Art

The week’s best art shows: From an anxiety exhibition to Damien Hirst

Plus: Venice Biennale works on iconic 20th-century buildings, and Ben Reilly

Close Encounters in Venice

Aidan Dunne's face
Aidan Dunne
Sat Apr 6 2019 - 05:00

Close Encounters: Meetings with Remarkable Buildings Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork. Until June 20th glucksman.org As part of last year's architectural Venice Biennale curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, some 16 Irish architectural teams were invited to reimagine iconic 20th century buildings. The project was co-crated by Hugh Campbell. The exhibition, which includes elaborate installations, is now on view in the Glucksman and, later in the year, at Visual Carlow.

At One with Expression: Martin Mooney

Sol Art Gallery, Unit 3, The Times Building, D'Olier Street, Dublin. Until April 25th solart.ie For a painter with such an enthusiastic following, it's surprising that Martin Mooney's last show in Dublin was 12 years ago. His new work displays a lively engagement with the light and colour of, mostly, the northwest (he lives in Co Donegal), but also Connemara, Sandycove and elsewhere. Plus floral still lives.

A Vague Anxiety: Group exhibition

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Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin April 12th-August 18th, imma.ie If your nerves are insufficiently frayed, you could always visit this show of work by Irish and international artists reflecting on "the rising levels of anxiety in our media-driven lives". The subjects include housing, gender identity, climate change and dating apps. Susanne Wawra muses on neighbourly denunciation in Stasi-era east Germany; Brian Teeling on mental disintegration and other angst-inducing experiences. Saidhbhín Gibson, Marie Farrington and Cristina Bunello also feature.

Damien Hirst: At Play Gormleys Fine Art, 27 South Frederick Street, Dublin Until April 25th gormleys.ie A compendium of Damien Hirst's printworks, made from 2005 onwards, including dots and butterflies. Hirst is up there with Andy Warhol in terms of celebrity artist status, his reach extending way beyond the habitual art audience, his name and personality functioning like a major brand. This collection of his graphic work should therefore draw in a wide public.

Graft: Ben Reilly

Studio 12, 1st Floor, Backwater Artists Group, Wandesford Quay, Cork Until May 3rd backwaterartists.ie An honest insight into the hard graft "of the making of a piece of work", as Ben Reilly puts it. Not so much a progression from A to B as an uncertain ramble all around the alphabet: "working over a year collecting objects, taking photographs, making drawings, sometimes overlapping, often going nowhere and occasionally backwards."