Graphic Studio Dublin published sponsors’ portfolios from the 1960s to the 1980s. These portfolios consisted of six prints presented in a portfolio and in later publications a poem was also added. These works were produced to raise funds for the running of the studio and were a great success. In 2010 Graphic Studio relaunched the Sponsors' Portfolios as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations. Over ten years, they will publish 10 portfolios (one per year). Each year an edition of 75 bespoke folders is made, each of which contains four prints by Graphic Studio printmakers and invited artists and one piece of writing. Writers have included Jennifer Johnston, John Banville and Colm Toibín.
The commissioned artists and writer in 2017 are: Cliona Doyle, Gwen O'Dowd, Aoife Scott, Elke Thönnes, and the writer Colm Toibín.
This print is by Gwen O’Dowd. Born in Dublin, Gwen studied at the National College of Art & Design, and began exhibiting in the mid-1980s. She has exhibited regularly in Ireland and Britain, as well as continental Europe and North America. She participated in the L’Imaginaire Irlandais festival in Paris in 1996, and her work is in many public and private collections. Among other awards, she won the Oireachtas Exhibition prize in 1990 and the Íontas Exhibition prize in 1994.