The MAC, Belfast 8 December 2023 – 7 April 2024 Curated by Belinda Quirke, Niamh McCann’s solo exhibition ‘someone decides, hawk or dove’ fills all three galleries at the MAC, and includes sculpture, furniture, photography, and montage. The Sunken Gallery introduces the show (and its narrator, Colin the blind dog) in the video, titled The Hairline Crack (Belfast Edit) (2023), referencing Ciaran Carson’s poem of the same name, looking at uncertainties and absurdities thrown up by ‘The Troubles’. The title of the exhibition is taken from a line in the poem: “Someone decides, hawk or dove. Ambush ..read more

VARVARA KEIDAN SHAVROVA REVIEWS THE CURRENT SCULPTURE EXHIBITION AT HAYWARD GALLERY LONDON.  Currently showing at the Hayward Gallery in London until 6 May, ‘When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture’, presents a substantial survey exhibition, under the curatorial direction of Ralph Rugoff, and assistant Katie Guggenheim.  Presenting over 50 artworks by 21 international artists across three floors of the gallery’s brutalist interior, the exhibition features expanded sculptural works that originate in the natural world and interrogate sculpture as a methodology of trans ..read more

Roscommon Arts Centre  2 February – 29 March 2024 Lorraine Tuck’s exhibition ‘Unusual Gestures’ elevates the depiction of family life to an artform, and, in the process, extends the boundaries of what is made visible. A documentary photographer, Tuck photographs what surrounds her: her family, her environment, her reality. My first encounter with ‘Unusual Gestures’ was during its premiere at Galway International Arts Festival in 2023. Recently seen again at Roscommon Arts Centre, ‘Unusual Gestures’ is still an emotive viewing experience. A highly personal body of work, it is a photographi ..read more

THOMAS POOL INTERVIEWS WAYLON GARY WHITE DEER, A CHOCTAW ARTIST WITH A STRONG CONNECTION TO IRELAND, ABOUT HIS ARTISTIC BACKGROUND, PRACTICE, AND THE ENDURING INFLUENCE OF THE CHOCTAW NATION’S GIFT TO THE IRISH PEOPLE DURING THE GREAT FAMINE. Thomas Pool: What can you tell us about your artistic background? How did you come to be an artist, what motivates your work, and how has your practice evolved over the years? Waylon Gary White Deer: My first motivation was my father. There’s an almost lost genre. I’m one of the few practitioners that’s still alive, doing Traditional Indian Art, also call ..read more

Thomas Pool: For the past 25 years, Cartoon Saloon has been at the forefront of Irish animation. Nominated for several Oscars® and Golden Globes®, as well as picking up BAFTA® and Emmy® wins, your studio has brought Irish animation to audiences around the world. Can you walk us through your history, your mission, and where you’re going next? Nora Twomey: Having met while studying animation at Ballyfermot College in the 1990s, a dozen of us animators really gelled as creatives, and wanted to draw together and make stories for the screen. We didn’t want to emigrate, as many of our peers were doi ..read more

Thomas Pool: Elk Studios is part of Ireland’s fast-growing animation industry. What can you tell us about the organisation, its history, mission, and where it’s going? Aisling Conroy: We are a boutique animation studio, nestled in the heart of Dundalk that brings a wealth of experience from other high-profile studios and projects. The studio was founded by Producer Ian Hamilton in 2017 with the team growing its core to nine people since then. Ian wanted to do something a little different and setup a studio away from the usual animation hubs in the country. Elk is a studio that emphasises work ..read more

From the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. 18 April 2024. Ireland’s Representation at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia – opened today Thursday 18 April. The exhibition, ROMANTIC IRELAND by artist Eimear Walshe, is curated by Sara Greavu with Project Arts Centre. Ireland at Venice is an initiative of Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council. Director of Culture Ireland, Sharon Barry and the Director of the Arts Council, Maureen Kennelly, today opened the exhibition, which presents a multi-channel vide ..read more

Project Arts Centre  15 December 2023 – 10 February 2024 “God created man in his own image…” – Genesis 1:27  In machine-learning, a ‘Ground Truth’ is the original image from which an artificially intelligent system trains itself – it is a given reality one seeks to model. On one wall of the Project Arts Centre gallery space, we see projected Untitled (After Sensory Primer), the computer-generated viscera of a human anatomy, beginning with the muscular cycles of a foot taking a step. The sounds of synths, of drones, of a child babbling, resonate across the room. Through a pale glow we ..read more

THOMAS POOL INTERVIEWS THE ARTISTS FROM THE FREELANDS ARTIST PROGRAMME AT PS² AND THE  FREELANDS STUDIO FELLOW. Thomas Pool: How has your participation in PS2’s Freelands Artist Programme helped you grow and evolve your practice in ways that wouldn’t have been possible without it? Christopher Steenson: That’s a difficult question to answer. After two years being on the programme, it’s now difficult to imagine an alternative version of reality, where it wasn’t part of my life. I’ve just been trying to keep my head above water, making the work I need to make. I suppose being part of a progr ..read more

Crawford Art Gallery 8 December 2023 – 5 March 2024 Looped in Crawford Art Gallery’s projection space, as part of an ongoing screening series entitled ‘The Power of Us’, Venus Patel’s Eggshells is a short film made in response to a transphobic assault in which she was pelted with eggs. The egg is already an object loaded with symbolism. As the artist points out, its psychological and symbolic meanings include the power of reincarnation, birth, nature, and hope, as well as the ability to belittle or humiliate.  As part of her project exploring her experience as a transfemme of colour, navi ..read more