Oil painting exhibition reflecting Hayes’ six months living and working as a Great Blasket Island caretaker. Bringing his longstanding exploration of self and surroundings to this unique setting, he captures the world he encountered, its modern cast of characters, and its contemporary way of life. The paintings examine the dynamic relationship between past and present, exploring the inherent nature of ‘islandness’ and the distinctly liminal sense of place. His re-presentations of the island are painted with honesty and sincerity. Suspending some of the persistent preconceptions about islands, he challenges and re-contextualises them, creating a more nuanced picture.

James Hayes is a visual artist from county Kerry. He primarily operates as an oil-painter, but is also an accomplished muralist, illustrator and a qualified architect. His artistic practice is centred around a personal and phenomenological exploration of the complex relationship that exists between self and surroundings. His work has been characterised as a unique blended form of contemporary engagement with both the genre of ‘landscape’ painting and an intimate narrative painting tradition; eschewing hierarchy and category in favour of equal focus on both landscapes and figures. He is a self-styled painter of the space between people_and_place.

The celebrated sculptor was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. Her studies in Cork and Boston were followed by research fellowships in Rome and New York. After living in London for 14 years, Eilís returned to live in Ireland in 2002, exhibiting at home and abroad and working on commissions for public and private locations across Europe. She is a founder director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork, a former member of the Arts Council of Ireland, a member of Aosdána, and a member of the RHA.

The exhibition will be previewed by IMMA curator Seán Kissane, 12–2pm, Saturday 15 August. The exhibition will be open until 13 September, Wed–Sun 12

FLESH AS WITNESS – A WORK IN PROGRESS

15th August 3pm. Tipperary.

A Queer Live Art presentation by 7 international and Irish queer (and queer ally), global majority artists at Live Art Ireland. This presentation is a culmination of a month-long collaborative process among 7 artists working across performance, dance, sound and video. The work investigates how embodied knowledge transforms through collaborative witness, centring transnational dialogue and questioning whose stories are held, whose bodies carry memory, and how performance becomes transmission.

For more information and to reserve a spot, click here.

Image: Pasindu Weeramunda: The Frosty Philosophers, 20

Rituals and Traditions in Old Cork: Insights from the Crawford Art Gallery Collection

Join us for a special National Heritage Week talk with Angela Byrne, lecturer at University College Cork’s Department of Folklore & Ethnology as she guides us through old Cork rituals and traditions found in select works from our Collection. This event will take place at the Cork City Library. It is free to attend and no booking is necessary.

The CHGS Summer Open Exhibition is a key annual showcase for emerging and established artists from Ireland and beyond. Presenting a diverse range of practices in a professionally curated group show, the exhibition is selected each year by an independent guest judge, this year Sarah Fuller Wallis.

The Summer Open 2026 brings together over 80 artists and more than 100 artworks from across Ireland in a vibrant celebration of contemporary Irish art. Visitors can expect an inspiring mix of paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works that reflect the richness and diversity of creative voices across the country.

A Crack In The Mountain is an immersive group exhibition from Etaoin Melville, Tom Doig, Jack O’Flynn and Brian Leach.

Inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, each artist presents works that play with light, shadow, moving image and sound, exploring the nature of reality, otherworldly realms and sonic attunements.

Through a combination of video, light projection, stop-motion animation and sound, the space will transform into a world of shifting shadows, light, and projection.

The collaborative nature of this exhibition blends diverse artistic practices and perspectives, each opening a crack into the mountain.

FLESH AS WITNESS – A WORK IN PROGRESS

15th August 3pm. Tipperary.

A Queer Live Art presentation by 7 international and Irish queer (and queer ally), global majority artists at Live Art Ireland. This presentation is a culmination of a month-long collaborative process among 7 artists working across performance, dance, sound and video. The work investigates how embodied knowledge transforms through collaborative witness, centring transnational dialogue and questioning whose stories are held, whose bodies carry memory, and how performance becomes transmission.

For more information and to reserve a spot, click here.

Image: Pasindu Weeramunda: The Frosty Philosophers, 20

Rituals and Traditions in Old Cork: Insights from the Crawford Art Gallery Collection

Join us for a special National Heritage Week talk with Angela Byrne, lecturer at University College Cork’s Department of Folklore & Ethnology as she guides us through old Cork rituals and traditions found in select works from our Collection. This event will take place at the Cork City Library. It is free to attend and no booking is necessary.

GOMA is delighted to present ‘Mise en Abyme’ by Sharon Murphy, which focuses on Parisian carousels and theatrical décor during moments of stillness and silence. Drawing on her background in theatre and informed by concepts from psychoanalysis and magic realism in literature, this new work highlights Murphy’s longstanding interest in staged spaces and the performative in photography. Through recurring symbols such as curtains, deserted stages, and performative environments, she investigates the thin line between illusion and reality, presence and absence.
Official Launch 23rd of July, 6-8pm

Landscapes of the Zodiac is a touring art exhibition by artist Aia Leu. The work comprises of oil paintings based on the astrological zodiac signs interpreted through landscape, colour, symbolism and the natural world. Created in County Kerry, it blends observation, mythology, and imagination into a visual journey through nature and the human connection to it.
Aia Leu is a visual artist based in Kenmare, Co. Kerry. She comes from an artistic family and is the granddaughter of Swiss artist Eva Aeppli. Her work is known for combining landscape with symbolism, imagination, and vibrant colour. Meet the artist daily 10am-4pm. 2 Aug-16 Aug 2026.

This year we are launching EMERGE 2026 on July 30th at 5.30pm in MTU Gallery No 46 Grand Parade.

For 2026 we are celebrating the launch of Cork Craft and Design’s Cork Craft Month, the organisation will once again reunite with their partners Benchspace and MTU Arts Office to support and nurture 15 emerging graduates from four art colleges in Cork city and county.

The aim is not only to display their work but to embrace these emerging creatives as part of the vibrant craft and design community in Cork and beyond.

In association with Limerick Arts Office, Limerick Showcase 1 presents a selection of some of the finest Limerick associated artists to the public, featuring Painting, Photography, Print and Interventionism.

The first of two exhibitions to be held in the storied Istabraq Hall in the Council’s Merchants Quay buildings in 2026 (Showcase 2 Dec. 4), this ambitious new programme aims to spotlight the depth and quality of the arts in Limerick.
Rory Prout, Céline Mermier, Seán Healy, Melanie O’Rourke, Pamela Dunne and Seán Guinan will display works in this showcase, much of it created especially for this curated show’, curator Carl Doran.

Sample-Studios are delighted to present our 15th Anniversary Annual Members Summer Exhibition in Sample-Studios Gallery: The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion from 2 July – 23 August.

This exhibition will showcase the work of 45 local contemporary artists, demonstrating the rich diversity of art and artists proudly supported by Sample-Studios in our organisation’s 15th year.

University College Cork Museum Studies Students and Cork Public Museum are proud to present ‘Life, Death, Legacy: Ireland’s Connected Bronze Age’. This exciting, student-curated exhibit explores the dynamic world of the Irish Bronze Age and shows how people from the past were not so different from us now.
‘Life, Death, Legacy’ offer visitors a thought-provoking experience using ancient artefacts from the Munster region. Themes such as feasting, death, luxury and metalworking are shown using burial urns, jewelry, and weapons, making it an unmissable exhibition. The exhibition opens on May 29th and is free for all visitors.

The CHGS Summer Open Exhibition is a key annual showcase for emerging and established artists from Ireland and beyond. Presenting a diverse range of practices in a professionally curated group show, the exhibition is selected each year by an independent guest judge, this year Sarah Fuller Wallis.

The Summer Open 2026 brings together over 80 artists and more than 100 artworks from across Ireland in a vibrant celebration of contemporary Irish art. Visitors can expect an inspiring mix of paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works that reflect the richness and diversity of creative voices across the country.

Limerick City Gallery of Art is delighted to present ‘Quantum Listening’ by Trudi van der Elsen, a contemporary multi-media artist, originally from the Netherlands and now based in the West of Ireland.

‘Quantum Listening’ the title given to a body of work by Trudi van der Elsen that explores the relationship between the human body and the wider world, and the invisible frequencies that connect them. Working across painting, photography, video and performance, the artist weaves together forms of matter, agency, subjectivity and objectivity.

Billy Lingwood is a Cork-based visual artist and arts worker with a BA in Fine Art: Printmaking & Contemporary Practice from LSAD. Their work explores post-colonial legacies in the Irish psyche and the social, cultural and policy impacts these continue to have on resident lifeforms. Rooted in printmaking, their practice often extends into curation, co-creation and intervention-based work.

Their residency in Triskel Sample Project Space will bring together a professional artist and a group of non-professional collaborators to investigate alternative models of community-based art making.

Sample-Studios are delighted to present our 15th Anniversary Annual Members Summer Exhibition in Sample-Studios Gallery: The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion from 2 July – 23 August.

This exhibition will showcase the work of 45 local contemporary artists, demonstrating the rich diversity of art and artists proudly supported by Sample-Studios in our organisation’s 15th year.

Garter Lane Arts Centre presents ‘body electric’, an exhibition of new paintings by Irish artists Billie Adele and Cristín O’Loughlin, curated by Eamonn Maxwell.
‘body electric’ explores contemporary notions of the body, identity, and human connection in the digital era. The exhibition’s title references The Sisters of Mercy’s 1982 track Body Electric, a dark post-punk meditation on alienation, voyeurism, and technology’s intrusion into intimacy, while also echoing Walt Whitman’s poetic celebration of the human spirit and the embodied self.

For more information, click here.

Ormston House presents ‘Energy Made Visible’.

The exhibition will open on Friday, 10 July from 7-9pm and will continue until 5 September 2026.

Energy Made Visible is a group exhibition centred around the paintings of Michael Ashur (1950–2024). Known for his meticulous airbrushed compositions, Ashur’s work is concerned with solar systems, celestial bodies, and overlaps between artistic and scientific disciplines. This exhibition places Ashur’s work in dialogue with four contemporary Irish artists; Ann Maria Healy, Sean Lynch, Thaís Muniz, and Garrett Phelan.

Opening Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12-6pm.

GOMA is delighted to present ‘Mise en Abyme’ by Sharon Murphy, which focuses on Parisian carousels and theatrical décor during moments of stillness and silence. Drawing on her background in theatre and informed by concepts from psychoanalysis and magic realism in literature, this new work highlights Murphy’s longstanding interest in staged spaces and the performative in photography. Through recurring symbols such as curtains, deserted stages, and performative environments, she investigates the thin line between illusion and reality, presence and absence.
Official Launch 23rd of July, 6-8pm

Running over six weeks and featuring 30-40 artists and makers the Summer Exhibition at Lavit Gallery is an annual group show of fine art and craft. Participating artists and makers this year include Ailbhe Barrett, John Behan, Johnny Bugler, Mary Burke, Patrick Cashin, Tom Climent, Carmel Creaner, Debbie Dawson, Megan Fahy, Sean Farrell, Billy Foley, David Fox, Deirdre Frost, Tim Goulding, Etain Hickey, Joe Hogan, Rachel Joynt, Jo Kelley, Ronja Lagerqvist, Andrew Ludick, Linda McCann, Hannah Mooney, Janet Murran, Deirdre O’Brien, Marta Ozog, Linda Plunkett, Victor Richardson, Aisling Roche, Katrina Treml and Sarah Wren Wilson.

Love beyond the species and the sexual by Siobhán McGibbon opening on Saturday 25 July at 2.00pm by Dr. Sarah Kelleher, writer and curator.

Love beyond the species and the sexual is a major solo exhibition by Siobhán McGibbon at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. The exhibition presents a chapter of McGibbon’s ongoing speculative world, Xenophon, a long-term project that imagines more-than-human futures through fiction, science and sculpture. Told across three acts, it moves from the artist’s unkempt garden into the ecologies, histories and more-than-human communities of Myross Woods, Leap, Co. Cork.

A Crack In The Mountain is an immersive group exhibition from Etaoin Melville, Tom Doig, Jack O’Flynn and Brian Leach.

Inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, each artist presents works that play with light, shadow, moving image and sound, exploring the nature of reality, otherworldly realms and sonic attunements.

Through a combination of video, light projection, stop-motion animation and sound, the space will transform into a world of shifting shadows, light, and projection.

The collaborative nature of this exhibition blends diverse artistic practices and perspectives, each opening a crack into the mountain.

This year we are launching EMERGE 2026 on July 30th at 5.30pm in MTU Gallery No 46 Grand Parade.

For 2026 we are celebrating the launch of Cork Craft and Design’s Cork Craft Month, the organisation will once again reunite with their partners Benchspace and MTU Arts Office to support and nurture 15 emerging graduates from four art colleges in Cork city and county.

The aim is not only to display their work but to embrace these emerging creatives as part of the vibrant craft and design community in Cork and beyond.

“The 110 Beatitudes for the very place we stand on.”
An exhibition of paintings, print and a print installation
by Cóilín Murray.
A mixture of new and old works by the artist.
The show runs until 3rd October

Window of Imperfection explores the relationship between material, time and attention through a series of works using traditional and alternative photographic processes.

Rooted in slow, tactile methods, it reflects patterns of growth, erosion and renewal. Rather than seeking perfection, the pieces embrace variation, imperfection and material traces, where marks and textures remain visible.

The exhibition invites a quieter, more attentive way of looking, encouraging pause and deeper engagement with subject and process.

Landscapes of the Zodiac is a touring art exhibition by artist Aia Leu. The work comprises of oil paintings based on the astrological zodiac signs interpreted through landscape, colour, symbolism and the natural world. Created in County Kerry, it blends observation, mythology, and imagination into a visual journey through nature and the human connection to it.
Aia Leu is a visual artist based in Kenmare, Co. Kerry. She comes from an artistic family and is the granddaughter of Swiss artist Eva Aeppli. Her work is known for combining landscape with symbolism, imagination, and vibrant colour. Meet the artist daily 10am-4pm. 2 Aug-16 Aug 2026.

In association with Limerick Arts Office, Limerick Showcase 1 presents a selection of some of the finest Limerick associated artists to the public, featuring Painting, Photography, Print and Interventionism.

The first of two exhibitions to be held in the storied Istabraq Hall in the Council’s Merchants Quay buildings in 2026 (Showcase 2 Dec. 4), this ambitious new programme aims to spotlight the depth and quality of the arts in Limerick.
Rory Prout, Céline Mermier, Seán Healy, Melanie O’Rourke, Pamela Dunne and Seán Guinan will display works in this showcase, much of it created especially for this curated show’, curator Carl Doran.

Clare Arts Office in conjunction with the Edna O’Brien Library in Scariff is delighted to present East Clare Love by Joe Culhane. East Clare Love reflects the work that will be presented, paintings co-created with the immensely beautiful locations and beings of East County Clare. Joe has engaged in various artistic endeavours throughout his life, including stretch fabric art based on sacred geometric designs. He loves painting using many mediums but finds himself mostly dabbling in the world of watercolours.

Clare Arts Office in conjunction with Cultúrlann Sweeney is delighted to present an exhibition by members of Limerick Art Society. Limerick Art Society has been a major contributor to the visual arts in Limerick City and County for over 80 years making it one of the oldest societies of its kind in Ireland. “The aims of the society are to bring art to people of all walks of life and to help the less experienced as well as accomplished artists to achieve artistic excellence”. Its focus is on the visual arts: painting in oils, watercolours, acrylic and pastel and photography.

Crawford Art Gallery in partnership with Triskel Arts Centre presents Artists Film International 2026: A Kind of Power.

Bringing together artists and partner organisations from across the globe, this year’s edition explores how systems of power shape the act of looking and the conditions under which we are seen.

All films will be presented on a loop throughout the day in Triskel Arts Centre. The AFI programme will be presented on a loop (approx. 45 minutes) between 10:00 – 15:30 each day, with films changing weekly. Free screenings, no booking required.

Dates:
Tues 11, Wed 12, Thurs 13
Tues 18, Wed 19, Thurs 20
Tues 25, Wed 26, Thurs 27