What's on in Leinster

The Artform Art Fair returns to 44 The Quay for its third iteration. Taking place during Winterval – the Waterford Christmas Festival – the exhibition will feature 200 artworks by forty artists, including Ann Quinn, Aidan Crotty, Bernadette Doolan, Brenda Malley, Bridget Flannery, Daniel Lipstein, David Begley, Dave West, Eadaoin Glynn, Eileen O’Sullivan, Hanneke van Ryswyk, James Horan, Julie Cusack, Mary O’Connor, Michael Wann, PJ Lynch, Sheila Naughton, Tom Climent, Tony Robinson, Steve Browning and Will Nathans. On the opening night, PJ Lynch and Tony Robinson will provide a live portrait painting demonstration.
Artform Art Fair: 23 November – 15 December

The Molesworth Gallery is showing Oscar Fouz Lopez’s exhibition, ‘Untitled’, a series of paintings that focus on elements of plot and question issues such as capitalism, alienation and transformation. Rooted in theatrical and storytelling traditions, Lopez is interested in contradictions within stories that create gaps where he can find space for imagination. The official and factual accounts of characters and settings borrowed from books are transformed into a personalised myth or fairy tale. Oscar Fouz Lopez: 6 – 28 February

The Doorway Gallery will host an exhibition by Eithne Roberts titled ‘Vessels’. Trained in both ceramics and fine art, Roberts’ paintings focus on the depiction of ceramics, painted primarily with a palette knife, applying several layers of colour to the canvas before scrapping back to add decorative elements. Roberts draws inspiration from the familiar items of her kitchen shelves and cupboards.
Eithne Roberts: 6 – 27 February

Christine Mackey will present new work at the Wexford Arts Centre that stems from her recent public art project ‘Safe Hold: Pollinating Pastures’. The artist worked with communities across Wexford to raise awareness about the plight of wild pollinators, focusing on bees, habitat loss and the relationship between food, place and people. A key part of the project was the planting of new pollinator-friendly sites in Gorey and Enniscorthy. Mackey sourced seeds and plant specimens from the National Botanic Gardens, which inspired the drawings that comprise the exhibition.
Christine Mackey: from 24 February

Louise Butler will exhibit ‘Places Seen and Not Seen’ at the Signal Arts Centre. Specialising in landscape, Butler’s practice flows between painting, sculpture and performance. Intrigued by the environment at home and abroad, Butler seeks out locations with monumental views and considers the conflict between the natural world and commercialisation as well as the transformation of nature into a commodity to be admired and consumed.
Louise Butler: 20 January – 2 February

‘A Desire for Closeness’ – presented as part of First Fortnight, the European mental health festival – at the Presentation Arts Centre explores the human desire to connect and the effects of loneliness. Working with people in Waterford who are experiencing isolation, displacement and loneliness, Nicola Anthony has created an immersive installation of text-based and kinetic sculptures. Anthony places human connection and stories at the heart of her work, and has worked with disenfranchised communities around the world.
Nicola Anthony: 11 – 24 January

The Solomon Fine Art Gallery hosts an exhibition of new paintings by Clifford Collie. Having spent most of his life living and working between Ireland and Spain, dual habitation has been an important element in Collie’s painting. His subject matter, style and methods of working are bound up in a personalised vision, based on his understanding of nature and self.
Clifford Collie: 10 January – 1 February

The Kerlin Gallery shows ‘Broken’, an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Guggi. Since the early 1990s, the artist’s work has continued to explore the depiction of everyday objects. With a focus on repetition and abstraction, his signature motifs of bowls and other vessels are transformed and set free from their normal context, often articulated with a deceptive simplicity that heightens their stillness and meditative presence. The exhibition continues the ‘Broken’ series, first exhibited at Chateau La Coste, France in 2018 and recently at Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo.
Guggi: 12 December – 17 January

The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre presents an exhibition of paintings by Susan Cairns. A resident of nearby Malahide, Cairns initially practised in watercolours before switching to oil paints and specialising in still-life painting. The artist takes old, broken, unwanted and often forgotten objects from everyday life and transforms them through paintings filled with light, colour and texture. Her work has been previously exhibited in Dublin and Cork, and can be found in private collections in Britain, America, Canada and Australia.
Susan Cairns: 2 December – 31 January

The Waterford Gallery of Art continues its ‘Aspects’ exhibition, which highlights the extraordinary width and breadth of the renowned Waterford Collection. Running through to May 2020, the show features works by Dermod O’Brien, Grace Henry, William Leech, Mary Swanzy and John Butler Yeats, amongst many. The Waterford Collection started in the 1930s in the Quaker Newtown school in Waterford City. Aspects: Thursdays and Fridays until May.

‘PROTEST!’, a major retrospective of the work of acclaimed British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942-1994), is on at IMMA, marking 25 years since the artist’s death. While addressing Jarman’s important contribution to film, this exhibition will focus on his wider practice as a painter, writer, set-designer, gardener and political activist. This is the first time that these diverse strands of his practice have been brought together in over 20 years. These works capture Jarman’s engagement with both art and society, as well as his contemporary concerns with political protest and personal freedoms arising from the Aids crisis.
Derek Jarman: until 23 February

Artist and curator Claire Halpin has selected works for ‘Taisce Lú’, an exhibition at An Táin Arts Centre. The featured works have been chosen from the Louth Co Council collection and Halpin has found new connections and links between the different works. Among the artists featured in the exhibition are John Behan, Seán Cotter, Alice Hanratty and Isabel Nolan.
Taisce Lú: until 15 February

Paintings by Arthur Maderson will be exhibited at the Solo Arte Gallery. Over the course of his long career, the artist has been concerned with the painting of light, following the principles of the French Impressionists, using broken brushstrokes of thickly applied paint to create deep harmonies and vibrant juxtapositions of colour. Maderson sees as much colour in shadows as in bright sunlight and he ignores superficial detail and concentrates on relationships of tone and colour in evoking the striking effects of sunlight. His work was recently featured on RTÉ’s The Pure Drop.
Arthur Maderson: 2 – 21 December.

Formed in 1999 by Melissa O’Brien, Claire Boland and Kari Fry, who were then recent graduates of the Limerick School of Art and Design, Limerick Printmakers has evolved into an active studio that emphasises creativity, inclusivity, community and experimentation, and now boasts over sixty active members. ‘LP at 20’, at the Luan Gallery, celebrates this achievement, showcasing the range of work being produced by artists at every stage of their career.
Limerick Printmakers at 20: 6 December – 9 February

The collaborative artistic practice Kennedy Browne present their first solo exhibition at an Irish institution, the Hugh Lane Gallery. ‘The Redaction Trilogy’ addresses contemporary issues arising from technology and social media. As part of the display, the artists present the redacted 811-page document of Max Schrems’ Facebook record. Schrems, an Austrian privacy rights activist, won landmark cases against the social media giant in the European courts.
Kennedy Brown: until 26 January

The Jorgensen Gallery showcases a selection of new paintings by two of their foremost gallery artists, Allan Madsen and Clement McAleer. Both artists have very distinctive and recognisable styles – Madsen for his exquisite still life, landscape and figurative paintings with their textured surfaces, which evoke ancient fresco paintings; while McAleer is known for his expressionistic and atmospheric landscape paintings, which perfectly capture the restless and shifting nature of the Irish landscape. Alongside these works, the gallery will also exhibit a selection of paintings by notable artists from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as other contemporary art.
Jorgensen Gallery: ongoing

The Leinster Printmaking Studio is holding its annual Christmas exhibition at Kilcock Art Gallery, with works by members and friends of the studio selected by Robert Russell. The artists include Marta Wakula-Mac, James McCreary, Aidan Flanagan, Margaret Becker, Pamela de Brí, Yoko Akino, Jenny Lane, Val Hennigan, Rebecca Homfray, Melissa Cherry, Deirdre Shanley, Eileen Keane and Mo Montgomery.
Leinster Printmaking Studio: 30 November – 25 January