• TULCA Arts Festival

    TULCA Arts Festival returns for it’s 15th edition this November and key details about the festival have been released. Matt Packer, Director of CCA Derry~Londonderry, has been announced as this year’s curator, with the festival itself being titled They Call us the Screamers. The title is drawn from the Jenny James novel of the same name, which details the establishment of the therapy commune (Atalantis) by James in the West of Ireland in the 1970s. With this in mind this year’s festival narrative is a look at “anti-modernism, cultural withdrawal, primal voice, self-enlightenment, and an attempt to establish new forms of social relations in…

  • Ban an Tí Exhibition

    Today and tomorrow are the last days to catch the Ban an Tí exhibition in The Chocolate Factory on King’s Inn Street. The show is a multi-artist response to the home as a female space, and looks at the domestication of femininity and the role of women in modern Irish society. Ban an Tí features a broad range of mediums from a multitude of artists, including Orla Langton, Kathryn McShane and Rachael Kelly – who was recently long-listed for the Aesthetica Art Price 2017. As well as installation work, performance art is also included with tomorrow seeing Léann Herlihy performing A glove is a gift at 3pm. The space is open…

  • Artist Talk: Kevin Consgrove @ TBG+S

    Temple Bar Gallery + Studios have announced details of a forthcoming talk between Aidan Cosgrove (Mother’s Tankstation Limited) and Irish Times art critic Aidan Dunne. Cosgrove, who has a studio in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, is known for his vivid and expressive depictions of workshops and work spaces and is set to discuss this theme as well as his own personal practice. The event is free of charge but booking is essential. It starts at 6pm next Wednesday (15th) in Studio 6. Full details here.

  • Plastik Festival 2017 Launch

    Returning this March is the biennial Plastik Festival. The weekend long festival was created in a collaboration with London’s LUX art agency, and is presented in partnership with Tempe Bar Gallery + Studios, the IFI and Dun Laoghaire’s iadt. 2015’s edition saw screenings, discussions and exhibitions in Cork, Galway and Dublin and featured a range of artists including Gerard Byrne and Sarah Pierce. 2017’s edition has already seen the announcement of Hilary Lloyd’s new show Woodall in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, with the show’s opening also doubling as the launch of the festival’s full schedule. Opening tomorrow Friday at 5pm be sure to catch this…

  • Susan MacWilliams @ Highlanes Gallery

    Opening this Saturday, February 18th, in Drogheda’s Highlanes Gallery is Modern Experiments – a look at the work of one of Ireland’s most intriguing and beguiling artists: Susan MacWilliams. The exhibition features work from MacWilliams’ extensive back catalogue, with focus on her output since 1998 when she began to use video as a medium. The show is a cross-border collaboration between both the Republic and Northern Arts Councils, which saw the show open in F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio prior to Christmas, before been shown here in Highlanes, and then moving onto Uilinn in Cork and Butler Gallery in Kilkenny. You can…

  • Personae @ Butler Gallery

    Established in 1943, and growing ever since through a combination of purchases, loans and gifts, the Butler Gallery’s permanent collection is both a broad and varied collation of artistic mediums. This year’s collection presentation is entitled Personae and features pieces on loan from the permanent collection at IMMA, with works by Diane Arbus, Louise Bourgeois, Jackie Nickerson and Thomas Ruff. As well as the artwork on display, the show also features the gallery’s on-going collaboration with Arts & Disability Ireland: Discovery Pens. A wonderful initiative that sees audio descriptive pens provided to visitors in order to allow all, regardless of sight, to engage with…

  • EVA International 2018 Submission

    Ireland’s biennial international art extravaganza EVA International was a huge success last summer in Limerick, attracting over 100,000 – you can read our review of the festival here. Entitled Still (the) Barbarians and curated by Cameroon-born Koyo Kouoh, the biennial was a response to the year that saw Ireland celebrate and remember the centenary since The Rising. Submission for next year’s event, curated this time by Columbian Inti Guerrero, are open until January 31st – full details here. Only 15 months till we get to see what’s in store!

  • Turner Month @ The National Gallery

    To the benefit of both the National Gallery of Ireland and Irish art fans Henry Vaughan in 1900, despite having no connection to this island, donated his sizeable Turner collection to be split among the national galleries of Scotland and Ireland as well as the Victoria & Albert and Tate museums in London. A quirk of the Vaughan Bequest was a stipulation that the work only be shown in January – to both better preserve the works and enhance it in the lower light of January – and for it to be free of charge. Over a hundred years later the tradition is still being kept and…

  • RHA Annual Exhibition Announced

    Details for this year’s RHA Annual Exhibition have been announced by the Dublin gallery. With last year’s showcase moved forward to accommodate centenary celebrations for The Rising, this year it will return to its traditional summer slot – running from May 23rd to August 12th. Applications for this the 187th edition of Ireland’s largest and oldest open submission exhibition are due to close on March 23rd, with full details on submissions and forms available here. As well as providing an unrivaled opportunity to view and purchase works by artists emerging and established, it also provides a timely cross-section or current…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Reflection

    2016 has been proposed as a year of reflection for the island of Ireland. While the main focus of this reflection has been channelled towards the centenary of the two conflicts that dominated Ireland – The 1916 Easter Rising – and Europe – The Battle of the Somme – it has also instigated a broader societal reflection on the current state of play of this and many other nations; as well stirring a personal reflection of our own past and familial history. This process is set to continue over the next few years as the centenary of many events that…