
What's on in Leinster


Dublin: Arctic exploration
Artist Elaine Byrne’s visits to the Arctic, in particular the archipelago of Svalbard, have culminated in her exhibition, ‘Collective Work’, showing at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery. Byrne explores the theme of borders in the area using video, photography and sculpture.
Elaine Byrne: 2 – 25 February

Dublin: Celebrating Smith
‘John Noel Smith: Celebration’ is a survey exhibition at Hillsboro Fine Art marking the artist’s 70th birthday. With abstract works from the 1980s to the present, the show includes paintings from Smith’s career in Berlin, where he lived for twenty-two years, and latterly in Ireland.
John Noel Smith: 26 January – 16 March

Dublin: Pastel exhibition
The richness of the National Gallery of Ireland‘s pastel collection is highlighted in their exhibition ‘Pastel Revealed’, with works that explore the history of the medium and how it has changed over four centuries. Artists include Edmund Ashfield, Thomas Frye, Rosalba Carriera, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Jean-François Millet, Edgar Degas, Maurice Marinot, Harry Kernoff and Brian Bourke.
NGI: 25 February – 5 June

Dublin: Patricia Hurl
IMMA presents a retrospective of the artist Patricia Hurl’s practice over the last forty years. Hurl’s work is political and traverses the disciplines of painting, multi-media and collaboration. Since the 1980s, she has created work that deals with loss, pain, frustration and loneliness.
Patricia Hurl: 10 February – 2 July



Dublin: Van der Grijn at Solomon
Solomon Fine Art present work by Sligo-based artist Cléa van der Grijn, which is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice in Wonderland. Her exhibition includes painting and film and is concerned with the shifts in perception caused by trauma, loss and the unravelling of memory.
Cléa van der Grijn: 9 February – 4 March

Dublin: Heirloom
Rachel Doolin’s immersive installation ‘Heirloom’ at the dlr Lexicon draws on her residency programme in the Arctic, and is informed by a subsequent partnership with the Irish Seed Savers Association. Doolin’s work ranges from the political to the poetic, and employs a series of visual, installation and digital-based works.
Rachel Doolin: 9 December – 5 March

Kilkenny: 80 years Butler Gallery
The Butler Gallery celebrates its 80th anniversary with an exhibition of existing works and recent acquisitions. Featured artists include: Peter Bradley, Michael Beirne, Edward Delaney, Flor Garduño, Vera Klute, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Tony O’Malley, Gypsy Ray, Emma Roche and Blaise Smith. Commissioned responses by performance artist Suzanne Walsh will also be part of the celebrations.
Butler Gallery: 28 January – 26 March

Dublin: Worm’s Ditch
Sibyl Montague’s ‘Worm’s Ditch (Claí na Péiste)’ at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios draws on the early Irish literature of the Black Pig’s Dyke (Claí na Muice Duibhe), an ancient earthwork that spans the northern midlands of Ireland. Montague explores pig farming across the country, as well as the cultural symbolism of the pig.
Sibyl Montague: 16 December – 18 February


Dublin: Treasure at Marsh’s Library
The exhibition ‘Liked and Shared’ at Marsh’s Library brings together treasures from the library’s collection that found widespread popularity when shared on social media. These include a five-foot map of Venice, 18th-century avian watercolours and examples of Dublin-made bindings, as well as doodles and drawings.
Liked and Shared: until March 31

Dublin: Turner
Over eighty paintings by JMW Turner go on display at the National Gallery of Ireland, drawn from the Tate Collection. Devised by Turner scholar David Blayney Brown, ‘The Sun is God’ explores the artist’s fascination with nature – in particular the sun, moon and clouds – and showcases Turner’s artistic innovations alongside his mastery of light, colour and atmosphere.
JMW Turner: The Sun is God: 8 October – 6 February

Dublin: First Fragments
A new exhibition at the Chester Beatty focuses on the important collection of manuscripts known as the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri. Dating from the 2nd to the 4th century AD, these ancient books reveal the material histories of writing and bookbinding, textual histories of translation and transmission, and later object histories of ownership, publication and display.
First Fragments: Biblical Papyrus from Roman Egypt: 28 October – 30 April

Dublin: Sci-fi Collective
IMMA‘s ‘The Otolith Group: Xenogenesis’ presents work by the London-based artist collective founded by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun. Featuring key works from 2011 to 2018, the exhibition reflects the artists’ interest in creating ‘a science fiction of the present’ through images, voices, sonic images, sounds and performance.
The Otolith Group: Xenogenesis: 7 July – 23 February 2023