Local Artist Chosen

Artist Lorene Ireland is hosting a special wine and cheese reception on Friday, August 19 from 6 to 9 pm  at her Ireland Gallery on Old South Wharf to celebrate her participation as finalist in the Brancott Estate World of Wearable Art (WOW) Awards Show, an annual extravaganza twisting conventional perceptions of both art and fashion.

Ireland is a finalist in this year’s WOW Awards Show.  Two of her garments made from sea shells and fine china mosaics are entered in the finals for the American Express Open Division and the New Zealand Tourism Division.

Her Ireland Galleries at 13 Old South Wharf houses an array of interesting and unusual art created and selected by Lorene and specializing in one-of-a-kind handmade furniture, figurative drawer sculptures and decorative items, covered in mosaic patterns using shells, glass and porcelain china.

An accomplish painter, sculptor, and glass maker, Ireland spends her winters designing and creating oil paintings that combine realist and impressionist styles, and miniatures of local beach scenes, some embellished with real seashells.

She has always been a lover of high fashion.  A painter and a sculptress by trade, she began using mosaics in 1997 to create tables.  After attending the “Jewel Ball” in La Jolla, she decided to take her love of fashion and mosaics to a higher degree by designing art that looked like an evening gown with the most unlikely of materials.  In the beginning, Ireland designed mosaic garments on torso and handmade figurative sculptures.  They were made of china mosaics, porcelain and glass that actually looked like an evening gown.

When a client asked her to design a wall hanging that looked like a mosaic bathing suit, the rest became history.  Ireland designed a wearable art mosaic bustier that appeared on the runway of New York City’s Couture Fashion Week at the prestigious Waldorf Astoria Hotel this past February.
World of Wearable Art challenges designers to create a work that has impact on an arena stage, can withstand detailed scrutiny, movement of specialist choreography, and has overall WOW factor.  These requirements presented a particular challenge for Ireland, who using materials like sea shells and china.    

The competition is fierce, but most designers agree, it’s not about winning — it’s about creating a garment that becomes part of the Brancott Estate World of Wearable Art Awards Show. Ireland will find out on Friday August 26 how her two designs fare among the other finalists.