The Complex will close following the failure of Government and Dublin City Council to secure a viable resolution for an arts organization that has operated continuously in the north west inner city for 18 years.
During that time, The Complex developed into a nationally and internationally recognised centre for contemporary Irish arts, supporting hundreds of artists, freelancers, technicians, designers, producers, and staff, and providing sustained cultural infrastructure in an area of the city with limited access to the arts.
Despite prolonged engagement and repeated assurances, no workable solution was delivered. The loss of The Complex represents a failure of cultural policy, accountability, and long-term planning within the public system.
Our efforts have also been frustrated by an inflexible landlord, focused exclusively on achieving vacant possession, to maximize the redevelopment value of the site.
This outcome stands in direct contradiction to stated commitments to support Irish arts, cultural employment, and equitable access to cultural life in Dublin.
Best wishes,
Vanessa Fielding
Artistic Director/CEO
❌ The Complex Off-Site ❌
A huge thank you to everyone who joined The Dust by Maïa Nunes with Brendan Jenkinson, commissioned by The Complex and presented at Kirkos.
For her live performance, Maïa distilled over a year of intensive research into an hour-long interplay of improvised movement and sound, rooted in the layered history of The Complex’s former site and its connection to St. Mary’s Abbey. Central to this research was a dialogue with archaeologist Edmond O’Donovan, which brought to light a remarkable carved Dundry stone fragment depicting a Monk in Prayer, discovered just metres from the gallery’s former entrance.
This fragment became a defining motif within Maïa’s work. In response, she undertook stone carving under the guidance of eighth-generation stonemason Killian O’Flaherty in his Wicklow workshop, engaging in the rigorous, repetitive act of carving as both material research and memorial gesture.
Thank you to Maïa, Brendan, Kirkos, Edmund, Killian, all collaborators, and to everyone who came along to witness The Dust.
//
The Dust marks the beginning of The Complex Off-Site visual arts programme for 2026. In addition to Maïa’s performance, the programme includes three further exhibitions presented across Ireland in partnership with collaborating organisations. Announcements regarding the forthcoming exhibitions will be made in the coming weeks.
@maia.nu.nes
Image credit Patrick Fleming.
Proudly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.
We are so grateful to everyone who joined us for the ‘Vanishing Dublin’ panel discussion, an evening of honest, candid, and deeply necessary conversation about the city we call home.
Gerard Byrne’s exhibition ‘Before I Go. Vanishing Dublin’ drew together Donal Fallon of @threecastlesburning , Donough Cahill of @irishgeorgiansociety , Vanessa Fielding of @complexdublin , Arran Henderson of @dublindecoded and Daryl Hendley Rooney of @littlemuseumdub — each having dedicated their practice to recording, preserving, and making the case for what makes Dublin distinct.
The panel kept returning to the same question: what happens to a city when the old is forced to make way for the new, and specificity gives way to sameness?
Gerard paints Dublin as it stands today, in oils and charcoal, en plein air. Fifty works that share the same conviction: before I go, before you go, I’ll make sure someone remembers.
Gerard Byrne Gallery
13 Trinity St, Dublin 2
The recording of this event will be available online later this week at gerardbyrneartist.com
Phot & Video @tchakhoian@nikitumbiks
Furniture @cadesign.ie
#heritagearchitecture #dublin #artgallery #paneldiscussion
Finally, introducing our ‘Vanishing Dublin’ Guest Speaker, Vanessa Fielding.
Vanessa Fielding is a theatre director and the founder of @complexdublin Dublin’s multi-disciplinary arts centre in Smithfield. After a decade directing theatre in London, she returned to Dublin with a vision for immersive, non-traditional performance, working site-specifically in the Smithfield Markets area from 1995 before formally establishing The Complex in 2008.
Over nearly three decades she built it into a nationally recognised centre for contemporary Irish arts — comprising a performance space, gallery, and seventeen artists’ studios — until its forced permanent closure in January 2026. Her experience of fighting to preserve cultural space in Dublin’s north inner city makes her a uniquely powerful voice on the theme of Vanishing Dublin.
__________
Vanishing Dublin | Panel Discussion
Thursday | 16th April @ 6.30pm
📍Gerard Byrne Gallery
13 Trinity Street, Dublin 2
More info: gerardbyrneartist.com/events
Free Admission. Seats Limited.
RSVP: [email protected]
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Original cost €50k, open to serious offers.
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Episdode 2
Mark (curator, The Complex Gallery, Dublin) talks to us about the strategies behind his practice of collaborative exhibition making.
https://www.thecomplex.ie/
Image : Mark O'Gorman
Photo by George Hooker
❌ Artist Profile ❌
The Dust by Maïa Nunes with Brendan Jenkinson
Commissioned by The Complex
Presented at Kirkos
Location: Kirkos, Little Green St, Smithfield, Dublin 7, D07 K744
Date: 21 March
Time: 8pm
Doors: 7.30pm
Tickets: sold out, register for waitlist @ the link in bio
Maïa Nunes is an Irish-Trinidadian interdisciplinary artist and sound healer whose work weaves with voice, sound, cloth, movement, and the land to create immersive and multi-textural worlds in the form of film, audio artwork, sculptural installation and live performance.
//
During the development of 'The Dust', a dialogue between Maïa and leading archaeologist Edmond O’Donovan brought to light a carved Dundry stone pillar fragment depicting a Monk in Prayer, uncovered during the excavation of Mary’s Abbey just metres from The Complex’s former gallery entrance. Believed to have formed part of a doorway pillar, the fragment became a defining motif in Maïa’s work. In response, Maïa began stone carving under the guidance of eighth-generation stonemason Killian O’Flaherty at his workshop in Wicklow, recreating the Monk in Prayer motif through the rigorous and repetitive process of carving. This act operates as both material research and memorial gesture, honouring the site’s history and those who once lived there.
@maia.nu.nes
Image credit Aoife Long.
Special thanks to the stones, to Kirkos, Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy, to Edmond O’Donovan and Killian O’Flaherty for their generosity and knowledge.
Proudly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.
❌ Performance Announcement ❌
The Dust by Maïa Nunes with Brendan Jenkinson
Commissioned by The Complex
Presented at Kirkos
Location: Kirkos, Little Green St, Smithfield, Dublin 7, D07 K744
Date: 21 March
Time: 8pm
Doors: 7.30pm
Tickets: Free, register @ the link in bio
The Dust marks the beginning of The Complex Off-Site visual arts programme for 2026. In addition to Maïa’s performance, the programme includes three further exhibitions presented across Ireland in partnership with collaborating organisations. Further announcements regarding the forthcoming exhibitions will be made in the coming weeks.
//
In memory of the sacred monument and home that once stood here,
The stonemasons who built it,
And the stones who remain.
For all those who were buried here and forgotten.
//
The Dust culminates Maïa’s year-long site-specific research, originally developed for a scheduled exhibition in The Gallery at The Complex, whose former building stood on the historic site of Mary’s Abbey. Following the organisation’s eviction, the project has been adapted to a live performance, staged in the same locality, at Kirkos. The work honours both the layered Cistercian history of Mary’s Abbey and The Complex’s more recent presence on that ground. Maïa’s research led to a focus on stone as a material that carries history beyond the span of human life, bearing the marks of generations past. A central question emerged and persists: how can an artwork respectfully honour loss without aestheticising it?
@maia.nu.nes
Image: Carved Dundry Stone Pillar fragment of Monk in Prayer, St Mary's Abbey Dublin, courtesy Fergal Flannery.
Special thanks to the stones, to Kirkos, Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy, to Edmond O’Donovan and Killian O’Flaherty for their generosity and knowledge.
Proudly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.
In response to the public letter from Minister Jack Chamber's office, suggesting that space could be made available by DCC in the Digital Hub, no such offer or communication has been made to The Complex. It closed up in Arran Street last Friday and is now homeless.
Save The Complex.
For over a decade, this warehouse on Arran Street was an unpolished gem, a vital incubator for Dublin’s underground arts community. It was authenticity in brick and beam, hosting everything from punk gigs to experimental theatre. Its industrial space was a minimalist canvas for daring artistic expression.
After a long battle, The Complex is facing imminent closure as the building is set to be sold. This isn’t just a gallery shutting down, it’s a vital, unruly piece of the city’s cultural fabric being removed.
True 35 Project. Documenting the spaces that hold a city’s soul before they disappear. Shot on 35mm.
What’s a beloved independent venue in your city that you fear losing?
#True35Project #Dublin #TheComplex #SaveOurVenues #FilmCommunity
The closure of The Complex was totally avoidable. It is a heartbreaking and unnecessary loss for Dublin’s creative community. I’ve raised The Complex repeatedly, and I’m again calling for the Minister for Arts to come before the Seanad for a full debate on how we can restore this vital space. Dublin needs The Complex back — our artists and our city deserve nothing less.
✍🏻📝🖊️As Mirror Lamp Press x The Complex Writer in Residence, Jessica Foley developed a series of interconnected texts that move between performance and poetic experiment. Her writing explores how personal and political worlds overlap, tracing the textures of everyday life alongside the exhibitions and events at The Complex. Drawing particular inspiration from Anne Carson’s Stacks, Foley’s residency unfolded as an open, process-based inquiry into how language, voice, and performance take form over time.✍🏻📝🖊️
✒️✒️✒️Draft III is a response to Basma Al-Sharif’s film Long Life Witness, curated by Diaa Lagan, which was screened at Dissolutions ’25 festival by aemi, and to the exhibition 21226827118 by Colm Keady-Tabbal at The Complex Gallery, 24 October – 8 November 2025.✒️✒️✒️
🎞️🎞️🎞️aemi’s new touring programme ‘Desire Lines’ premieres at the Irish Film Institute on Thursday 22nd January. Featuring films by Eóin Heaney, Basma al-Sharif, Chloe Brenan, Olivia Normile, and Collectif Faire Part, the screening will be followed by a Q&A with Chloe Brenan, Olivia Normille and Eóin Heaney.🎞️🎞️🎞️
📖📖📖YOU CAN READ THE TEXT VIA THE LINK IN AEMI’S BIO📖📖📖
⭐️⭐️⭐️Jessica Foley was the MLP x The Complex writer in residence from August–December 2025.⭐️⭐️⭐️
