A Wild Atlantic Way, The Hunt Museum, Limerick

This exhibition of both national and international significance gives visitors the chance to travel the Wild Atlantic Way from Donegal to Kinsale through a series of atmospheric paintings by 30 artists. Many of the 50 works on display are from private collections which are not normally available for public viewing. The inspiration for the exhibition came to Naomi O’Nolan, Head of Exhibitions at The Hunt Museum, when she spent time on the west coast of Ireland during the first lockdown. She noted, “For centuries, the majestical west of Ireland and the uniqueness of its coastline has attracted artists from all over the world. This exhibition focuses on the allure of the west coast to artists both past and present and how they have captured the ways of life and customs of people living and working on the coastline as well as the power and the beauty of the land and seascape.” Key artworks include Samuel Lover’s “The Kelp Burners” (1835)  Donald Teskey’s “Turn in the Weather” (2016) and John Shinnor’s portrayal of Loop Head (2019). Throughout the summer the museum will host activities to support the exhibition including plein air painting with local artists such as John Shinnors and Charlie Harper, a landscape painting masterclass with Joseph Kelly, as well as podcasts and online lectures and talks. The exhibition runs until October 3. Tickets for adults are €10. Booking is essential to comply with Covid-19 restrictions; www.huntmuseum.com.

Light and Language by Nancy Holt, Lismore Castle Arts, Co Waterford

Nancy Holt (1938 – 2014) was a key member of the Earth, Land and Conceptual art movements and for five decades she asked questions about how we understand our place in the world, investigating what art can be and where it can be found. The exhibition “Light and Language,” curated by Lisa Le Feuvre, invited artists AK Burns, Matthew Day Jackson, Dennis McNulty, Charlotte Moth and Katie Paterson to explore ideas of light and language alongside works by Nancy Holt. This expansive exhibition stretches from Lismore Castle’s gallery spaces, through the castle gardens and into the town of Lismore. Central to the exhibition are 15 works by Holt ranging from concrete poetry to photographic experiments and her innovative room-sized installation “Electrical System” (1982), formed of over 100 glowing lightbulbs – an example of Holt’s “system sculptures”. The five artists joining Holt ask questions about perception and the way we might understand our place in the world. Working with sound, sculpture, performance, words and light, each artist has chosen works for the exhibition they feel resonate with Holt’s ideas and artworks. The exhibition runs until October 10 and a catalogue will be published in September 2021 to accompany the exhibition; www.lismorecastlearts.ie.

On Returning: New Work by Gary Coyle, dlr Lexicon, Dun Laoghaire

A graduate of NCAD Dublin and The RCA London, Gary Coyle’s mixed media work has always shown a connection to his hometown of Dún Laoghaire. “On Returning” is a series of coloured drawings based on his regular DART journey between Dublin and Dún Laoghaire. Partly inspired by 18^th and 19^th century Japanese wood block prints, they are made on a computer using Photoshop and a drawing tablet. The exhibition opens on Saturday, July 24 and runs until Sunday September 26, at the Municipal Gallery, dlr Lexicon, Dun Laoghaire. Gary Coyle was awarded the Visual Art Commission 2021 for this exhibition, which is funded by the Arts Council and produced by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. For details of the Gallery Summer Learning Programme visit www.dlrcoco.ie/arts.

Summer in the City, The Oriel Gallery, Dublin

This group exhibition features news works by Victor Richardson, Liam O’Neill, Alan Somers and Anthony Murphy.  Painted over the last eight to ten months, these new works are displayed over three floors of the gallery so there is plenty of space to browse. Also on view are three works by Jack B Yeats – a preview of The Oriel’s upcoming September exhibition featuring several oil on canvas works by the artist to coincide with the National Gallery of Ireland’s Yeats exhibition [Jack B Yeats: Painting & Memory].  Gallery owner Mandy Williams says, “We would like to give the viewer a chance to get up close with the paintings of Ireland’s most celebrated painter. All paintings will be available to purchase via private sale. Although the gallery was closed for the first part of the year, the artists never stopped working. We had a lot of interest in the artists work over during lockdown and private commissions are part of a trend we see continuing.” www.theoriel.com

Incoming and Grid by Richard Mosse, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny

Mosse’s work documents the tragedies of our times and asks questions about the ways in which we think (or don’t think) about refugees. His video installations “Incoming” and “Grid (Moria)” were made in response to the ongoing migration crisis in the Mediterranean.  The highly immersive “Incoming” was made in collaboration with composer Ben Frost and cinematographer Trevor Tweeten and filmed in six countries. Mosse used a surveillance camera designed for military use that captures images by detecting thermal radiation from more than 18 miles away. By subverting this weapons-grade technology, intended for border enforcement and to track insurgents, Mosse hoped to reveal the “harsh, disparate, unpredictable, and frequently tragic narratives of migration and displacement.”  Utilising the same military-grade thermal camera, “Grid (Moria)” focuses on the notorious Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was burned in September 2020 leaving 13,000 asylum seekers without shelter. “Grid (Moria)” made in 2016-17, depicts densely planned provisional dwellings surrounded by wire fences, security gates and loudspeakers, evoking scenes from a concentration camp inhabited by asylum seekers, which the camera registers as thermal traces of radiant bodily warmth. Each screen plays back the same footage at different intervals, creating the visual equivalent of what is known in music as a “perpetual canon”. The exhibition is on until August 29 with pre-booking advisable; www.butlergallery.ie.

Stuck on dawn by Marcel Vidal, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin

Celebrated for his diverse practice and immersive sculptural installations, Marcel Vidal’s first solo exhibition at Kerlin Gallery, “Stuck on dawn”, brings together three series of work dedicated exclusively to painting. These artworks, made by layering oil on linen, are defined by their restrained brushwork and feature dramatic colour, light and shadow. The subject matter ranges from banana tree foliage, the stretched acrylic skin of tents and dark shadowy images from distant moon landings. The imagery seems familiar and recognisable but ultimately Vidal’s paintings remain ambiguous. Vidal is a recipient of The Hennessy Craig Award for painting at The Royal Hibernian Academy (2019), Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Award (2019) and The Golden Fleece Main Award for Visual Art (2019). Vidal was also included in 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow by Kurt Beers (Thames and Hudson, 2019). The exhibition opens on July 17 and runs until August 26; www.kerlingallery.com.

Nua: new paintings by seven contemporary Irish artists, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin

Fresh work by Irish artists Neil Dunne, Sophie Gough, Emma Berkery, Roisin O’Sullivan, Eileen O’Sullivan, Stephen Doyle and Sarah Wren Wilson are on exhibition at SO Fine Art Editions this summer. Although each artist has a unique style, all pieces reveal a new challenge or project, or new path of exploration. Others were inspired by new places or people. For example, Emma Berkery’s paintings are from “Submerged in Echoes” – a project where she challenged herself to work within a severely limited palette for the first time, to create the same emotion, drama, space and intrigue as previous work, in just monochrome. Roisin O’Sullivan experimented through painting, wood-burning and woodcarving techniques. Sophie Gough’s new series, “Gestalt 2021”, is full of bright, playful pieces, while Sarah Wren Wilson explores the intertwining of narrative within abstract painting. Her paintings are imagined space: the original designs often abandoned as new space is created. All works are available to view and buy online. The exhibition runs until July 31; www.sofinearteditions.com.

Walking Backwards by Margo Banks, Solomon Fine Art, Dublin

Solomon Fine Art’s second anticipated solo exhibition of new works by Margo Banks opens on July 23 and runs until August 14. It includes a range of Banks’s popular large-scale studies of Irish wildlife; she strives to capture the freedom, autonomy and sense of otherness enjoyed by these creatures. In this new series Banks, who lives in Clontarf Dublin, looks at the Irish landscape in terms of its declining biodiversity. She celebrates what has endured and also what has been lost; www.solomonfineart.ie.

Glamour and Governance, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin  

Pop into the Hugh Lane Room to see highlights from the Gallery’s newly restored collection of 16^th century portraits. Extravagant personalities and spectacular costumes await. Afterwards visit “New Perspectives”, in the Beit Wing, a show comprised of acquisitions made by the Gallery between 2011 – 2020. Many of these acquisitions are on display for the first time – including works by Gerard Seghers, Dorothy Cross and Don McCullin. Some highlights include “Cityscape” by American artist Alice Neel and “City Rectangle” by Ilya Bolotowsky; www.nationalgallery.ie.

Staccato by Paul Hughes, Bridget Flannery and Paddy Lennon, The Kenmare Butter Market, Kenmare, Co Kerry

Curated by Dr Éimear O’Connor, Resident Director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, “Staccato” features three Irish contemporary artists; Bridget Flannery, Paul Hughes and Paddy Lennon. Working with each artist, Dr O’Connor, a trained musician, noticed the significance of music to their creative practice, and its influence on their work. Bridget Flannery speaks of her response to music conjuring up spaces of sea and strand, of wind gusting on water, of the freshness of cold, sharp air on skin, and striding out with high skies above. For Paul Hughes (pictured) each piece is a discovery of light constantly disappearing, rising and falling – the softness of dawn, the humility of dusk. While for Paddy Lennon, colour, like music, is the mood determinant – he is happy to let shape and colour determine emotional depth and meaning. This is the inaugural exhibition at Kenmare Butter Market, which opens on July 15 until August 15. Built in the mid 1800s, the former open-air Kenmare Butter Market was converted to a dance hall in the 1960s and is one of the largest indoor spaces in Kenmare. As such it makes a perfect arts and exhibition venue; www.kenmarebuttermarket.org.

The Artist’s Mother: Lucie and Daryll by Chantal Joffe, IMMA, Dublin

Inspired by Lucian Freud’s paintings of his mother, Lucie, this exhibition juxtaposes digital and physical elements. Freud produced thirteen paintings of his mother as well as numerous drawings. His most celebrated portraits of his mother were “The Painter’s Mother Reading” (1975) and “Painter’s Mother Resting I” (1976). Central to the project is the work of artist Chantal Joffe who has portrayed her mother, Daryll, in a series of paintings and pastels. Joffe painted her mother in old age, after she began to lose her sight, she explains: “My mum has quite bad sight now – which is a hard thing to say because it became easier to paint her because she couldn’t then see the paintings. It’s complicated; she is only truly seen when she can no longer see me or how I paint her”. The exhibition is the first time IMMA combines both a gallery display in the Freud Centre, alongside a digitally installed exhibition in a new virtual gallery space. In this series of 15 portraits, six in dialogue with Lucian Freud in the gallery and 13 in the virtual gallery space, with some of the portraits been shown in both spaces. Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections, IMMA explains: “This show provides a focus for contemporary discussions of motherhood, focusing particularly on the complex relationship between mother and child over time. Both Freud and Joffe are drawn by the intensity of this bond, and especially the difficulty of seeing the real woman with adult eyes”. “The Artist’s Mother” includes videos, essays, texts and talks, to form a fascinating compilation of images, writing and voices that explore the role of mothers and carers in our lives; www.imma.ie.

Less Jam, More Havoc, Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin

This two-person exhibition, launching on Thursday July 15, features new work by Olivier Cornet Gallery artist Kelly Ratchford and guest artist Jaki Coffey. Both artists share a desire to incorporate humour and playfulness in their work; they take the work seriously but delight in spontaneity. Coffey’s work in this exhibition is a record of  her daughter attacking blocks of butter while quietly leaving her marks as ephemeral graffiti around her home. Mark making is also a significant aspect to Ratchford’s practice (pictured). Simple lines and blocks of colour offer a simplicity emulating work made by children. The exhibition runs until August 15 and is also online in the 3D virtual space: www.oliviercornetgallery.com.

The Heart Expands by Fuchsia MacAree, Hang Tough Studio Gallery, Dublin

The new collection of prints by Irish illustrator Fuchsia MacAree is bursting with summer feels and good times. Says MacAree, “This body of work is a response to our collectively strange past year. During lockdown, it felt like a space emerged that hadn’t been there before. Walking around felt eerie but the city had a new tenderness. Everything in the digital world was chaotic but around us springtime kept soldiering on. Like a lot of people I started running in the morning. I read in an article that as the body gets fitter the heart explands, I thought, isn’t that happening to us all? This work is about those moments that rose to the surface during those times. Some of those observations depict quiet contentment alone or in the presence of friends, while others are simply about sunlight hitting raindrops or leaves, or the magnificence of a dandelion.” www.hangtough.ie

Edo in Colour: Prints from Japan’s Metropolis, Chester Beatty, Dublin Castle

From Chester Beatty’s own collections, “Edo in Colour” explores how woodblock prints shaped fashion, fame and identity in Tokyo. Featuring more than 100 prints and printed books from Japan’s Edo period (c 1603–1868), the exhibition is shown in two parts with more to explore online and in the accompanying catalogue. The exhibition runs until December 5, admission is free; www.chesterbeatty.ie.

Vicereines of Ireland: Portraits of Forgotten Women, Dublin Castle

This exhibition tells the untold story of the women who were wives of the former viceroys. These vicereines were once the fashionable figureheads of social, cultural and charitable life at Dublin Castle, in the days before Irish independence. Exploring the portraits, papers and personal objects they left behind, this exhibition recaptures their lost legacies. Behind the genteel images, many of the vicereines were activists and advocates who campaigned to develop hospitals and healthcare, relieve poverty and destitution, and promote Irish fashions. Often sympathetic but sometimes apathetic, the contrasting attitudes of the vicereines suggest a fresh, more inclusive reading of the British administration in Ireland, as viewed not only through its men, but also its women. The exhibition runs until September and is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated book; www.dublincastle.ie.

Art & Soul – The Holywood International Art and Sculpture Fair, Culloden Estate & Spa, Belfast

Ireland’s largest sculpture exhibition, with art worth an estimated €7 million, is on display around the twelve-acre grounds and inside the hotel by artists as diverse as Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Banksy, Damien Hirst, Roy Lichtenstein and Pablo Picasso. The event features 125 sculptures and includes work by Ian Pollock, Bob Quinn, Eamonn Ceannt, Giacinto Bosco (pictured) Orla de Brí, Sandra Bell and F.E McWilliam. The event is open to the public daily with guided tours at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm (no booking is required). There’s also a special Art and Soul Afternoon Tea (£35) with a curated tour of the exhibits, as well as private dining opportunities in the Warhol Room each evening. It’s sure to appeal to all the family – one of the highlights of the exhibition are 30 works by Irish artist Patrick O’Reilly, including a special “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” installation showcasing many of O’Reilly’s iconic life-sized bear sculptures. The Fair runs until July 18; www.gormleys.ie. 

A delicate bond which is also a gap by Isabel Nolan, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath

This exhibition includes textile work, sculptures, drawings, painting and text ranging across a vast span of time beginning with woven images of the 40,000-year-old sculpture “Löwenmensch” and concluding with an ambitious, specially commissioned tapestry depicting the disintegration of the sun. Nolan’s drawings of looping spirals and leaf like shapes chime with the significant megalithic art of the ancient landscape surrounding the arts centre. The exhibition includes a sculpture dedicated to Ludwig Boltzmann, a physicist who transformed our understanding of entropy and the future disorderliness of the universe. There’s also a new textile work depicting a wave, which Nolan imagines has travelled for over 2,000 years since it first engulfed St Cuthbert on the holy island of Lindisfarne. These diverse artistic investigations are  inspired by Nolan’s questions about the ways the world is made meaningful through human activity. The exhibition is on until August 28; www.solsticeartscentre.ie.

Where by Willie Doherty, Ulster Museum, Belfast

If you are unfamiliar with Willie Doherty – a Turner Prize nominee and Northern Ireland’s foremost contemporary artist – “Where” offers an overview of his career in photography and time-based media. In the aftermath of Brexit, and in the centenary year of the partition of Ireland, the exhibition, curated by Anne Stewart of National Museums NI, focuses on the theme of borders, both real and imagined, a subject which has dominated Doherty’s practice for over four decades. More recently Doherty has extended his work by visiting the border between the US and Mexico. Collectively, the works in the exhibition reveal the numerous complex political, social and psychological implications of borders and challenge the viewer to reconsider the value and meaning of these fault-lines. Doherty explains, “Borders are points of transition, evoking a sense of something inherently unstable, changing, and unfixed. Borders also present the opportunity for positive change, for recognition of other perspectives, for compassion and understanding in the face of adversity and fear.” The exhibition is on show until September 12, pre-booking online is advised; www.nmni.com.

Passage, Fold & Multipolar by John Noel Smith, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin 15

John Noel Smith, born in Dublin, now lives and works in Co Wexford. For the last 45 years he has made paintings of a singular intensity – conflict and resolution are essential aspects of his abstract works. He explains: “They (the paintings) are perhaps more about the moment of cohesion than the instant of fragmentation.” His works could be defined as a tapestry of connections and an exploration of culture, which informs the spirit of the age. “Passage, Fold & Multipolar” explores three strands in Smith’s recent body of work. The Passage series celebrates the irregular and rhythmic patterns of life with a vibrant and optical three-dimensionality. The triptych format is central to the Fold paintings. Here two contemplative side panels flank a central middle panel or active field where forces such as gravitation, cohesion, order as well as cultural convention are examined. The Multipolar series coordinates the cartography of the centre with that of the periphery, while incorporating contradiction into its essential structure, opening up a new field of vision. The exhibition is on until September 5 from Tuesday to Sunday, admission is free; www.farmleigh.ie.

A Summer Selection, The Doorway Gallery, Dublin

This  summer show called “A Summer Selection” is a large, impressive and eclectic mix of artworks, which includes atmospheric landscapes, vibrant still life, bronze and ceramic sculpture. New work from the gallery artists include Lucy Doyle, Ken Browne, Adam De Ville, Peter Dee, Hugh Frazer, Trudy Good, Iain Holman, Roisin O’Farrell, Kate Beagan, Isobel Henihan, Debbie Chapman, Francis Boag, and Joby Hickey (pictured). The gallery has also introduced a new “Try before you buy” service and will deliver artwork to your home to see which pieces work best. In addition the art visualiser app enables you to view any painting on your own wall at home; www.thedoorwaygallery.com.

Summer Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Cork

Starting on July 19, The Lavit Gallery presents its Summer Exhibition. This show will feature paintings, sculpture and prints from some outstanding artists including Angela Fewer, Tim Goulding (pictured), Sheila Naughton, Fidelma Massy and many more. The exhibition guarantees to have something for everyone and is on until July 31. Thereafter a craft exhibition, curated by Stephen O’ Connell, will coincide with Cork Craft & Design, Ireland’s largest social enterprise for craftspeople, taking place in August.  Cork Craft Month has a line-up of over 70 workshops, masterclasses, artist talks and trails with both physical and online events; www.lavitgallery.com.