Helen Blake’s paintings are colourful and rhythmic with a graphic quality. In her third exhibition at the Molesworth Gallery, Blake exhibits small works that weave a pattern using colour and textures, embracing accidents, flaws, and discrepancies within the canvas. Belfast-born Blake studied art in Wales and now lives in Wicklow.
Helen Blake: April
At the Joan Clancy Gallery, Deirdre Frost shows a series of oil paintings on wood in her exhibition ‘Claochló – Transformation’. Her work looks at the natural world through the lens of living in an urban environment, with glimpses into rural scenes alongside model-like urban structures. Frost was awarded the Crawford College of Art and Design/CIT Joan Clancy Gallery Award last year.
Deirdre Frost: 9 – 19 April
A group exhibition entitled ‘Interpretations in Printmaking‘ can be viewed online at Kilcock Art Gallery. The exhibition features work by gallery artists alongside work from members of the Leinster Printmaking Studio. Artists featured include John Behan, Mike Fitzharris, Joseph Sloan, Sarah Corner, Kathrine Geoghegan and Peter Killeen.
Interpretations in Printmaking: until 31 May
In a collaboration between GalleryX and South Dublin City Libraries, Ariyana Ahmad’s ‘Jom! Let’s Go’ features a series of ink drawings in monochrome and vivid colour inspired and informed by her Malaysian heritage. Ahmad’s practice integrates themes from Malaysian and world mythology. The exhibition opens at Ballyroan Library and thereafter moves to North Clondalkin Public Library.
Ariyana Ahmad: 6 – 23 April
The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre’s exhibition ‘Food Fight’ showcases artist Paul Mac Cormaic’s focus on sustainability and class distinction through works engaging with food. Social class, wealth, poverty, ethics and education; what we eat can set us apart just as much as sharing a meal can bring people together – a dichotomy Mac Cormaic explores in two-dimensional works in varied media.
Paul Mac Cormaic: 1 – 30 April
The Maud Cotter exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery, ‘a consequence of – a dappled world’, is the third iteration of work by the artist developed through various exhibition projects over the last six years. The work responds to the gallery spaces and combines apparent simplicity with a sense of joy in the materials. Working in plastics and metals, Cotter contemplates the tension between light and space, and sets up an exchange between everyday objects and conceptual models.
Maud Cotter: 25 March – 25 July
Inspired by the success of the Waterford Walls project and murals in New Ross, the Enniscorthy Walls Project have commissioned five artists to produce artwork for display across the town. The artists are Amanda Doran, Anna Doran, ADW Art, Solus and Omin, and their themes range over contemporary icons in writing, music and art, the future of Enniscorthy, and the creative potential of the town.
Enniscorthy Walls: ongoing
‘Percept’ at the Luan Gallery features paintings by Colm Mac Athlaoich that consider ideas of materiality, process, and perception, and explore the space between figuration and abstraction. The artist invites the viewer to examine what they see or have been told; how an image or object can change upon a second viewing.
Colm Mac Athlaoich: until 31 May
British documentary photographer Martin Parr shows at the Limerick City Gallery of Art. ‘Parr’s Ireland: 40 Years of Photography in Ireland’ captures a view of Ireland through a period of social and cultural change, from the Papal visit, horse and cattle fairs, and rural ballrooms to the rise of Bungalow Bliss, holidays camps, and major changes in Dublin.
Martin Parr: until 2 May
Marking the first anniversary of the sculptor’s death, the Highlanes Gallery presents elements of Janet Mullarney’s original exhibition ‘My Mind’s I’. The two main installation works, ‘My Mind’s I’ and ‘Another Mind’s I’, gifted by the artist to the gallery in her final years, are shown alongside other works, together with a public programme involving artists and art historians reflecting on Mullarney’s life, work, and legacy.
Janet Mullarney: 27 March – 22 May
‘Platform 2021’ is the third instalment of Draíocht’s ‘Platform’ series, an exhibition and associated performance events showcasing the work of emerging artists. ‘Worlds of Their Own’ presents the work of four artists, Susan Buttner, Ellen Duffy, John Rainey and Katherine Sankey, whose installations use the gallery space in a playful, experimental, and creative manner.
Platform 2021: Worlds of Their Own: 31 March – 22 May
At the Presentation Arts Centre, Anne Martin Walsh shows paintings, photography and prints that continue her exploration of ley-lines, ancient sites, Sheela-na-gigs, and divination rituals. Central to her work are themes of sexual and cultural identity that relate to the natural environment and reference a range of topics taken from history and mythology.
Anne Martin Walsh: 5 March – 24 April
Matthew Mitchell is inspired by the landscape of the Burren region in Co Clare. The paintings in his exhibition ‘Timeline – Aimline’ at SO Fine Art feature organic materials gathered from the landscape and inorganic matter such as enamel. His work explores our perception of place and being in regard to the geological past and the new digital landscape.
Matthew Mitchell: opening March
