Crawford's closure and the €5m banana... 10 talking points in visual art in 2024 

Cork has lost its main gallery for a few years, Marc O'Sullivan Vallig 

Pictured clockwise: A woman poses for a photo next to a banana attached with duct-tape that replaces the artwork 'Comedian' by the artist Maurizio Cattelan; Jack B Yeats’ painting in oils O’Connell Bridge; and the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork ahead of renovation works.

1. Jeff Koons’ Moon Phases

 On February 22, Jeff Koons’ Moon Phases became the first sanctioned artwork to land on the moon, when the unmanned American spacecraft Odysseus touched down after a seven-day journey. Koons’ sculpture features 125 miniature spheres, each one inch in diameter, depicting 62 phases of the moon as seen from Earth, 62 as seen from space, and one lunar eclipse.