Irish Arts Review Autumn 2025

A quarterly journal of fine art, design, architecture, photography, sculpture, heritage, decorative arts and crafts.

IN THE ISSUE

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s Familiar Sun graces the cover of the autumn edition. Ní Bhriain’s interest in the growth of the archives and collections that accompanied colonialism and imperialism informs her work. In conversation with Aidan Dunne, she says, ‘With any collection, you have to ask who the intended audience was and the purpose of the legacy being preserved.’ Another artist who engages with archival material in their practice is Marianne Keating. Irish migration, be it to England or the Caribbean, is Keating’s arena. In her work, as Emer McGarry relates, she questions the perceived objectivity of official historical records. Dublin welcomes the arrival of a new art centre in the city’s reclaimed northside docklands. Viewing the première exhibition at the International Centre for the Image, Seán Kissane finds many kinds of media and image layered into a satisfying whole; and, in Belfast, photographer Bill Kirk’s black-and-white images, taken between the 1960s and the 1980s, provide a valuable archive of the city and its people. Stephanie McBride reflects on Kirk’s resonant images. From the 1580s to the end of the 1640s, Ireland experienced a building boom, where a new style of architecture emerged that transformed the medieval castle. As Tadhg O'Keeffe informs us, the modern was emerging in these new fortified buildings, Ireland’s early country houses. In County Kilkenny, the 18th-century Woodstock House in Inistioge was the childhood home of artist Hannah Tighe. Anne Hodge views Tighe’s early sketchbooks, which provide a window into the charmed lifestyle of the period. On the centenary of his birth, John P O’Sullivan remembers the Dublin artist Seamus O’Colmain; David Caron explores Neil Shawcross’ stained-glass windows, a medium he has worked with for over fifty years, and Sarah Kelleher appraises James Hayes’ artistic trajectory and his recent collaborative project, ‘The Score’. Elsewhere in the issue, there’s Cristín Leach on Catherine Barron; Philip McEvansoneya on a rare Irish subject by the English painter Walter Sickert; and Isabella Evangelisti on Emma Berkery. Usual features include the Diary of Events by Kathryn Milligan and Design Portfolio by Frances McDonald. And finally, Niamh NicGhabhann Coleman considers a selection of this year’s art-college graduates, as chosen by their colleges. (Many more graduates feature on the Irish Arts Review website.)

Published by Irish Arts Review
Softcover
120 pages
300 x 230 mm
ISBN 977164921710408