Skin, an artistic atlas

The public launch of the Irish Skin Foundation has been organised over a six-week period commencing with the opening of an art exhibition, the subject of which is SKIN.
Introducing the Irish Skin Foundation to the public through the medium of art has been motivated by a number of factors. Skin is the most painted, the most photographed and the most sculpted organ of the body. But perhaps the most remarkable function of skin is its fundamental role in shaping how we feel about ourselves and others, its role in the making of our personalities. Our skin not only moulds our bodies, it shapes our personas. Diseased skin can act as an inhibitory barrier, whereas beautiful skin can be an enticing interface between the microcosm of self and the macrocosm of the world. 
The exhibition, SKIN – an artistic atlas, curated by the Director of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Patrick T. Murphy, touches on some of the most dominant themes that skin invokes, such as race, gender, age, decay, disease, texture, identity, eroticism, race, adornment and display. Ranging through photography, painting and video it promises to be a challenging and stimulating exhibition. 
Among the artists included are John Coplans, Robert Ballagh, Andrés Serrano, Sigalit Landau, Jeanne Silverthorne, Jessica Robbins, Gwen Hardie, Marlene Dumas, Barrie Cooke, Dorothy Cross, Phillip Pearlstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nicholas Nixon, Hannah Wilke, Cara Phillips, Cecily Brennan, Byron Kim, Mary Kelly, Ariana Page Russell, Shirin Neshat, Spencer Tunick, Dennis Oppenheim and works by J. Connolly and W. Kirwan from the Wallace Collection, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.