What’s On around Ireland

Dr Matthew Whyte covers London during a period of extraordinary expansion, industrial transformation and global influence. The largest city in Europe, it becomes a place where fog, smoke, commerce and empire reshape how people experience urban life. Artists such as J. M. W. Turner, John Constable and James McNeill Whistler respond to this environment by focusing on atmosphere, light and fleeting perception rather than fixed narrative. The city itself becomes a subject of modern visual experimentation. Musical references help situate London’s new identity.

A Spanish cult documentary marking its fiftieth anniversary

Celebrate the Day of Spanish Cinema with the film screening of El desencanto (1976), a cult documentary marking its fiftieth anniversary. The film reveals the story of the family of Francoist poet Leopoldo Panero, as recounted by his own kin fourteen years after his death.

Dir. Jaime Chávarri, 1976, 97 min

In Spanish with English subtitles

‘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. ‘Desire Lines’ premiered at the Irish Film Institute on Thursday 22nd January 2026 and features films by Chloe Brenan, Collectif Faire Part, Eóin Heaney, Olivia Normile and Basma al-Sharif. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers featured in the programme.

Wexford Arts Centre is pleased to present Cut-Flow, a solo exhibition by Lar O’Toole. The exhibition will run in D’lush Cafe from Wednesday, 7th October, to Wednesday, 18th November, 2026.

Through photography and video, Cut-Flow explores the intersecting histories, rituals and environmental realities of Our Lady’s Island. The exhibition considers how cultural memory, belief and ecological change become embedded within a landscape shaped by both natural processes and human intervention.

O’Toole’s practice has long focused on south Wexford, exploring cycles of environmental change and the relationship between human and geological timescales.

Acclaimed Father and Daughter To Exhibit Together at ArtisAnn in Belfast

Graham and Lisa Gingles.

Wednesday 7th to Saturday 31st October

Late Night Opening WED 7th October 6 to 8pm

All Welcome and No Booking Necessary

Wed – Sat: 11am to 5.30pm

Graham Gingles is internationally renowned for his complex, intricately built boxes. These contain scenes which comment on his major themes of life and death From happiness to trauma, travel and autobiography the dioramas and scenes reveal something new on each viewing.

What is Creative Production? is a symposium that brings together artists, curators, creative producers and practitioners working across the field of contemporary visual arts. Joining participants from Kunstverein Aughrim’s Creative Producer Programme alongside invited international contributors, a public forum as part of the symposium, on Thursday 8 October, continues an ongoing conversation around the role, visibility, labour and future potential of creative production within artistic practice in Ireland and beyond.

Stories from the Streets will take place at the Gallery of Reflection, 16 Bishop Street, Derry, from Thursday 8
October to Sunday 11 October 2026. The exhibition will feature approximately 12-15 works by Annie Coyle including original paintings, prints and brand-new pieces being unveiled for the first time. Works will be available to
purchase.
The exhibition explores the connection between place and memory – from well-known landmarks to ordinary
buildings, streets, workplaces and meeting places which might easily be overlooked, but which hold deeply
personal associations for the people who know them.

Opening reception Thursday 8th October. 6pm.

Opening speaker Aebhric McGibney, Dublin Chamber. Exhibition Friday 9th – Wednesday 14th October. 10am – 6pm. Sunday 11am – 4pm.

Unravel deals with themes of identity, love, comfort, ritual and revelation. Perceived figures are wrapped, cloaked and sometimes feathered in states of figurative absence and transition. Investigated through the traditionally feminine items of clothing, soft materials and thread, the work aims to touch a more universal truth of the gentle and powerful force of love, and it’s capacity to recover, revive and reanimate.

Anthony D Kelly in collaboration with the University of Galway Art Gallery and Project RARE, is excited to announce the launch of an upcoming exhibition of ‘The Lexicon of Wonder’ project. Opening on Thursday the 8th of October at 6pm and running until Friday the 6th of November.

This project featuring an exhibition, workshops, discussions and an artist talk is inspired by recent research into the emotions of Wonder & Awe and into the arts as a deep technology for evoking these states in both practitioner and audience.

Come join us to encounter artworks which instill a viewer with a sense of wonder and boundless curiosity.

Basic Space is delighted to present Eleanor McCaughey for our October BASIC TALK – 12.30pm on Thursday the 8th of October 2026, TU Dublin, Grangegorman Campus, D7.

Born in Dublin, Ireland. Eleanor McCaughey studied at TU, Dublin. Through a multifaceted practice she explores thematic threads surrounding the body, identity and place, using symbols and metaphors that best express personal narratives.

For more information and to book a free ticket, click here.

Exploring colour in art: from Impressionism to the present day.

This six part online lectures series with art historian Jessica Fahy will explore the theme of colour in art from Impressionism to the present day. Drawing on Irish and international art from the Hugh Lane Gallery collection and elsewhere including works by artists Claude Monet, Roderic O’Conor, Mainie Jellett, Sonia Delaunay, Paul Klee, Agnes Martin, Josef and Anni Albers and others. Presented live via Zoom webinar with recording also sent to all enrolled to watch at their leisure.

For this special Dublin screening at Photo Museum Ireland, Dylan Cubbin will be joined by Ken Grant for an in-conversation following the film, discussing the making of the documentary, the photographs behind it and the importance of New Brighton for photography. A unique opportunity to see the film in Dublin and hear directly from its filmmaker and one of its featured photographers.

‘Cultural Similitudes’ a compelling exhibition by acclaimed photographer Laura Jean Zito will run at Solas Art Gallery, in Ballinamore, County Leitrim from 11 September until 9 October 2026. Bringing together photographs from Laura’s extensive archive of Ireland and the Sinai Desert in Egypt, this exhibition explores the striking connections between two cultures and communities shaped by tradition, austerity, resilience and profound social change. ‘Cultural Similitudes’ presents pairings of black and white silver gelatin photographs, colour C-prints and archival pigment ink photographs, creating visual conversations between Ireland and Sinai.

Tralee Art Group (TAG) is delighted to return to Siamsa Tíre with Draíocht, an exhibition celebrating the enchantment found in everyday life, people, places and landscapes. Through a diverse collection of artworks, TAG artists explore the beauty, wonder and inspiration that surround us, from the dramatic Kerry landscape to moments of colour and imagination

Founded in 1979, Tralee Art Group has supported and promoted visual arts in Kerry for over four decades. With more than 55 members, the group brings together artists of varying styles, interests and experience, fostering creativity through exhibitions, workshops and community engagement.

Opening: 9th October 5.30pm All Welcome
Exhibition: runs 9th – 31st October
For twenty-one years, Ranelagh Arts has made the village a place for creativity – the work of its own community, and of the many artists, performers, writers, and speakers it has drawn to Ranelagh from far beyond. This exhibition gathers what we have found so far – the festivals and first nights, the singers, storytellers and one-off wonders, and the people who made them happen – and lays it out year by year.

All the People We Will Never Meet
A solo exhibition by Thomas Brezing

Curated by Cherry Smyth

at Wexford Arts Centre
10th October – 16th December 2026

Opening Event: Saturday, 10th October at 4pm
Guest Speaker: Writer and Critic Niall MacMonagle

This exhibition grew out of a 15-year correspondence between artist Thomas Brezing and writer Cherry Smyth, founded in their common addiction to painting and poetry. It includes a potent and tender series of ‘Head Paintings’, 2020-2026, beside earlier large paintings, 2008-2020, which establish themes of transcendence and obliteration.

As part of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children 2026
Launching 09 October, 6pm

Step into the rain forests of Borneo and the wilds of Connemara and Clare in an exhibition celebrating these unique landscapes, traditions and cultures. Captivating photographic portraits by Karen Cox and David Metcalf of forest school students with their tribal creations give us a glimpse into both worlds. This unique exhibition also includes tactile elements such as beautiful Dayak beaded jewellery, headdresses, masks and weaving. Curated by Melanie Lynch.
Photo: Karen Cox

Chorus – A solo exhibition by Richard Malone
Wexford County Council

Curated by Karla Sánchez Zepeda and Catherine Bowe

12th October – 20th November 2026
Opening: Saturday 10th October at 2 p.m.

Guest Speaker: Seán Kissane, Curator – Exhibitions, Irish Museum of Modern Art

Working across sculpture, textiles, drawing, installation and performance, Malone has developed a distinctive practice rooted in material, skill and craft. His work explores ideas around Irishness, identity, queerness, place and cultural history, drawing on both personal experience and wider histories of making and labour.

This event brings artists, clinicians and writers together to help us to think and talk about the long-term importance of our experiences with the arts and culture, both recent and from earlier points in our lives. While we might be aware of the short-term impact of a cultural object – how it makes us think or feel in the moment – we are usually unaware of how the ephemeral aspect of this experience stays with us and becomes part of us; the unconscious aspect of the experience in other words. Speakers include artists Clare Gallagher, Brian Patterson, Allen Fatimaharan, Geralyn Mulqueen, Janet Healy, Ann Murphy and Niamh Callaghan.

The Rosslare Gallery proudly presents a solo exhibition of watercolour paintings by Japanese artist, Keiko Tanabe as part of the Wexford Festival Opera fringe exhibitions.
Keiko painted the works en pleinair around Wexford and the south east this year as guest artist to Wexford’s plein air festival Art In The Open.

To mark the final week of Dip In the Pool, Garth Gratrix’s debut solo exhibition in Ireland, the artist invites acclaimed dancer and choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir to join them for a live collaboration beginning on Bray beachfront and travelling inward to Mermaid Arts Centre.

Convening at Bray Bandstand, the pair will activate looking, viewing, being voyeurs of a kind – before a processionary return on foot to Mermaid’s Gallery. A new phase of movement and gesture will take place, with the artists simultaneously casting the roles of spectator, voyeur, observer, and participant, before an informal conversation with curator Anne Mullee.

Capturing a Mermaid by Siobhán Clancy is about taking selfie portraits to extremes as a remedy to distract from the anxiety of breast cancer treatment. Delve with her words into the mirror and join in medicinal laughter as her performative photo lecture documents the depths of a mind desperately resisting an instinct of Flight or Flight to find Flow.

This story mixes medieval art history, merrow legend and local lore, guerilla photography, and cancer testimonial. It will be performed at Waterford Gallery of Art for the first time as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2026, coinciding with the 2025-2026 AIB Portrait Prize Exhibition.

Exhibition continues from 22/09/26.

Cé Mise is an exhibition of 30 portraits of older members of the community of County Clare. The exhibition consists of 30 drawn portraits of residents of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Ennis and service users of Clarecastle Day Centre, Clarecastle, with accompanying interviews from each portrait subject

The artist is multi-disciplinary artist Rachel Macmanus, who worked in partnership with Clare Age Friendly Programme, The Rural & Development Department of Clare County Council. Rachel also worked closely with the staff at St Josephs’ hospital and Clarecastle Day Centre over 2025/2026 to realise this project.

A Spanish cult documentary marking its fiftieth anniversary

Celebrate the Day of Spanish Cinema with the film screening of El desencanto (1976), a cult documentary marking its fiftieth anniversary. The film reveals the story of the family of Francoist poet Leopoldo Panero, as recounted by his own kin fourteen years after his death.

Dir. Jaime Chávarri, 1976, 97 min

In Spanish with English subtitles

‘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. ‘Desire Lines’ premiered at the Irish Film Institute on Thursday 22nd January 2026 and features films by Chloe Brenan, Collectif Faire Part, Eóin Heaney, Olivia Normile and Basma al-Sharif. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers featured in the programme.

Dr Matthew Whyte covers London during a period of extraordinary expansion, industrial transformation and global influence. The largest city in Europe, it becomes a place where fog, smoke, commerce and empire reshape how people experience urban life. Artists such as J. M. W. Turner, John Constable and James McNeill Whistler respond to this environment by focusing on atmosphere, light and fleeting perception rather than fixed narrative. The city itself becomes a subject of modern visual experimentation. Musical references help situate London’s new identity.

Caroline is very excited to present her first solo exhibition at Culturlann Sweeney. She is a painter working in a variety of mediums, including oil, acrylic, charcoal and encaustic.
Based in Kilrush, Co. Clare and having returned home over a decade ago from living in London, Caroline draws her inspiration from her surroundings. Memories of places visited as a child and revisited as an adult, spark images in full colour. Sight and sound often merge into experiments combing traditional and contemporary approaches which create expressive, original pieces.

For this special Dublin screening at Photo Museum Ireland, Dylan Cubbin will be joined by Ken Grant for an in-conversation following the film, discussing the making of the documentary, the photographs behind it and the importance of New Brighton for photography. A unique opportunity to see the film in Dublin and hear directly from its filmmaker and one of its featured photographers.

Exhibition runs 08/09/26-08/10/2026

Z Yellow Persona Series by Julia Appelin. Step closer. Look deeper. See what emerges. Across fifteen vibrant abstract paintings, Julia explores colour, form, energy and intuition. Layers of charcoal, water soluble pencil, watercolour, ink, acrylic and copper come together to create mysterious characters, creatures and presences that seem to emerge from the paintings themselves. Experience pareidolia, our natural instinct to find familiar shapes and figures within patterns and abstraction. Each painting has its own persona and its own name, beginning with the letter Z. Together, they create a kind of modern folklore with mysterious undertones.

What is Creative Production? is a symposium that brings together artists, curators, creative producers and practitioners working across the field of contemporary visual arts. Joining participants from Kunstverein Aughrim’s Creative Producer Programme alongside invited international contributors, a public forum as part of the symposium, on Thursday 8 October, continues an ongoing conversation around the role, visibility, labour and future potential of creative production within artistic practice in Ireland and beyond.

Basic Space is delighted to present Eleanor McCaughey for our October BASIC TALK – 12.30pm on Thursday the 8th of October 2026, TU Dublin, Grangegorman Campus, D7.

Born in Dublin, Ireland. Eleanor McCaughey studied at TU, Dublin. Through a multifaceted practice she explores thematic threads surrounding the body, identity and place, using symbols and metaphors that best express personal narratives.

For more information and to book a free ticket, click here.

‘Cultural Similitudes’ a compelling exhibition by acclaimed photographer Laura Jean Zito will run at Solas Art Gallery, in Ballinamore, County Leitrim from 11 September until 9 October 2026. Bringing together photographs from Laura’s extensive archive of Ireland and the Sinai Desert in Egypt, this exhibition explores the striking connections between two cultures and communities shaped by tradition, austerity, resilience and profound social change. ‘Cultural Similitudes’ presents pairings of black and white silver gelatin photographs, colour C-prints and archival pigment ink photographs, creating visual conversations between Ireland and Sinai.

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.

Project Arts Centre is delighted to present A Disentailing Deed, a visual arts exhibition by Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty exploring how cultural, political and environmental issues are affected by ideas of ‘Irishness’, as shaped by popular constructions of history. Running from 7th August – 10th October 2026 at Project Arts Centre, this event – the artists’ largest presentation to date – will feature video installation, sculpture, painting, and a live music performance. 

To launch the event a live concert responding to the exhibition will take place at Project Arts Centre in The Space Upstairs at 7:30pm, featuring Ruth Clinton (Landless, Poor Creature), Aoife Hammond (Surge, Extravision), Eleanor Myler (ØXN, Percolator) and Cormac MacDiarmada (Lankum, Poor Creature). Willie Stewart (Nyahh Records) will keep the vibes going on the decks from 8:30pm in the Bar.

The Rogue’s Gallery turns its attention to the human-made systems driving instability, and the ways power is staged, performed, and normalised. These portraits operate like contemporary history painting, using the language of classical figuration to confront a culture where influence is theatrical and “truth” is increasingly negotiable. In a year that repeatedly returns to what endures, and what collapses, Walton asks what we are choosing to preserve, and what we are willing to overlook.

An exhibition centered around a group of satirical portraits of the most powerful individuals shaping (and destabilizing) our world order.

Central to A Place to Disappear are formative encounters with Paris, a city that has repeatedly marked turning points in Damien Flood’s practice. In Flood’s first solo show in Paris, he will present a number of new paintings and ceramics that draw inspiration directly from and reflect on the influence Paris has had on his development as an artist.

This exhibition will be accompanied by an A5 screen-printed publication titled ‘A Painter and Paris’. It has been printed by Small Night Zine and is limited to 40 copies and will be available at the gallery for the duration of the show.

“This is a Show about Grief” explores, through various mediums, the experience and processing of grief. Two of my short films will feature in an intimate, immersive setting, where the viewer will have time to connect with the emotions being expressed in the work. The award winning, MA, which deals with the loss of a Mother who’s son betrays his upbringing by his violence, and the autobiographical NOT, which explores the experience of being the other child in a family where a child with special needs is born. These losses and grief live outside the experiences with which we are more familiar, and as such are lonelier, quieter, hidden.

This event brings artists, clinicians and writers together to help us to think and talk about the long-term importance of our experiences with the arts and culture, both recent and from earlier points in our lives. While we might be aware of the short-term impact of a cultural object – how it makes us think or feel in the moment – we are usually unaware of how the ephemeral aspect of this experience stays with us and becomes part of us; the unconscious aspect of the experience in other words. Speakers include artists Clare Gallagher, Brian Patterson, Allen Fatimaharan, Geralyn Mulqueen, Janet Healy, Ann Murphy and Niamh Callaghan.

To mark the final week of Dip In the Pool, Garth Gratrix’s debut solo exhibition in Ireland, the artist invites acclaimed dancer and choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir to join them for a live collaboration beginning on Bray beachfront and travelling inward to Mermaid Arts Centre.

Convening at Bray Bandstand, the pair will activate looking, viewing, being voyeurs of a kind – before a processionary return on foot to Mermaid’s Gallery. A new phase of movement and gesture will take place, with the artists simultaneously casting the roles of spectator, voyeur, observer, and participant, before an informal conversation with curator Anne Mullee.

Exhibition runs 01/09/26-10/10/26.

“Macalla na Mara — Sea Memory” reimagines the legend of Cill Stuifín, a mythical city submerged beneath the Atlantic. Through delicate watercolours and evocative acrylic paintings, Marie Connole explores loss, transformation and rebirth, with seaweed as a guide through an altered world. Recurring symbols—keys, six-fingered hands, luminous figures and religious iconography —hint at hidden systems of meaning.
Based in the west of Ireland, Connole’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including a solo show at the Irish Arts Center in New York (2018) and will feature in a forthcoming TG4 documentary.

Capturing a Mermaid by Siobhán Clancy is about taking selfie portraits to extremes as a remedy to distract from the anxiety of breast cancer treatment. Delve with her words into the mirror and join in medicinal laughter as her performative photo lecture documents the depths of a mind desperately resisting an instinct of Flight or Flight to find Flow.

This story mixes medieval art history, merrow legend and local lore, guerilla photography, and cancer testimonial. It will be performed at Waterford Gallery of Art for the first time as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2026, coinciding with the 2025-2026 AIB Portrait Prize Exhibition.

After the the After by Karl Burke & Lucy Gunning

How do we sustain artistic practice at a time when cultural space is becoming increasingly
precarious and privatised?
Do we move outside?
Can we move outside?
Bright-eyed and eager, we examined a number of alternative outdoor sites at Lismore guided by
Paul, mainly within the castle grounds and gardens, in search of zones for Karl and Lucy. The
visit took place on the hottest day of the year.

Image courtesy Lucy Gunning

Stories from the Streets will take place at the Gallery of Reflection, 16 Bishop Street, Derry, from Thursday 8
October to Sunday 11 October 2026. The exhibition will feature approximately 12-15 works by Annie Coyle including original paintings, prints and brand-new pieces being unveiled for the first time. Works will be available to
purchase.
The exhibition explores the connection between place and memory – from well-known landmarks to ordinary
buildings, streets, workplaces and meeting places which might easily be overlooked, but which hold deeply
personal associations for the people who know them.

Opening reception Thursday 8th October. 6pm.

Opening speaker Aebhric McGibney, Dublin Chamber. Exhibition Friday 9th – Wednesday 14th October. 10am – 6pm. Sunday 11am – 4pm.

Unravel deals with themes of identity, love, comfort, ritual and revelation. Perceived figures are wrapped, cloaked and sometimes feathered in states of figurative absence and transition. Investigated through the traditionally feminine items of clothing, soft materials and thread, the work aims to touch a more universal truth of the gentle and powerful force of love, and it’s capacity to recover, revive and reanimate.

UPLIFT
Desmond Kenny
Curated by Ishmael Claxton.
Desmond Kenny’s work is rooted in colour, material and an instinctive approach to making. Paint, beads, gemstones and other materials come together in works that are bold, tactile and full of movement. The environment where the work is made offers a striking contrast. Walking through Kenny’s traditional working-class Irish home and out towards the back garden, you arrive at the shed that serves as his studio. Inside, the space is transformed by colour, materials and an accumulation of work.
TØN GALLERY
Tuesday to Saturday, 1pm to 6pm D02 KV62.

To see Desmond Kenny’s website, click here.

Exhibition continues from 01/10/26.

Achill to Mweenish is a new series of paintings by Conor Gallagher inspired by recent visits to Dugort in Achill and Mweenish Island off Carna in Connemara.

‘Achill to Mweenish’ by Conor Gallagher
Thurs 1st Oct to Thurs 15th Oct
The Doorway Gallery
27 Wicklow Street, D02 WN51
(above Murphy’s Ice Cream Shop)

Mon – Thurs: 11AM – 5:30PM
Fri – Sat: 11AM – 6PM

Opening day: Saturday 19th September 11am. 

Clare Arts Office in conjunction with the Edna O’Brien Library in Scariff is delighted to present It’s not what it SEAMS by Anita Nagy. Anita Nagy is a Hungarian-born surrealist and fantasy artist, who also creates commissioned portraits. This show contains a series of highly textured acrylic paintings, full of flower motifs. With her unique technique she creates the illusion of realistic embroidered tablecloth and lace decorations with the aim of paying tribute to her late mother, who was an embroidered artist, and to celebrate the beauty of embroidery art which is a very important part in her culture.

A year following his solo exhibition in 2025, Sol Art Gallery is pleased to present Kevin Mc Namara’s

“From Home to Waterscapes and Grasslands”, his newest collection. From the epic cascading falls in Ennistymon, to the intimate privacy of his home in the West and through sweeping landscapes in the Clare countryside, this collection offers us a glimpse at Kevin’s love of painting Ireland’s Western subjects under the luminous Celtic light that reveal his passion for paint through expressive brushwork and his love of design and colour.

The show runs from the 1st to the 17th of October.

Join us on Thursday the 1st of October from 6pm.

For this new body of work, stone sculptor Martin Lyttle draws on the ancient image of the cornucopia — the horn of plenty — as a starting point for exploring abundance, consumption and our relationship with the natural world.
Working in local stone and most usually from off-cuts and waste material, Lyttle has created a series of elegant hand-carved sculptures inspired by seeds, fruits, nuts and pods. These familiar forms, gathered from the natural world, are transformed through stone into objects of contemplation and touch.

Opening 3 pm Saturday 12 Sept, 2026 – All Welcome

Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm (or by appointment )

Macalla Taoide
September 28th to October 17th

Launch :Thursday October 1st 6.30 pm

An Exhibition by Verona Stellet and Carol Kennedy

Through printmaking, sculpture and photography “Macalla Taoide” explores Ireland’s coastal landscapes candour ever evolving relationship with the sea.

Inspired by research trips along the Irish coastline artists Verona Stellet and Carol Kennedy reflect on themes of environment, memory, pollution and change, bringing together two distinct artistic voices in a thoughtful dialogue shaped by shared experiences of place.

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 continues from 24/09/26.

A series of strange objects and works on paper conjure imagined places and lives. Combining found, made, and fabricated elements from shoreline wanderings and imaginative meanders; Stuart’s work reflects a deep relationship with landscape and material culture.

Stuart Cairns is an Irish artist exploring liminal environments—hinterlands, tidelines, and fringe spaces—through walking, photography, drawing, and collecting.

Stuart’s work is held in major public collections, including the Ulster Museum and National Museum of Ireland.

Preview: Thu 24 Sept, 7pm
FREE

Exhibition continues from 24/09/26.

The Body Remembers is a solo exhibition exploring memory, trauma, and embodiment through porcelain clay and thread.

Drawing on personal experiences of brain surgery and mental health, it examines how the body retains experience. Combining fragile porcelain with thread, the work creates sculptural and immersive installations that invite reflection, empathy, and connection. Interconnected pieces explore resilience and healing, with thread linking forms as a living presence.

Workshop: Wellbeing with Clay, Sat 10 Oct, 10am – 1pm, £30 (booking required)

You are invited to the opening of Strategies (of simultaneous presence and invisibility) Sat 26th Sep 6-8pm. the final installment of Laurie Legrand’s research on the delicate balance of standing one’s ground in times when protection and rights are “given” as quickly as they are “taken away”, and personal data is routinely taken for ransom.
Through painting, writing and installation, the exhibition interweaves Effaced portraits, Codified mark making, and figures shining their light, spilling their sacred findings, creating a feeling of reverence conveyed by the vulnerability of this act. Supported by Galway County Council Arts Office.

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.

In 2025 Leo Boyd curated the exhibition Time of the Signs in Atom Gallery in London.
This October Leo is bringing a new version of the exhibition to Belfast under the title Time of the Signs: Border Crossing.
With over 40 artists from across the island of Ireland with some selected international artists this exhibition explores the theme of the sign as a border.
Time of the Signs: Border Crossing will be a truly multidisciplinary spectacle with art forms ranging from street art to sculpture, sound art to printmaking and illustration to painting.
You will never look at a street sign the same way again.

FEXA – Fumbally Contemporary, a new artist-led initiative from Fumbally Exchange, presents its first exhibition, Making Space. Six artists working in painting, photography, assemblage and collage: Natasha Conway, Frances Donnelly Jung, Stephen Dunne, Conor Horgan, Caroline McCambridge and David Newton, with a literary work by Patrick Chapman.

Opening Thu 1 Oct, 6pm, with Ali Curran, Chair, IMMA. Film launch at Hen’s Teeth Sat 3 Oct, 1pm. Artist talks Sat 10 Oct, 1pm. Open House Dublin Sat 17 Oct. Finissage Sun 18 Oct, 3pm.

As part of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children 2026
Launching 09 October, 6pm

Step into the rain forests of Borneo and the wilds of Connemara and Clare in an exhibition celebrating these unique landscapes, traditions and cultures. Captivating photographic portraits by Karen Cox and David Metcalf of forest school students with their tribal creations give us a glimpse into both worlds. This unique exhibition also includes tactile elements such as beautiful Dayak beaded jewellery, headdresses, masks and weaving. Curated by Melanie Lynch.
Photo: Karen Cox