A sculpture by the artist Richard Malone graces the front cover of the winter edition. The fluid forms of Malone’s sculptures belie their recycled origins – some materials are even reclaimed from the sea. Malone asks: what is art and who has the authority to label it so? SEÁN KISSANE assesses their oeuvre. The common thread running through the work of Niamh O’Malley and Peter Pearson is architectural salvage – modern and historic – of objects that otherwise might be sent to the scrapheap. CRISTÍN LEACH considers their respective exhibitions and how each has reused and reimagined these artifacts. AIDAN DUNNE visits two exhibitions at the Royal Hibernian Academy: Una Sealy’s ten-year survey show of paintings and Maïa Nunes’ multimedia presentations; while MARIANNE O’KANE BOAL travels to Sligo to view Cathy Wilkes’ exhibition at The Model. PAULA MURPHY profiles sculptor Andrew O’Connor, who was awarded the first prize for sculpture at the Paris Salon in 1910; and ANN WILSON tells the story behind Crossing the Bar – a five-light window in St Multose Church in Kinsale, created by stained-glass artist Kitty O’Brien. PETER MURRAY looks at an exhibition of work by a Palestinian collective, Eltiqa, which is on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art; JOHN P O’SULLIVAN regards the work of sculptor Jim Flavin, who also brought innovative foundry techniques to Ireland; while Michael Waldron pays tribute to the ‘tender and intimate’ paintings of Cork-born artist Noirín Ní Chuill. Elsewhere in the issue, MATTHEW MAW champions the work of the late Belfast artist Patric Coogan; PETER PEARSON traces multiple historical layers in the rooms of Malahide Castle; and STEPHANIE McBRIDE surveys Conor Horgan’s recent portraits of Irish writers, currently showing at the European Parliament in Brussels. Usual features include the Diary of Events by KATHRYN MILLIGAN and Design Portfolio by FRANCES McDONALD. There are book reviews by Yvonne Scott, Joseph McBrinn, Lionel Pilkington and Conor Lucey. And finally, as a young man, the painter William Orpen made several studies of a courtyard in Cany, Normandy, which feature an archway leading into the yard and a lit scene beyond it. For the next thirty years, Orpen placed an archway, a mise-en-scène, in many of his works. KENNETH McCONKEY traces these paintings, made by a man who ‘to the end of his days, was that rare thing – a scholarly painter’. Enjoy!