What’s on in Connaught

‘Cornerstone’- Graduate Exhibition Showcase 2026.

Outset Gallery is pleased to present Cornerstone, the first exhibition of our 2026 programme, opening on Friday 13 February, 6.00–9.00pm.

Cornerstone showcases the work of eight graduates selected through Outset Gallery’s 2025 Graduate Open Call, representing leading art colleges across Ireland. Working across painting, sculpture, video, film, and photography, the exhibition highlights the breadth of talent and ambition emerging from recent graduating classes.

Join us on Friday 13 February, 6–9pm, to celebrate the opening with complimentary refreshments and music from an emerging DJ. Free.

Caravaggio’s masterpieces are some of art’s most instantly recognisable. No one else uses his signature blend of dramatic light, intense naturalism and bold, striking figures. His astonishing paintings have captivated audiences for centuries. But there lies a deeper mystery – one that still beckons us to explore. What do these masterpieces reveal about the man behind the brush? The intriguing self-depictions within his works – sometimes disguised, sometimes in plain sight – offer a rare window into his psyche and personal struggles.

This film unravels the story of one of history’s most brilliant, complex and controversial figures.

‘Cornerstone’- Graduate Exhibition Showcase 2026.

Outset Gallery is pleased to present Cornerstone, the first exhibition of our 2026 programme, opening on Friday 13 February, 6.00–9.00pm.

Cornerstone showcases the work of eight graduates selected through Outset Gallery’s 2025 Graduate Open Call, representing leading art colleges across Ireland. Working across painting, sculpture, video, film, and photography, the exhibition highlights the breadth of talent and ambition emerging from recent graduating classes.

Join us on Friday 13 February, 6–9pm, to celebrate the opening with complimentary refreshments and music from an emerging DJ. Free.

Hymn to Him is a guilty pleasure, a sustained glance at the relationship between the unstable and convoluted lives of artists and the composed stillness of the characters they create. In her painting and photographic work, she lingers on the surfaces of things – bellies, primroses, house keys, vegetables. Costello inserts herself into her compositions and, as her own model, she remains in control of both sides of the canvas.

Waking the Land is a collective based in Leitrim. Our five members are Tara Baoth Mooney, Shane Finan, James Kelly, Laura McMorrow, and Sonya Swarte. We collectively occupy an artist-led studio and experimental space in Manorhamilton that opened in September 2022. Over the past three years, we have led events in north Leitrim in response to environmental grief, care, and tending to the land.

Caravaggio’s masterpieces are some of art’s most instantly recognisable. No one else uses his signature blend of dramatic light, intense naturalism and bold, striking figures. His astonishing paintings have captivated audiences for centuries. But there lies a deeper mystery – one that still beckons us to explore. What do these masterpieces reveal about the man behind the brush? The intriguing self-depictions within his works – sometimes disguised, sometimes in plain sight – offer a rare window into his psyche and personal struggles.

This film unravels the story of one of history’s most brilliant, complex and controversial figures.

Exhibition continues from the 8th of November 2025 to the 28th of February 2026

Jack Butler Yeats (1871–1957) is one of Ireland’s most celebrated twentieth-century artists. The Niland Collection, housed at The Model, holds an extensive body of his work spanning the full arc of his career – from early pen-and-ink illustrations and lively watercolours, to the expressive oil paintings that define his mature style. ‘A Painted Universe’ invites visitors to step into Yeats’s artistic world, where memory, emotion and experience are transformed into colour, form and light.

The Model is delighted to present once more The Sunset Belongs to You – a series of portraits commissioned from two of Irelands most distinguished painters, Mick O’Dea + Geraldine O’Neill. The portraits capture young people from diverse backgrounds living across County Sligo, and were painted between 2022–23. Looked at together, they provide a hopeful glimpse into the Ireland of the future.

Hymn to Him is a guilty pleasure, a sustained glance at the relationship between the unstable and convoluted lives of artists and the composed stillness of the characters they create. In her painting and photographic work, she lingers on the surfaces of things – bellies, primroses, house keys, vegetables. Costello inserts herself into her compositions and, as her own model, she remains in control of both sides of the canvas.

Waking the Land is a collective based in Leitrim. Our five members are Tara Baoth Mooney, Shane Finan, James Kelly, Laura McMorrow, and Sonya Swarte. We collectively occupy an artist-led studio and experimental space in Manorhamilton that opened in September 2022. Over the past three years, we have led events in north Leitrim in response to environmental grief, care, and tending to the land.

Exhibition continues from 17/01/2026 to 14/03/2026.

David Smith presents Don’t Forget To Remember, an exhibition of recent paintings that explore the fluid nature of perception and memory. The works reflect an internal picture of lived, remembered, and imagined experience, shaped by influences ranging from Zen philosophy and ink painting to abstraction and photography. Carrying the contrasting landscape imprints of Hong Kong and Ireland, two distant points on the Eurasian continent, the paintings evoke a rich interplay of place and perception.
Memories of sunlight under varied atmospheric conditions rise to the surface throughout the exhibition: dawn mist, city air, heavy pollution, sparse for

Exhibition continues from 17/01/2026 to 14/03/2026.

Susan Madert presents Interface, a series of paintings set within hotel bedrooms that examine self-knowledge as it emerges at the interface between the individual and their interactions with others. These intimate interior scenes explore moments of reflection, dislocation, and awareness, where private space becomes a site for personal and psychological encounter.

Songs to the Siren.
The Model, Sligo | 24 January – 12 April 2026.
Curated by Hallahan & Welch.

Exhibition Opening: Sat. 24 January, 1 – 3pm.
1pm – Curators’ Tour.
2pm – Reception.

Songs to the Siren brings together works that dwell in ambiguity and emotion. Inspired by Brian O’Nolan’s veiled identity and Tim Buckley’s haunting song, the exhibition features artists including Joyce Pensato, William McKeown, Mark Leckey, Banksy, and Zanele Muholi. It invites visitors to linger with uncertainty, where feeling replaces resolution.

Exhibition continues from 23/01/2026 to 01/03/2026.

“Thread Softly” launches a custom house gallery & studios January 23rd at 6pm.

In this solo exhibition of paintings, Daniel Chester, focuses on the ecology of the rural Irish landscape. In this body of work, Chester delicately captures the subtle interplay between land, water, and sky, revealing the hidden networks and quiet vitality of Ireland’s countryside. Chester’s work focuses on the landscapes and ecology of rural Ireland, inviting viewers to engage deeply with the Irish countryside, reflecting on its beauty and fragility.

Official opening takes place Friday, January 23rd at 6pm.
All Welcome.

Exhibition continues from 23/01/2026 to 28/02/2026.

We make and mold, visceral, hand made works from shared and lived experiences with infertility, miscarriage, endometriosis and premature ovarian failure. Our current work has developed out of a fundamental compulsion to ‘make’ through the loss and grief of remembered futures.

We are interested in the history and politics that surround the female identity and the body. The focus for the work for this exhibition is on the representation of women in literature at the end of the 18th Century in the light of contemporary female ideologies, exploring and comparing the internalisation of dominant cultural beliefs regarding expected roles for girls and women in Ireland today.

Hamilton Gallery introduces the work of Rachel Martin, a recent graduate of LSAD. It depicts coastal scenes of Sligo through collagraph, aquatint and cyanotype prints. Martin explores the ocean’s surface and what unfolds beneath it, building a bridge between a collective view and personal experience.