17 of the best places to buy art gifts in Cork this Christmas

Pieces of art can be a great option whatever your budget is for presents, or even if you're just looking for a treat for yourself. Here's a selection of the outlets in Cork city and county

Tue, 02 Dec, 2025 - 21:00

Marc O’Sullivan Vallig

As Christmas draws near, the traditional end of year exhibitions, fairs and markets bring any number of opportunities to invest in Irish arts and crafts. Most outlets offer a range of affordable items, such as cards, household goods and jewellery, as well as more expensive heirloom pieces, such as paintings, prints and sculptures.

A leisurely tour of Cork city and county might include the following:

Lavit Gallery

Wandesford Quay, Clarke’s Bridge, Cork T12 E26D

Victor Richardson, The Old Pumphouse, The Lee Fields

A seasonal showcase of Irish art, craft and design, including paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and so much more. More than fifty artists are featured, including Ita Freeney, Mags Geaney, Roseanne Lynch, Jim Turner and Grainne Watts.

Prices for original artworks from €700 for Ciara Gormley’s oil on canvas Autumn Meadow 1 to €1,920 for Michael Quane graphite pencil and gold leaf drawing Tuber to €9,000 for Victor Richardson’s oil painting The Old Pumphouse, The Lee Fields.

Gifts from €35 for Siobhain Steele’s ceramic robins to €75 for Deirdre McKenna’s Old Head of Kinsale etching to €100 for Carmel Creaner’s set of six napkins.

10.30am – 6pm, Tuesday to Saturday
lavitgallery.com

Backwater Artists

Wandesford Quay, Cork T12 E26D

Backwater Artists has a membership of more than 110, to whom it provides studio spaces, mentorship and exhibition opportunities throughout the year. This year’s Christmas showcase features paintings, digital prints, works in collage and sculpture by 25 artists, including Amna Walayat, Éilis Ní Fhaoláín, Stephen Doyle and Joseph Heffernan.

Prices start at €110, most works are in the €300-500 range, with larger pieces on offer from €1,000-€3,000.

10am – 5pm, Monday to Friday until December 19
backwaterartists.ie

Cork Printmakers

Wandesford Quay, Cork

The Printmakers gallery and online store features work in intaglio, screen-printing, lithography, letterpress, relief and digital printing by scores of local printmakers, from Aoife Barrett and Ben Reilly to Noelle Nooan and Wendy Dison, Prices from €40 for the Project Twins’ risographs and €130 for Bríd Moynahan’s etchings to €600 for Paul La Rocque’s screen-prints and €1,250 for Emma O’Hara’s monotypes.

Letterpress cards €4, tote bags €15.

10am – 5pm, Monday to Friday
corkprintmakers.ie

Crawford Supported Studios

MTU Gallery at 46 Grand Parade, Cork T12 VN56

Pop-up Exhibition Crawford Supported Studios supports artists from Glasheen Art Studio Programme and Mayfield Arts Centre’s Cúig Programme, including Ailbhe Barrett, Íde Ní Shúilleabháin, John Keating and Stephen Murray.

Original artwork, prints and paintings from €10 - €300.

11am – 5pm, December 2 – 10
crawfordsupportedstudios.com

Charlie Mahon

Ceramics Pottery, Unit 43, English Market, Cork T12 WER8

Charlie Mahon is a graduate of the Crawford College of Art & Design and the University of Mississippi, USA. He uses traditional Irish techniques and white earthenware clay, glazes and oxides - along with the odd piece of gold - to create hand-thrown, hand-painted pieces with a playful contemporary twist.

Prices from €20 for dipping bowls and €35 for coffee mugs to €120 for framed ceramic pieces and €900 for unique ceramic sculptures.

10.30am – 4.30pm Monday to Saturday
9am – 5pm Monday to Saturday from December 8
charliemahonceramicspottery.com

Cork Textile Network

Cork School of Music, Union Quay, Cork T12 E9HY

Face the Music Christmas Exhibition Cork Textile Network provides a range of supports for textile artists, including masterclasses, Zoom talks and skills exchange workshops. The Network’s Christmas exhibition, Face the Music, features artists such as Anne Kiely, Carmel Creaner, Julia Zagar and Lesley Stothers, working in techniques that range from print, stitch and machine embroidery to tapestry weaving.

Prices from €40 to €950.

8am – 10pm Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 5.30pm Saturday
9.30am - 5.30pm Sunday, until January 5, 2026
corktextilesnetwork.com

Cora Murphy

This is the Place, 42 Douglas Street, Cork T12 EC5K

Cora Murphy creates abstract paintings based on the Irish landscape and the natural world. She works in oils, using up to 50 layers to complete a painting. Murphy has worked outdoors on residencies in Cill Rialag in Co Kerry, in Co Mayo and in Mexico. Her conversion of a former shop on Douglas St into her new home and studio featured in Great House Revival on RTÉ in March this year.

Art card gift sets from €25, limited edition prints from €275 and original paintings from €925.

Showroom open weekends. 10am – 4pm, November 29 – 30 December 6 – 7, 13 – 14, 20 - 21
coramurphy.com

Nano Nagle Place

Douglas Street, Cork T12 X70A

The Christmas markets feature beautiful ceramics, vibrant jewellery, original pastel artworks, olive-wood pieces, sustainable Irish-language apparel, ginger-inspired treats and beautifully restored toys - gifts with meaning, story and soul.

The featured makers include Church House Pottery, Jayney Mac, Jeneric Crafts, Blasta Delights and Toys Arís.

Prices range from €30 for Teanga Grá’s Tiocfaidh ár Grá (Our Love Will Come) t-shirts to €113 for morning coffee sets by Doolin Clay Pottery, hand-thrown from glacial clay dug 120ft within the caverns of Doolin Cave in the Burren, Co Clare.

11am – 4pm, December 6 – 7 and 13 – 14
nanonagleplace.ie

Outlaw Studios

Unit R2, Marina Commercial Park, Cork T12 R3HX

The Christmas Show features an eclectic mix of work by the 13 artists based in Cork’s longest running studio, including figurative and abstract sculpture, painting and drawing.

Prices range from €160 for Tom Campbell’s Car Dog painting to €470 for Rosie O’Regan’s collage Scattered Sky, €480 for Alison O’Shea’s painter Beholder and €750 for John Corkery’s oil on canvas St Finbarr’s.

All the artists are donating a percentage of their sales to Nasc Gaza, a small women-led aid initiative, operating between Gaza and Ireland.

1pm – 7pm, Monday December 1 to Sunday December 7
@outlawstudioscork

Benchspace

Units O15 and B1b, Marina Commercial Park, Centre Park Road, Cork T12 YAE4 and T12 KRH7

Benchspace is a not-for-profit creative enterprise hub for makers in woodwork, metalwork and digital fabrication.

The Christmas market features jewellery by Alex Thiel, Róisin McCabe, and Fabio Oliveira of Mo Ghrian; photographs by Karen Lunnon; and furniture by Christopher Tuohy and Fergal O’Leary of Horizon.

Prices from €50 for jewellery to €1,500 for bespoke furniture pieces.

4pm – 9pm, Friday December 12
11am – 7pm, Saturday December 13
benchspacecork.ie

Cork Craft & Design, Douglas Court Shopping Centre

T12 HK5D and St Patrick’s Woollen Mills, 27A, Cork T12 H932

Established in 2005, Cork Craft & Design promotes the work of 110 professional and semi-professional craft and design makers in Cork city and county. From hand-thrown ceramics and illustrated prints, to sustainable wooden toys, textiles, jewellery, and furniture, there are more than 4,000 handcrafted gifts on offer this year, online and at the organisation’s two outlets in Cork.

Prices from €10 for Barbara Hubert Cork Notebook to €350 for Julian Smith’s raku Torso and €450 for Emily Thompson’s painting Highland Cow.

Douglas Court Shopping Centre 10am – 6pm, Monday to Saturday
St Patrick’s Woollen Mills, 27A 10am – 5pm, Monday to Saturday
corkcraftanddesign.ie

LHQ Gallery

County Library Building, Carrigrohane Road, Cork T12 K335

Winter Exhibition The LHQ Open Call Winter Exhibition features 74 works by 68 Cork-based artists. The showcase is titled ‘Oh, the thinks you can think’, after the 1975 Dr Seuss book of the same name, and refers to the endless possibilities and dreams the imagination can create.

Prices range from €135 for Abbie Foley’s earthenware Building Blocks and €300 for Silvio Severino’s analogue collage, Prosopagnosia 1, to €1,600 for Debbie Dawson’s oil on board, Coolgreen, 1970.

9am – 5.30pm, Monday to Friday
corkcoco.ie

Giles Norman

45 Main Street, Kinsale P17 K651

Giles Norman is a self-taught photographer, inspired by Brassai and Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose subjects include the coastline and landscapes of Ireland and city scenes in London, Paris, Rome, New York and Bangkok.

Prices from €140 for 12” x 16”, €360 for 24” x 30” and €650 for 36” x 48” prints. Signed coffee table books on the Wild Atlantic Way and 2026 calendars, both €38. Shipping available worldwide.

10am – 5pm Tuesday to Saturday. Sunday and Monday by appointment only.
gilesnorman.com

West Cork Collective

Main Street, Ballinspittle, Co Cork P17 FF62

The West Cork Collective has more than 30 members from Ballincollig to Bantry, including Bee Kind Candles, Loch Mór Pottery and textile artist Rebecca Powell. The Collective has a permanent base in the village of Ballinspittle, running arts and crafts classes and workshops, as well as serving as an outlet for its members’ products.

Prices from €5 for cards and €10 for jewellery and candles to €1,500 for unique paintings and sculptures.

10am – 5.30pm, Sunday to Saturday
10am – 5pm, December 6 - 7
westcorkcollective.com

Blue House Gallery

Main Street, Schull, Co Cork P81 VY38

Christmas Exhibition Founded in 2013, the Blue House Gallery shows painting, sculpture, prints and ceramics by West Cork artists in a series of solo, group and themed exhibitions from Easter to the end of September each year.

The Christmas Exhibition features work by gallery artists such as Claire Lambert, Catherine Weld, Angela Fewer and Geoff Greenham.

Prices range from €105 for Dick Richards’ mixed media Blue Door Reverie and €185 for Etain Hickey’s ceramic Hare With Butterfly to €10,000 for Ian Humphreys’ oil on canvas, Elegy.

11am – 5pm daily in December (except Christmas holidays)
bluehousegalleryschull.com

Uillinn

West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Co Cork P81 VW98

Fragments of Silence, Cork City and County Artists’ Winter Showcase Uillinn’s Christmas Showcase features work by Tom Climent, Mags Geaney, Kiroko Hashimoto and many others from around the county. The artists were invited to meditate on silence, and produce new pieces that explore ideas of stillness.

Prices from €250 for Claire Lambert’s oil on board, Sea Gaze, to €800 Paul la Rocque’s screenprint, Quebec.

Uillinn also has a small exhibition of archival prints for sale, including Tess Leak’s Day 78: Listening to the Trees for €20 (unframed) and Diana Copperwhite’s Remote Time Lapse for €90 (unframed).

10am – 4.30pm Monday to Saturday, until February 7, 2026
westcorkartscentre.com

Cormac Boydell

Coomeen, Allihies, Beara P75 E065

Pre-Christmas Studio Exhibition Cormac Boydell is one of Ireland’s foremost ceramic artists. A former geologist, he has been based in Allihies since 1972, producing handmade pieces that take inspiration from the landscape of Beara. His work is in the collections of the Ulster Museum, the Crawford Art Gallery in cork and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin.

His Pre-Christmas Studio Exhibition will feature 30 unique new pieces, including terracotta plates with studio-made glazes, edged in gold metal, €240 each.