Gilbert & George at the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast

Celebrating Gilbert & George’s 50th anniversary, the Metropolitan Arts Centre’s exhibition ‘SCAPEGOATING PICTURES for Belfast’ is the first significant display of the artists’ works in Ireland since 1999.

‘THE SCAPEGOATING PICTURES’ describe the volatile, tense, accelerated and mysterious reality of our increasingly technological, multi-faith and multi-cultural world. Gilbert & George take their place in the works as shattered and spirit-like forms – at times masked, at times as grotesquely capering skeletons, at times dead-eyed and impassive.

Noirin McKinney, Director of Arts Development, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented: “Gilbert and George are the most influential duo of contemporary British art. The ‘SCAPEGOATING PICTURES’ like all their epic works, will no doubt offend, provoke and intrigue us, presenting the viewer with an unrelenting portrayal of the fractures evident in Britain today.”