The week’s visual arts highlights

Work by Deirdre Burke, Gerry Blake, Hannah Fitz and more

Into the Sea by  Gerry Blake, at the Mermaid, Bray Co Wicklow
Into the Sea by Gerry Blake, at the Mermaid, Bray Co Wicklow

Feather your bed

Deirdre Burke, Solas Gallery, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim

Until June 2nd deirdreburke.dudaone.com

Deirdre Burke works across a range of media with great fluency. She addresses the disconnect we have created between ourselves and the natural world. This show was prompted by the proposed extension of hedge-cutting and gorse-burning into the nesting season, a potentially disastrous development for Irish wildlife.

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Into the Sea

Gerry Blake, Mermaid Arts Centre, Main St Bray, Co Wicklow

Until June 30th mermaidartscentre.ie

Gerry Blake spent a year visiting 10 sea swimming locations around Dublin to capture images of dedicated, regular swimmers at the decisive moment – just before they plunge into the cold water. He specialises in portraits of people in their habitual contexts. A show that comes under the umbrella of PhotoIreland 2018.

Knock Knock

Hannah Fitz, Temple Bar Gallery, 4-9 Temple Bar, Dublin

Until June 30th templebargallery.com

“Empty clothes struggle to hide their non-existent heads. Chairs become impossible to sit in, and a flower in a vase tips its head and points its toe.” Work by the 2015/16 recent graduate studio award at Temple Bar Studios, Hannah Fitz. She is now “a visiting student” of Peter Fischli at the Städelschule, Frankfurt.

New work by Five Artists

Kerlin Gallery, Anne’s Lane, South Anne St, Dublin

Until June 21st kerlingallery.com

All five artists work primarily in the field of sculpture. Dorothy Cross maps Everest on a marble slab; Aleana Egan’s bronze loops are as if handwritten on a giant scale; Isabel Nolan marks out linear steel arches in the gallery; girders press on a glossy apple in Siobhán Hapaska’s forceful construction and Kathy Prendergast installs a human-sized, black garden shed.

From The Lost Moment, curated by Sean O’Hagan
From The Lost Moment, curated by Sean O’Hagan

The Lost Moment Civil Rights, Street Protest and Resistance in Northern Ireland, 1968-69.

Nerve Visual, Ebrington, Derry-Londonderry

Until June 17 galleryofphotography.ie

Sean O’Hagan curates an exhibition exploring coverage of the marches and peaceful protests concentrating on Northern Ireland 50 years back, the lost moment that, the suggestion is, but for the brutal response of the authorities, might have averted the Troubles. The repressive police tactics put North Ireland at the centre of the news worldwide. With work by many renowned photographers.