‘Our Plundered Plant’, an exhibition by American artist Mark Dion at the Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, explores human treatment of the natural environment, tempered with a dose of humour and playfulness. At a time when greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are at historically high levels and the polar glaciers are melting, Dion’s work poses the question of human responsibility.
Mark Dion: 4 April – 1 September
Kyle Barnes’ ‘Veterans’ at the Chimera Gallery comprises a series of paintings based around portraits of veterans who served in the Irish or British armed forces. These portraits seek to explore the difficulties many veterans face after their retirement from the armed forces and their readjustment to civilian life. The exhibition includes a portrait of Tom Gunn, a Jadoville and Congo veteran who has campaigned to recognise those who served in these battles.
Kyle Barnes: 1 – 30 April
‘Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art’ at the National Gallery of Ireland explores the significant role artists have played in shaping our perception and understanding of Ireland’s changing landscape over the past 250 years. Comprising oil paintings, sculpture, works on paper, video and photography, the exhibition brings together works by artists ranging from Thomas Roberts and George Petrie to Niamh O’Malley and Dorothy Cross.
Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art: 20 April – 7 July
For the 141st annual exhibition of the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club at the CHQ Building, member artists exhibit works based around the theme of Dublin port. With depictions of the docklands, boats and other subjects, the paintings exhibited will encompass all media and styles within the broad genre of representational art, from the figurative to the abstract. Works by invited non-members are also displayed.
Dublin Painting and Sketching Club: 29 April – 12 May
‘Nowhere without no(w)’ at IMMA is a new exhibition from the Irish artists Walker and Walker. The twin brothers have collaborated professionally since 1989 and this exhibition showcases a number of works from the artists’ extensive thirty-year career, along with a series of new works responding to their ongoing research into language, its meaning and its construction. A new publication 15 accompanies the exhibition, with contributions from Jörg Heiser, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Rebecca O’Dwyer and Rachel Thomas.
Walker and Walker: until 3 June
The Jorgensen Gallery presents a selection of works spanning over one hundred years of European Fine Art. Along with 19th and 20th-century Irish artists, works by the gallery’s contemporary painters and sculptors are on view. There is also a selection of antique Irish, English and French furniture, lamps, porcelain and glassware. Among the contemporary works, there is a focus on still-life paintings in works by Mark Cullen, Martin Mooney and Therese McAllister; abstract works from Tim Woolcock; and sculpture by Kevin Gaines and Donnacha Treacy.
Jorgensen Spring Exhibition: ongoing
The Butler Gallery shows the first solo exhibition in Ireland by the Wicklow-based American artist Sam Reveles. The artist’s studio near the Blessington Lakes is surrounded by stunning landscape and night skies. While not an en plein air painter, this body of work comes closest to Reveles working outside observing all as he moves in and out of his studio. Throughout his career, the artist has explored the expressive possibilities of line and space to create abstract compositions inspired by landscape.
Sam Reveles: 16 March – 12 May
The exhibition ‘Gift of a Lifetime’ at the Chester Beatty Library celebrates the 50th anniversary of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty’s bequest to the Irish people with a selection of masterpieces from the collection on view. A prolific and discerning collector, Beatty acquired rare books, manuscripts and decorative arts of the highest quality and rarity from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Beatty brought these collections to Ireland and placed them in trust to the nation on his death in 1968. From crafted objects for powerful rulers to treasures tracing the history of world religions, the artworks capture the breadth and wonder of this legacy.
Gift of a Lifetime: until 28 April
