germano Curant | |
| 1992 | EV+A 92 | Lars Nittve | |
| 1993 | EV+A 93 | Gloria Moure | |
| 1994 | EV+A 94 | Jan Hoet | |
| 1995 | EV+A 95 | María de Corral | |
| 1996 | EV+A 96 | Guy Tortosa | |
| 1997 | EV+A 97 | Paul M. O'Reilly | |
| 1998 | EV+A 98: Circus ZZ | Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn | |
| 2000 | e v + a 2000: friends + neighbours | Rosa Martínez | |
| 2001 | e v + a 2001: expanded | Salah M. Hassan | |
| 2002 | e v + a 2002: heroes + holies | Apinan Poshyananda | |
| 2003 | e v + a 2003: on the border of each other | Virginia Pérez-Ratton | |
| 2004 | e v + a 2004: imagine limerick | Zdenka Badovinac | |
| 2005 | OPEN e v + a 2005 | Dan Cameron | |
| 2006 | e v + a 2006: give (a)way | Katerina Gregos | |
| 2007 | OPEN e v + a 2007: a sense of place | Klaus Ottmann | |
| 2008 | e v + a 2008: too early for vacation | Hou Hanru | |
| 2009 | e v + a 2009: reading the city | Angelika Nollert and Yilmaz Dziewior | |
| 2010 | e v + a 2010: matters | Elizabeth Hatz | |
| 2012 | EVA International 2012: After the Future | Annie Fletcher | 2012's After the Future was EVA International's first edition as a biennial, and the first show under Woodrow Kernohan as director. |
| 2014 | EVA International 2014: Agitationism | Bassam El Baroni | Agitationism was a part of the 2014 Limerick National City of Culture programme. |
| 2016 | EVA International 2016: Still (the) Barbarians | Koyo Kouoh | |
| 2018 | 38th EVA International | Inti Guerrero | 2018's 38th EVA International was the first edition under Director Matt Packer. |
| 2020 | | | Scheduled to open on 3 July, it was delayed twice, opening 18 September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |