• Looking at the Stars: Slum Cinema

    May 25, 2017 - By 

    After several years of transience and venue shifting, Dublin B-movie night Slum Cinema has found a new home at MVP on Clanbrassil Street, and kick starts its residency at the start of next month with the greatest martial arts movie of them all, Bruce Lee’s final performance, 1973’s Enter The Dragon. Started in 2012, Slum Cinema is the passion project of Canadian Anna Davies, but it’s ripe to be elevated to cult classic status if its new stint at MVP goes as well as it deserves. As described by its founder, Slum Cinema is an exploitation/vintage/trash/cult cinema club. Its previous…

  • Exhibition: School Portraits @ Draíocht

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    School Portraits, an exhibition which presented the work of four artists who have submerged themselves within the environments of Irish schools, opens tonight in Blanchardstown’s Draíocht. The show features the work of John Ahearn, Mandy O’Neill, Blaise Smith and Kilian Waters. Each has approached the topic with a different medium – photography, video, sculpture and paint, with Ahearn’s 1994 piece St Francis Street Boys on loan from the IMMA collection. School Portraits promises to be a fascinating look at life in Irish schools and will also help engage children in visual arts from a young age and spark discourses across generations. With that in…

  • Picture This: The Recount of Conflict @ Pallas Projects

    May 11, 2017 - By 

    © Jasper Bastian – Across The River What: The Recount of Conflict Where: Pallas Studios, Dublin When: 4th to 14th May {Recount: noun, An act or instance of giving an account of an event or experience. Conflict: noun, A serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one; a state of mind in which a person experiences a clash of opposing feelings or needs.} It is the collation, and subsequent narrative extraction, that solidifies The Recount of Conflict as both a successful exhibition, in terms of expression and discourse, and as an introductory platform for seven artists. On initial surface value, the imagery…

  • PhotoIreland Festival Launch

    May 4, 2017 - By 

    Having moved from its traditional July slot to the start of Summer, the PhotoIreland Festival launches tonight in Dublin’s Tara Building from 7pm. Previous incarnations of the month long arts festival have seen artists being invited to respond to a specific theme, this year sees a shift in that practice as the invitation has been to respond to a specific place – Marsh’s Library, the 18th Century library nestled in St. Patrick’s Close adjacent to the cathedral.  As well as this main brief there are looks at the Hispanic World as well as bodies of work by Michal Iwanowski and Steven Nestor, with the…

  • Gallery Open Call: Eight

    May 8, 2017 - By 

    Eight, on Dublin’s Dawson Street, have announced details on an open call for artists to apply to for their 2017/18 programme. In recent years the gallery has hosted compact but expansive shows by a number of key emerging artists, including Eleanor McCaughey, James Kirwan, David Lunney and more. As well as these solo shows the space has worked in conjunction with other bodies, most notably with Basic Space Dublin for Culture Night last year, to host engaging group shows, INFRA in the case of Basic Space Dublin. Full details of the submission requirements can be found here, with an expressive…

  • Exhibition: A Rhythm Exposed @ MART

    May 10, 2017 - By 

    Artist Steven Maybury returns with a new exhibition, entitled A Rhythm Exposed (Routines: 5-6), which is due to open this coming Thursday in The MART Gallery, Rathmines. While the series is a continuation of thoughts previously explore in his 2016 shows, Anicca (The Library Project, Dublin) and Dukka (Platform Arts, Belfast), this new work sees Maybury embracing new materials and approaches, all while further exploring the Buddhist Doctrines of existence and impermanence discussed in those exhibitions. Drawing is still a key language for the artist’s output, with the exhibition set to examine and challenge the processes of archiving and presentation. We chatted to Maybury last…

  • Silverbacks – Sink The Fat Moon

    April 28, 2017 - By 

    Insofar as first-rate lo-fi indie rock goes, the island of Ireland is surely right up there with the most fertile.Laying claim to their stake amongst the very best, Dublin’s Silverbacks release a new EP, the five-track Sink The Fat Moon on May 19. If new single ‘Dirty Money’ is anything to by, we’re in for something well worth the wait. A terse, harmonic-laden effort that openly yet rather brilliantly filters the more more reclined efforts of the holy trifecta that is Sonic Youth, Pavement and Pixies, it’s a masterfully languid release betraying real purpose in its disaffected swagger. This follows up on their…

  • Life after Buildings @ Mother’s Tankstation

    April 19, 2017 - By 

    Opening tonight in Dublin’s Mother’s Tankstation is the latest exhibition from Irish artist Brendan Earley. The work, entitled Life after Buildings, is the result of Earley’s shift in focus over the last few years following the completion of a studio in the Wicklow Mountains. Taking ques from American poet Lew Welch, as well as the change in surroundings, Earley returns with a series of new drawings that seek to initiate rather than simply respond and record. This, coupled with his new more rural and less cluttered surroundings, has resulted in an intriguing and, on surface value, more minimal approach. The show…

  • Cat Palace – why don’t you // why don’t you, go off

    April 14, 2017 - By 

    We’ve had our eye on Dublin’s Cat Palace since their 2015 debut EP. The moniker under which frontman David Blaney operates, the act balances social commentary, personal revelations and kitchen sink absurd realism by way of very listenable alt. rock and folk forays. Featuring a full band, debut album why don’t you // why don’t you, go off is out now through Little L Records. Absorbing you into his worldview for about 40 minutes, it’s a stream-of-consciousness trip through ruminations on life, from the deeply relatable nostalgic yearning and the dissatisfaction brought to you by your 20’s (Bret Hart & Vince McMahon, 1997 in ‘Welcome…