Here’s a quick look at the exhibition celebrating the public release of the 1926 Census of Ireland at the Coach House at Dublin Castle, which is in the Castle gardens next to the Chester Beatty @chesterbeatty .
The census is now online at the National Archives website.
Ny Carlsberg @glyptoteket has one of the largest collections of works by Paul Gauguin, including this one called Vahine no te tiare /La femme à la fleur (1891)
It’s the inspiration for Yuki Kihara’s video work, “First Impressions”, which responds to Gauguin’s portrayal of Tahiti by creating space for contemporary Pacific voices to reflect on his imagery.
Filmed in the style of a TV talk show and first shown at the Venice Biennale in 2022, the participants (like Kihara) belong to the Fa’afafine and Fa’atama communities, the Sāmoan counterparts to Māhū, a people understood to embody more than one gender. Although Māhū were suppressed during colonial times, some researchers believe Gauguin may have depicted them, a point also raised in the discussion.
First Impressions shows a familiar work from a different point of view.
I saw Filipinas in Hong Kong (1995) by Pacita Abad in the Arsenale at the 2024 Venice Biennale. It was one of three of her works that I thought perfectly fit that year’s theme: Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.
Part of Abad’s Immigrant Experience series, the work reflects migration and the Filipino diaspora. Using her signature “trapunto” technique—acrylic on stitched and padded canvas—Abad creates a vibrant, textured surface honouring Filipino domestic workers.
Beneath the symbols of globalised capitalism that rely on their work to keep it going, these Filipina migrants are shown gathering in Hong Kong, forming community far from home.
This caught my eye on a recent visit to IMMA. “Revolt, They Said” is hand-drawn, black and white (in a room full of colour) and seems more like a mind-map than an artwork. What’s this?!
Apparently it started when the artist (Andrea Geyer) was researching the network around the group of women who conceived the idea for the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the 1920s: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan.
The historical research was best represented visually and it became a hand-drawn diagram of relationships. This soon evolved into a complex web of collectors, visionaries, artists and entrepreneurs, whose entanglements, commitments and alliances were obviously influential in creating the modern American cultural landscape - in a way, showing how social change happens and how women get things done. (Yes, the lesbians get a shout out!).
Eventually the research became the work, which is a comment on art and its agents and the role they play in social and cultural change and, as a result, this work is “ongoing”. Change keeps on changing!
#art #feminism #networks #contemporaryart
Currently on show at IMMA as part of their Art as Agency exhibition of works from their Permanent Collection. Runs until Feb 2028.
It’s Seachtain na Gaeilge – a time to celebrate the richness, beauty and depth of the Irish language.
This artwork, which I saw recently at @immaireland is by artist Nil Yalter. It’s a photocollage overwritten by the Irish phrase “Is Post Crua É An Deoraíocht”, which translates to “Exile Is a Hard Job”.
Snd it got me thinking how the Irish word for exile, “deoraíocht” and the word for an exiled person “deoraí” are closely connected to the word “deora” — meaning tears. In Irish, exile and tears share the same root, reflecting how deeply loss, separation, and sorrow are woven into the experience of displacement here.
The language itself holds the emotional truth: to be in exile is to be in tears. It’s a reminder of how Irish preserves history not just in stories, but in the very structure of its words.
During Seachtain na Gaeilge, it feels especially meaningful to reflect on words like this — words that carry memory, history, and feeling all at once.
#SeachtainNaGaeilge #Gaeilge #IrishLanguage
Seachtain na Gaeilge atá ann – am chun áilleacht agus brí na Gaeilge a cheiliúradh.
Chonaic mé an saothar seo (le Nil Yalter ag IMMA). Photocollage atá ann leis na focail: “Is Post Crua É An Deoraíocht” — “Exile is a hard job.”
Chuir sé mé ag smaoineamh ar na focail deoraíocht, deoraí agus deora. Tá an fhréamh chéanna acu. Sa Ghaeilge, tá ceangal láidir idir deoraíocht agus deora — idir díláithriú agus brón. Is é a bheith ar deoraíocht ná a bheith i ndeora. 😭
Le linn Seachtain na Gaeilge, is fiú machnamh a dhéanamh ar fhocail mar seo — focail a iompraíonn stair agus mothúchán le cheile!
These bronze statues of two famous Irish playwrights, John B. Keane and Brian Friel are in Mount Street Crescent. They were created by Neil C Breen.
#statue #ireland #irishwriter #dublin
At @smkmuseum – Statens Museum for Kunst Copenhagen - curator Michèle Seehafer recently presented one of the museum’s latest acquisition: a rare work by Clara Peeters.
Peeters was among the few professional women artists of her time but we know little about her. She usually signed her work (and sometimes dated it). From that we know she was active between 1607 and 1621.
A pioneer of independent still life, she helped popularize depictions of breakfasts and banquets and introduced falconry into the genre. Her precise works entered major collections, including royal holdings in Madrid. In 2016, the Museo del Prado highlighted her importance with a dedicated exhibition of her work, the first woman artist to receive this honour. (Half a million people went!)
“Still Life with Peregrine Falcon and Birds” (1616) features a falcon poised over a partridge in a basket against a dark background. The details of the bird (the eyes, talons and textured feathers) demonstrate Peeter’s expert eye.
We also heard a fun story about how the work was acquired through auction in Switzerland and how excited the SMK was to obtain a Clara Peeters for their collection.
(The final image is said to be a portrait of Clara Peeters, possibly a self-portrait, but like most details around her life, nothing is certain).
#art #museum #copenhagen
