‘Human/Nature’, a selection of landscape photography from the State art collection, can be seen at Farmleigh Gallery in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The images chosen are almost all drawn from the last fifteen years, which has witnessed a burgeoning of the photographic arts in Ireland. Unlike other images, the vista of a landscape is almost always public, and common themes such as urban sprawl, movements in ecology, and our commodification of the environment all have a part to play. The artists in this exhibition deal with such topics, as well as addressing personal mythologies, topographical documentary, the country's socio-political fabric and the nature of photographic vision. Landscape Photography, Farmleigh Gallery: until 23 December
A Cooke's tour
The art-making process is bedevilled by contradiction. Cultural invention has certainly provoked a variety of reactions here where conservative protest and even vandalism of artworks has been all too common. ‘A Rocky Road’ at Cork’s Crawford Gallery explores this phenomenon via new artworks by Nigel Rolfe, Danny McCarthy, Gerard Byrne and others. These will be showcased alongside a variety of press and other archival material/pronouncements relevant to the theme. Meantime, Barrie Cooke’s abstract expressionist career is likewise celebrated at the Crawford to mark the artist’s 80th birthday. The exhibition will explore Cooke’s continuous reference of the natural world; from paintings of an ancient Irish elk found in a bog and the bone boxes of the 1970s to energetic paintings of the Irish landscape and the famous nude portraits. A Rocky Road/Barrie Cooke: until 14 January
Visitation vistas
Damien Flood's work is situated between fact and fiction. His paintings have been described as modern landscapes that reference the history of painting with an underlying fantastical element. A fleeting familiarity can be found in the work, soon replaced by an ambiguous questioning. ‘History of the Visitation’ at the Green on Red in Dublin’s Lombard Street East continues this enigmatic, yet thought-provoking, vein. The latest exhibition explores the transformation of ideas through documentation - how defunct beliefs and failed scientific inquiry of the past inform today’s stories and beliefs. Damien Flood: until 10 December
Images of China
An exhibition of Chinese images by Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837-1921) is on view at the Chester Beatty Library. The photographs come from the Wellcome Library’s collection in London. Timed to co-ordinate with Chinese New Year celebrations in 2012, the exhibition will include over 50 stunning images. Thomson first travelled to Asia in 1862, where he set up a professional photographic studio. Fascinated by local cultures, he returned in 1868, settling in Hong Kong. Over the next four years, he made extensive trips to Guangdong, Fujian, Beijing, China’s north-east and down the Yangtze. This exhibition is drawn from his time in these regions. The images present the human aspects of life in China through an extensive record of everyday street scenes, rarely captured by other photographers of that era. A selection of traditional Chinese clothing and accessories from the Library’s own collection will also be on
display. John Thomson: until 26 February
Faces of Ireland at Dublin Airport
The Dublin Airport Authority is hosting a major year-long exhibition of 250 photographic portraits by photographer and visual artist Kevin Abosch in Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2. Abosch is an internationally known portrait photographer, who has photographed Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, and Scarlett Johansson, among others. For ‘Faces of Ireland’, though, he focussed on images of people from around Ireland. ‘These 250 different faces represent the citizenry of the island of Ireland,’ he says. ‘Some of the faces you’ll recognise immediately, some of them might appear a little bit familiar, while others you won’t know at all.’ Famous faces include Gabriel Byrne, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Brian O’Driscoll and Miriam O’Callaghan, but all subjects were photographed against a black background and lit in the same formal manner. Abosch steered away from classic stereotypes of Irish people. His subjects were chosen partly at random and partly to reflect modern Ireland in all its facets, so immigrants, rich and poor, old and young, are among the faces. Each photograph is 44” square and they will be exhibited without captions. Abosch is delighted with the venue: ‘T2 is a spectacular work of architecture, has fantastic natural light throughout and the juxtaposition of 250 huge portraits with a transient audience entering and leaving the country every day really excites me’. An exhibition catalogue and a coffee table book of the work will also be available with proceeds going to DAA’s Charity of the Year, which for 2011 is 3Ts Turning the Tide of Suicide. Faces of Ireland: Terminal 2, Dublin Airport until October 2012
Brazilian concepts at IMMA
A major mid-career survey of the work of Brazilian Conceptual artist Rivane Neuenschwander covers a decade of her work. At the Irish Museum of Modern Art New Galleries until end January, ‘A Day Like Any Other’ reveals a wide-ranging interdisciplinary practice. The exhibition merges painting, photography, film, sculpture and collaborative actions. Three installations here involve direct visitor participation – including a police sketch artist producing ‘portraits’ based on visitors’ description of their first loves. The exhibition will also feature new paintings alongside sculptures made by customers during conversations at bars and restaurants. Rivane Neuenschwander: until 29 January
Apertures & Anxieties
The RHA Gallery in Dublin’s Ely Place has a truly eclectic bill of fare on display at the moment. ‘Apertures and Anxieties’ celebrates 300 years of Trinity’s School of Medicine. Participating artists are Aideen Barry, Megan Eustace, Andrew Folan, Nick Miller, Ciaran Murphy, Maria McKinney, Theresa Nanigan, Abigail O’Brien, Eilis O’Connell, Garrett Phelan and Grace Weir. ‘Martina Cleary, Turning Point’ marks the final stage of a project begun in 2008 through collaboration with Clare Women’s Network. A new series of paintings by artist Charles Tyrrell is also on view here. Physical and robust, shapes are compressed, fractured, fissured and faulted ‘as if Tyrrell is taking the forming of the earth itself as his subject.’ RHA Gallery: until 21 December
Reconstructed rooms at the museum
A new exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks traces the development of furniture in Ireland from 1600, through a series of room settings – a 17th century bedroom, Georgian dining room, and a 19th-century music room (see our feature on the exhibition on page 130 of this edition). The music room showcases some eccentric Irish musical inventions, such as the 17th-century ‘idiophone’, attributed by some to Monaghan-born Richard Pockrich. Reconstructed Rooms – Four Centuries of Furnishings: National Museum Collins Barracks, Dublin: until 2012
