The Female Image Claimed

An exhibition of works by Jo Slade and Gerry Carew in response to John Ferrera.

6s & 7s Gallery, Davis Street, Tipperary Town, E34 VX84.

Opening hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11am-4pm

Jo Slade is a poet, and a multimedia artist. She lives and works in Limerick. Studied at the Limerick School of Art & Design, The National College of Art and the University of Limerick. Jo has exhibited her paintings, sculptures and installations widely in Ireland, France and Italy in both solo and group shows. Her work is included in private collections in the UK, France, Italy and Ireland and in National Collections. Her most recent solo exhibition Nostos, an exhibition of paintings, sculptures & assemblages was in The Courthouse Gallery Ennisdymon Co.Clare 2020. She is the author of seven collections of poetry and two chapbooks of poems. Her new poetry collection, O N C E, was published by Salmon Poetry, in March 2025.

“When I was first introduced to the work of John Ferrera through my artist friend Gerry Cerew, I was struck by the silence of these images of women. Though the prints are serenely beautiful the women appear to have been muted, bound together like sisters in their quietude. Their true identities remain veiled. These print images of women have been created to be gazed at not to be engaged with in a meaningful way. My response as a predominately abstract painter, is to use the materiality of paint to create depth and texture, to reimagine their strength and resilience. To use colour to turn their silence into a visible presence.” – Jo Slade

Gerry Carew is an artist and art therapist and owner of At 6s & 7s Gallery in Tipperary Town. She studied at the Limerick School of Art and Design and Crawford Art College Cork. Recently retired from UHL Department of Psychiatry where she worked as senior art therapist for over 30 years Gerry believes in the value and joy of art ‘Art isn’t something separate from daily life – its woven into how we see, feel and make sense of the world. Gerry has had a number of exhibitions in Ireland, her most recent work was exhibited in Perugia Italy as part of the 2024 Art Therapy Biennale. The female in the landscape is a reoccurring theme in her work.

“I was introduced to John Ferrera almost twenty years ago in his studio in Southbridge MA. I was captivated by his hand finished prints of women which appear only as heads and shoulders – serene, stylised their elegance spoke to me of both beauty and constraint. I found myself imagining the rest of them: the curve of a waist, the sweep of a skirt. I wanted to give them bodies, gestures and space to breath. My work emerged as a conversation rather than a contrast to John’s images. A reclaim of what is unseen, posture, poise and perhaps a whisper of rebellion.” – Gerry Carew

John Ferrera, Southbridge MA, USA
A Journeyman Artist is how he describes himself, John has worked for over 7o years with a variety of creative mediums, drawing, watercolour, ink, print, pastel, sculpture and photography. A truly prolific artist who has explored a variety of themes from nature, the sea, to birds and animals. Figurative, portrait and oriental themes are a small selection of what had inspired him through his long creative life. His illustrations have been inspired by characters in the Civil War and all of Dickens characters.