Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s Familiar Sun graces the cover of the autumn edition. Ní Bhriain’s interest in the growth of the archives and collections that accompanied colonialism and imperialism informs her work. In conversation with AIDAN DUNNE, she says, ‘With any collection, you have to ask who the intended audience was and the purpose of the legacy being preserved.’ Another artist who engages with archival material in their practice is Marianne Keating. Irish migration, be it to England or the Caribbean, is Keating’s arena. In her work, as EMER McGARrY relates, she questions the perceived objectivity of official historical records. Dublin welcomes the arrival of a new art centre in the city’s reclaimed northside docklands. Viewing the première exhibition at the International Centre for the Image, SEÁN KISSANE finds many kinds of media and image layered into a satisfying whole; and, in Belfast, photographer Bill Kirk’s black-and-white images, taken between the 1960s and the 1980s, provide a valuable archive of the city and its people. STEPHANIE McBRIDE reflects on Kirk’s resonant images. From the 1580s to the end of the 1640s, Ireland experienced a building boom, where a new style of architecture emerged that transformed the medieval castle. As TADHG O’KEEFFE informs us, the modern was emerging in these new fortified buildings, Ireland’s early country houses. In County Kilkenny, the 18th-century Woodstock House in Inistioge was the childhood home of artist Hannah Tighe. ANNE HODGE views Tighe’s early sketchbooks, which provide a window into the charmed lifestyle of the period. On the centenary of his birth, John P O’Sullivan remembers the Dublin artist Seamus O’Colmain; DAVID CARON explores Neil Shawcross’ stained-glass windows, a medium he has worked with for over fifty years, and SARAH KELLEHER appraises James Hayes’ artistic trajectory and his recent collaborative project, ‘The Score’. Elsewhere in the issue, there’s CRISTÍN LEACH on Catherine Barron; Philip McEvansoneya on a rare Irish subject by the English painter Walter Sickert; and ISABELLA EVANGELISTI on Emma Berkery. Usual features include the Diary of Events by KATHRYN MILLIGAN and Design Portfolio by FRANCES McDONALD. And finally, NIAMH NicGHABHANN COLEMAN considers a selection of this year’s art-college graduates, as chosen by their colleges. Many more graduates feature on the Irish Arts Review website. Established in 2014, the ‘New Generation Gallery’ is a free platform available to all BA and MA graduating art students in Ireland. Enjoy!
From 1960, when a chance meeting with Cecil King led to his work being included in a show at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, Michael Kane was a formidable, indomitable presence in Irish cultural life.
Emer McGarry considers the work of Marianne Keating, which brings to light overlooked stories of Irish migration, labour and resistance
The exhibition treats the archive as a tool for building new futures, writes Seán Kissane
Cristín Leach considers Catherine Barron’s mid-career retrospective, which draws on the artist’s life experience
Emma Berkery’s intense involvement with the process of painting lends a layered complexity to her work, writes Isabella Evangelisti
Sarah Kelleher appraises James L Hayes’ project ‘The Score’, which addresses the culture and sporting tradition
of Irish road bowling
Niamh NicGhabhann Coleman finds a shared concern with pushing against rigid and harmful boundaries and barriers around identity amongst this year’s graduates
Aidan Dunne talks to Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, in whose new exhibition period images are spliced together in vistas of subterranean worlds
The honesty and intimacy of photographer Bill Kirk’s social perspective invites engagement and reflection on the changing post-Troubles landscape, writes Stephanie McBride
Kilmainham, the Liberties and Pimlico were the areas of Dublin that Seamus O’Colmain preserved in his evocative and atmospheric paintings, writes John P O’Sullivan
Rathfarnham Castle is one of the most extraordinary buildings in the story of architecture in Ireland, writes Tadhg O’Keeffe
David Caron reviews Neil Shawcross’ work in stained glass, the majority of which was created for churches in Northern Ireland
Hannah Tighe’s sketches of her home, Woodstock Estate in Inistioge, Co Kilkenny, show an early interest in drawing that developed through her life, as Anne Hodge reveals
Philip McEvansoneya considers a painting of an Irish subject by the English artist Walter Sickert
Rosemary Ryan selects a painting of Thomas ‘Bullocks’ Wyse and his sister Catherine in the collection of Bishop’s Palace, Waterford Treasures
