18th May – 30th June | Opening 17th May 6-8pm | ‘Between Leaving and a Possible Return’ | First Floor Gallery, The Lab, Foley Street, Dublin 1 | Neil Carroll’s work spans three essentially different media; painting, sculpture and installation. Centred around a painting process, sculpture and installation are incorporated and amalgamated so that painting can become expansive and very often site-specific. The manifestations of these media has ranged from the brutish: squat and broad (made from wood and plaster and house-paint) to the ephemeral and temporal: a painted room that was erased from existence almost as soon as it arrived. This ‘painting’ process begins from a non-specific point. A mark becomes the intersection of many points which unfolds to produce a visual encounter. The process deals with the elements of painting such as frame, perspective or space, but teases them apart and chases them through their various physical manifestations. | www.thelab.ie

18 May – 10 June | Opening 7 pm on Friday 18th of May | ‘Swete Breth’ in the Red Room Gallery, a new art space established primarily to support LGBT artists in Outhouse on Capel St. | www.outhouse.ie

Official Festival Launch May 25th 6pm-9pm in Block T, Smithfield Square, Dublin 7 | Festival launch sponsored by Jameson, Little Italy and Fresh. The launch also encompasses the Exhibition Opening of group show with over 80 artists from participating studios in Dublin, Marseille and Lisbon.  BLOCK T is proud to present LINK CULTUREFEST, a weekend festival that aims to showcase and celebrate the culture, art and people that make up the diverse community that exists in Smithfield and its surrounding areas. Between the 25th and 27th of May LINK CULTUREFEST will host participating local and international artists, musicians and curators in a series of events for the public. The festival kicks off with the launch in Smithfield Square on Friday 25th May with a large-scale exhibition featuring over 70 artists, and musical events in St. Michan’s Church and The Joinery.

The three day programme will feature Art Exhibitions, Live Concerts, Open Studios, Artist Talks, Screenings and Performances. This year’s festival will bring together a number of creative enterprises located between Stoneybatter and Capel St. and includes over 100 participating artists over the entire weekend. The festival will be hosted in up to 20 different buildings around these areas, encompassing the gallery and studio spaces of participating organisations, as well as breathing life into a number of vacant properties. For more information go to www.linkculturefest.ie | For enquiries contact Grace at linkpress@blockt.ie

Ronnie Hughes exhibition Zygotic Tendencies, at the Rubicon has been extended until 19 May 2012.   Hughes’ concern with the scientific is revisited in ‘Zygotic Tendencies’, which features a number of pieces that have evolved from diverse starting points. For Hughes, the starting point for each visually striking piece begins with something seemingly arbitrary – a geometric or natural pattern, an image, or even protrusions on the weave of a canvas. In Zygotic Tendencies, the assorted, abstract compositions are comprised of lines, dots, shapes, patterns and geometric elements that have all been distorted to produce a final image. | www.rubicongallery.ie/exhibitions/zygotic-tendencies

18 May – 30 June 2012 | Opening 6-8pm on Thurs 17 May 2012 | The LAB in association with Pallas Projects/Studios and Fire Station Artists’ Studios present: Nicki Wynnychuk ‘Conversations in’: Conversations in: is an ongoing project that considers the relationship between image & object within the dilemma of a contemporary art practice. Conversations in: (Dublin) is the third chapter in the series following on from Conversations in: (Sydney) 2011 & Conversations in: (Melbourne) 2010. Wynnychuk’s practice is based on the recuperation and transformation of found, familiar and banal objects. The intent is to convert, translate and reassemble the material so that it is imbued with a precarious new energy. The conceptual framework continues a sustained investigation into the theorist Herfried Munkler’s concept of a post-heroic society.

An artists’ talk, conducted between curator Gavin Murphy and Nicki Wynnychuk, will take place in The LAB at 1pm on Thursday 24th May. The artist will discuss his residency, his work, and his recent experiences in Papua New Guinea. Booking is advised, please check website for more details : www.pallasprojects.org/site/

Dead Zoo | Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt | 18 May until 27 June 2012 | Preview on 17 May 2012, 6 – 7.30pm | The Return, Goethe-Institut Irland, 37 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. |

Animals have been used in warfare for centuries for many purposes such as communication, espionage, transport or as explosives, detectors or weapons. Like soldiers some of them were decorated or promoted. The title of the exhibition takes its name from the Natural History Museum in Dublin which is commonly known as “The Dead Zoo”. Dead Zoo aims to display a different type of classification than that of nature. The animals represented are not scientifically classified but militarily. Özlem Günyol and Mustafa Kunt have been collaborating since 2005. Together they investigate the representation of individual and collective belonging, the meaning of language, symbols, and information conveyed by the media. The idea for Dead Zoo originates from their residency in Dublin in 2011, an exchange project between Temple Bar Gallery & Studios and the Culture Department of the City of Frankfurt/M. The participation of the artists was assisted by Jonathan Carroll. Supported by the Friends and Patrons of the Goethe-Institut Irland. www.goethe.de/ins/ie/dub/kue/en9263179v.htm

10 May – 30 June 2012 | Lincoln Place, Dublin 2 | ‘[Excuse me?]…is this Spain?’ Contemporary art exhibition | Bullfighting, flamenco, tapas, siesta, sunshine… Is this the perception of Spain abroad? Instituto Cervantes Dublin will showcase works of contemporary Spanish artists a wide variety of styles. The artists portray the reality of their country to question the stereotypes and clichés of the Spanish culture. Some of the works represent a social criticism of the problems Spain is facing at the moment: real estate crises, unemployment, immigration and emigration. Artists: Alicia Framis, María Cañas, Monu & No Es, UHF, C.A.S.I.T.A., Greta Alfaro, Democracia, Left Hand Rotation, Derivart | www.dublin.cervantes.es/FichasCultura/Ficha82076_16_2.htm

17 May – 16 June | Opening Thurs 17 May, 7 – 9 pm : The Fold (Issue 7) will be launched in the gallery the same night. Following on from a successful launch of Joyce in the City: Dubliners at Oonagh Young Gallery with a live performance by Amanda Coogan called ‘Molly Blooms’ on April 1st, we are pleased to present the video piece ‘Everness’ by Alejandro Cesarco (Uruguay) and 3 works on paper by Vittorio Santoro (Switzerland) in this exhibition Ever/Until. The works presented in Ever/Until relate directly to time and memory. Narrative ambiguities are particular to both Cesarco and Santoro, each citing literary sources, amongst other artistic arenas, as inspiration for much of their work. Whether directly referenced or obliquely observed, the appropriation of titles, sentences or whole scenes are sometimes re-contextualised and therefore reevaluated. Curated by Christa-Maria Lerm Hays and Oonagh Young. | www.oonaghyoung.com

24 May – 6 June | Opening Thursday 24 May 2012, 7pm – 9pm | You are invited to the opening of ‘Symbiosis’ | www.adriennemfinnerty.com |www.roisinduffy.com

May 17th – June 14th | Opening Thursday May 17th 6-8pm : to be officially opened by former rugby International player, Bernard Jackman | 24 South Frederick St, Dublin 2 | The Doorway Gallery is delighted to host an exhibition by Iwona Nartowska O’Reilly called ‘Ruffians & Gentlemen’. Iwona works in mixed media encaustic, where she combines the millennia old technique of painting with wax and other drawing mediums such as charcoal, pencil and pastels. She possesses a distinctive figure drawing style, in which she accentuates the movement of the body and muscle tone. The use of wax provides the paintings with a strong and robust appearance. The encaustic medium is very well suited for portraying movement and action in painting. This becomes apparent when the brush interacts with the painting surface, occurring at a much quicker rate than other mediums, due to the rapid setting of wax. | www.thedoorwaygallery.com