What’s on in Connaught

The Embassy of Ireland, The Netherlands, in collaboration with Hamilton Gallery Sligo and Pulchri Studio, The Hague, invited submissions for an exhibition of new paintings by artists resident either on the island of Ireland or in The Netherlands.
Artists were asked to create and submit up to 2 original artworks themed on this poem. The response and resulting exhibition features 285 original artworks of which 204 were Irish artists
Hamilton Gallery is pleased to present the artwork by the artists resident on the island of Ireland included in the exhibition in The Hague. Carrying the Songs runs from Saturday October 3rd to Saturday October 24th.

Exhibition continues from 11/09/26-09/10/26.

“Cultural Similitudes” is an exhibition of photographs from the archives of award-winning photographer Laura Jean Zito, pairing images she made in the Sinai Desert of the Bedouin with photos of people in Ireland over the last five decades, to foster an appreciation of the similarities that bind us together as humans rather than the oft portrayed focus on the differences that contribute to the destruction of the planet and our ability to live in it harmoniously. The exhibition will hold an opening reception at 7:30 on Friday, September 11, at which all are welcome. Gallery hours are 12-5 Tues-Fri and 10-3 Sat.

Exhibition continues from 11/09/26-09/10/26.

“Cultural Similitudes” is an exhibition of photographs from the archives of award-winning photographer Laura Jean Zito, pairing images she made in the Sinai Desert of the Bedouin with photos of people in Ireland over the last five decades, to foster an appreciation of the similarities that bind us together as humans rather than the oft portrayed focus on the differences that contribute to the destruction of the planet and our ability to live in it harmoniously. The exhibition will hold an opening reception at 7:30 on Friday, September 11, at which all are welcome. Gallery hours are 12-5 Tues-Fri and 10-3 Sat.

The exhibition takes its name from the Irish for a seam or joint, Siúnta weaves together separate narratives into imagined ecological relationships. Forms of flesh, fur, flower and feather mingle and merge. Subjects develop symbiotic and antagonistic relationships, display unfamiliar actions and establish new habits together.

Niamh Coffey is a Dublin-based visual artist from Laois, whose practice encompasses textiles, drawings and sculpture. Their work uses ideas from ecology, queer theory and Irish folklore to create imagined ecological relationships. Niamh graduated from NCAD in 2016 with a degree in Sculpture and Expanded Practices.

Opening by Geraldine Mitchell at 6pm 17 September.

The Faraway Nearby, a solo exhibition of new paintings of remembered geographies and stories that question the uncertainty of what is real and what is imagined and how stories can become something else in the retelling,

Mags Duffy is based in the Custom House Studios. She works across painting, textiles, photography and text. Drawing on her experience of living in a rural coastal environment in the West of Ireland, she creates real and imagined landscapes that explore inner and outer worlds and the fragility of living in these places. She has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Exhibition launch 18th September 5-8pm at Leitrim Sculpture Centre.

Matters of Process is a new exhibition series exploring the work of artists who completed a Technical Development Research Residency (TDR) at the Centre the previous year. During their residencies, artists experimented with a range of materials, objects and ideas investigating the often-hidden processes and energies embedded in their making. The exhibition brings these processes into view, revealing how they shaped the emergence of new work.
Artists – Brenda Kearney, Vanessa Donoso-Lopez, Margo McNulty, Anna Spearman, David Spence.

Exhibition runs 18/09/26-15/11/26.

Desire Lines is aemi’s 2026 touring programme, an annual selection of artist and experimental film that brings together a range of voices from Irish and international contemporary practice.

Featuring films by Chloe Brenan, Collectif Faire Part, Eóin Heaney, Olivia Normile and Basma al-Sharif, ‘Desire Lines’ premiered at the Irish Film Institute in January and has since screened in Belfast and Galway with further dates also confirmed to take place later in 2026 in Wicklow, Louth and Offaly.

Exhibition runs 13/09/26-17/01/26.

Cathy Wilkes grew up in a working-class area of East Belfast and moved to Glasgow aged 19, in 1985. After returning to Ireland for four years, she has lived in Scotland since 1994. Her art and writing are introspective, and sometimes at the edge of legibility. At the same time, out of Wilkes’ non-dualist world emerge figures and objects which are potently direct and seditious. The exhibition includes three Untitled installations from 2026, 2024 and 2019 together with paintings and sculpture from the same period. Cathy Wilkes represented Britain at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 and Scotland at the 51st Venice Biennial in 2005.