An Altered Land: David Fox
Olivier Cornet Gallery, 3 Great Denmark St (beside Belvedere College, off Parnell Sq), Dublin Until May 12th
David Fox's paintings are a response to the artist's dawning realisation of the extent of the deleterious human impact on the landscape, so that intrusions dominate and eventually become the landscape. Influenced by cinematography, he begins with photographic documentation and aims to make images that prompt us to see our surroundings anew.
Transition: Work from the Arts Council's collection
South Tipperary Arts Centre, Nelson St, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. Until May 18th
Fifth-year students of Tipperary’s Loretto Convent Secondary School were introduced to the Arts Council’s art collection and invited to curate an exhibition. The resultant show includes documentation in which they discuss their choices – which have overall a feminist incination. Among the artists who feature in their lively selection are Carmel Benson, Pauline Bewick, Michelle Brown, Amanda Coogan, Dorothy Cross, Anita Groener and Dragana Jurisic.
Local: Pete Smyth
RUA RED, South Dublin Arts Centre, Tallaght, Dublin Until April 26th
A survey of Pete Smyth’s long-term project – 30 years and counting – documenting his immediate surroundings, in Killinardin in Tallaght, as they transformed from a site of marginal deprivation to a thriving urban centre. He is also a community-arts worker and social activist, factors that inform his photography. The show incorporates his series Traveller and View from the Death, together with images documenting street and nightlife.
OK: Hannah Fitz
Kerlin Gallery, Anne's Lane, South Anne St, Dublin. Until May 25th
Hannah Fitz graduated from NCAD and currently attends the Stadelschule Frankfurt. For her first solo exhibition she creates a sculptural landscape inhabited by, apparently, footballers – but as though footballers are a species, with their own conventions and social structures, which in a way they are. The life-sized football figures are roughly rendered and non-naturalistic in colour, with “off-white and mushroom grey” predominant.
Other Dimensions: Fiona Mulholland, Laura Angell and Paul Bokslag
Luan Gallery, Custume Place, Athlone, Co Westmeath Until June 9th
Site–specific installations by Fiona Mulholland (a space configured by fluorescent lights and reflective surfaces), Laura Angell (outsize knitted ornaments alluding to the socially competitive need to impress) and Paul Bokslag (curtains of cut-paper patterns filter and energise the light). All demonstrate how unorthodox materials work their way into art.