Stones, Slabs and Seascapes: George Victor du Noyer's Images of Ireland
Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place, Cork Until February 24, 2018. crawfordartgallery.ie
Born into a Dublin Huguenot family, George Victor Du Noyer (1817-1869) was a gifted and prolific draughtsman and watercolourist who spent most of his life, apart from a brief spell teaching, working for first the Ordnance Survey and then the Geological Survey of Ireland. This meant that he travelled extensively throughout Ireland making detailed topographical records of myriad locations and carefully observed studies of plants, animals, fossils, geological features and pretty much anything that caught his eye.
Because watercolour is vulnerable to light, his work is mostly out of sight in many institutional collections. Now, over 20 years after Fionnuala Croke curated a show of his work at the National Gallery of Ireland, Peter Murray has gathered 150 of his drawings and watercolours to mark the bicentenary of his birth.
undersong: David Quinn
Taylor Galleries, 16 Kildare St, Dublin Until December 2. taylorgalleries.ie
"Each painting is a unit, both unique and part of a greater whole: words in a sentence, notes in a tune, hours in a day," Riann Coulter writes accurately of David Quinn's diary-like work. Modest in scale, usually muted in terms of colour, tonality and visual incident, the paintings are, nonetheless, underscored by a sense of urgency. In his use of fine-grained pattern and repeated marks, Quinn notes the onward rush of seconds, hours, days and the cyclical, rhythmic nature of life. Each finished piece embodies a momentary, fleeting wonder that beauty can be won back from time.
Immerse: Print works by Gwen O'Dowd
Graphic Studio Gallery, off Cope Street, Temple Bar, Dublin. Until December 6 graphicstudiodublin.com
Should they turn to printmaking, textural painters are often drawn to the gritty directness of carborundum. That’s certainly true of Gwen O’Dowd, who took to the medium like a . . . well, like a duck to water. Water is key as she makes magisterial, abstracted compositions from an elemental coastline vocabulary: water, stone, space, light. This survey show marks 30 years of her printmaking in carborundum, etching and monotype.
The Light Gleams an Instant: Krass Clement
Gallery of Photography, Meeting House Sq, Temple Bar, Dublin. Until January 22nd. galleryofphotography.ie
On a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Danish photographer spent an evening at a pub in Drum, Co Monaghan, during which he shot a few rolls of film. That experience became a benchmark photography book, Drum, published in 1996, "a quiet meditation on community, the outside, alienation and the terrors of being alone". This show features the original photographs, plus work made in Dublin in 1991, contrasting busy street-life with looming, empty cityscapes. This work is published in a new book, Dublin, available at the gallery for a special price of €45.
Ballagh & Ballagh: Outside/Inside: Robert Ballagh and Rachel Ballagh
Hillsboro Fine Art, 49 Parnell Sq, Dublin. Until December 19th. hillsborofineart.com
A new show by Robert Ballagh is always a noteworthy event and in this one you get two Ballaghs in one gallery and father and daughter exhibit together for the first time in Dublin (they previously partnered at the Kenny Gallery in Galway). As ever, Ballagh senior delivers precise representation with layers of acerbic commentary and humour, some of it self-deprecating. Rachel steps well outside her father's shadow and approaches the world on her own terms.
