• Picture This – Your National Visual Arts Guide: PhotoIreland Special

    July 22, 2016 - By 

    July is a strange month in Ireland, an interim of sorts. It’s the summer month without a bank holiday. Most sports have taken a hiatus. The Euros are done and dusted. Even the GAA Championship, that bastion of Irish summer months, doesn’t really start until August. The Leaving & Junior Certs are over, as Alice Cooper once said – school’s out for the summer. You could be half tempted to either count down or whittle away the days until that glorious long weekend at the start of August – and with the weather we’ve had this week who’d blame you.…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Environment

    July 12, 2016 - By 

    The concept of environments, and environmental impact, resonates across the broad content and diverse mediums featured in this edition of The Thin Air’s Picture This. While this theme is present in the traditional sense of the impact we as a human race have had on the environment, it is more keenly felt in the reverse and the impact an environment can have on us – the subject and the audience. The four shows highlight how it can alter the cultures and traditions of its inhabitants, help formulate ideologies and craft viewpoints. In a broader sense we also see the impact…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Boundaries

    June 27, 2016 - By 

    Boundaries as a theme is present in the four shows in this week’s Picture This – don’t worry we here at The Thin Air are not talking about Brexit. We mean boundaries in the sense of where something can be pushed to and expanded beyond, rather than the traditional sense of landmass and exclusion. Boundaries come with preconceptions, limitations and a sense of where something should stop or where you should stop exploring. The shows this week in Dublin, Belfast, Sligo and Cork alter, expand and shatter these while housing engaging and thought provoking exhibitions. We see a reexamination of…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Education

    June 13, 2016 - By 

    The three shows that make up this week’s edition of Picture This are as diverse and seemingly contrasting as the come. One features the retrospective of an Irish painter born a hundred years ago (Ulster Museum in Belfast), another is a graduation show of 16 photographers (Gallery of Photography in Dublin), while the third (Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda) takes a look at an altogether more national subject – The 1916 Rising. While the dates of 1916 and 2016, as both departure and reflection points, feature in each exhibition it’s the themes of education and understanding the ring out loudest from these four…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Retrospective Viewpoints

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Merlin James, Fence, 2002 The themes of retrospectives and viewpoints, in terms of personal, institutional and national culture, resonate in the shows from Dublin, Carlow and Limerick chosen in this edition of Picture This. In Dublin, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios’ latest exhibition looks at the last 100 years history of Trinity College and casts a light on some of the institution’s lesser known fables. A more critical look at the role of educational institutions can be found in Limerick and Ormston House, this show also looks at the cultural appropriation of languages in Ireland and further afield. Cultural appropriation…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Collaboration and Identity

    May 13, 2016 - By 

    A multitude of practices across a wide-range of disciplines are featured in this edition of Picture This – and in some cases this diversity can be found in a single show. A general thematic arc of Collaboration and Identity exists within the four shows highlighted in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Laois. Collaboration, be they between artists, spaces and mediums, is present in all shows and forms the core of These Days are Persistent and Changeable (Belfast) and You Make Mine/I Make Yours (Cork) both of which feature works by groups rather than individual artists. Steven Maybury’s Anicca (Dublin) is built…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Bank Holiday Weekend

    May 1, 2016 - By 

    Paul Seawright – News Operations III Ah the summer. Will it come? Shall we be teased again for another few months? This weekend’s Bank Holiday is scheduled to be a washout around the country. Needless to say we here at The Thin Air strongly hope this prediction is wrong, but if not there are plenty of exhibitions happening around the country to keep you entertained – and dry! Community, environment and reflection form common themes across the exhibitions highlighted in this edition of Picture This. Environment, in both the natural sense and as a habitat, from the structure of Neomorph…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide- Future & Past

    April 15, 2016 - By 

    As we tentatively approach the summer galleries are beginning to launch their summer shows and draw their spring endeavours to a close. This looking ahead while checking back is one of the key themes across the exhibitions chosen for this edition of Picture This. The future of Ireland, her art and the wider contemporary art landscape is discussed in shows such as 2116 in Cork, EVA International in Limerick and Phototropism in Dublin. Casting our minds back forms the centrepiece of the Peter Dressler show in Belfast as the work or the late German photographer takes centre stage, this revisionary…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Fool’s Weekend

    April 1, 2016 - By 

    The biggest cultural and historical weekend these shores have ever seen may have passed but there are still a treasure trove of exhibitions and events on nationally to continue the cultural outpouring. In this installment of Picture This, following on from visual and musical spectacles of last weekend, we’re throwing light on video and music themed shows on nationwide. From personal accounts of childhood, to comments on city architect and pieces about relationships these is something on for all to enjoy. Words by Aidan Kelly Murphy. Belfast: “An exploration of the mythologies of past events and relationships.” What: Other &…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Easter Weekend

    March 18, 2016 - By 

    The theme of 1916 and the centenary of The Rising rings loudly in the shows currently on display in Ireland’s galleries. You can see a full itinerary of cultural events associated with the celebrations here. This cultural behemoth can be all encompassing so if you looking for a break from this or for something a little different, below are a selection of excellent shows currently on around Ireland. Words by Aidan Kelly Murphy. What: AFFECTIVE ENTITIES Where: CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork When: 5th to 26th March As part of their Make 2016 Symposium: Objects and Revolution, CIT invited a…