Art exhibitions and events to visit this summer

Art exhibitions offer a stimulating alternative holiday activity, writes Des O'Sullivan

Clockwise from left, Victoria Russell's portrait of Fiona Shaw is now on view at Uilinn in Skibbereen; Evie Hone's 'Composition'; 'Dun Aonghasa Cliffs and Shoreline' by Paul Kelly at Mallow Arts Festival; 'Richard Harris: Role of a Lifetime' at the Hunt Museum in Limerick.

Summer art exhibitions abound in Ireland and offer a stimulating alternative activity in the holiday season.

If you have not yet seen it, there is still time to catch The Art of Friendship, dedicated to pioneering Irish Modernists Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, at the National Gallery until August 10. With paintings, stained glass and preparatory drawings, it offers 90 works by these trailblazers who studied in Paris in the 1920s.

Evie Hone's 'Composition'.

A new series of works created for the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin by contemporary trailblazer Ailbhe Ni Bhriain is a meditation on the spectre of loss entitled The Dream Pool Intervals. Five eloquent, powerful tapestries form the centre of an exhibition by this Cork-based artist who works with film, computer-generated imagery, collage, tapestry, print and installation.

With images of destroyed architecture, icons of war and climate disaster, the tapestries seem to define this particular period in human history. We are all now much too familiar with the sort of fractured environments that inspired this show, which continues until September 28.

Victoria Russell's portrait of Fiona Shaw from the Crawford Gallery is now on view at Uilinn in Skibbereen.

The Crawford Gallery is closed for redevelopment, with parts of its magnificent collection to be found in various locations around Ireland. Uillinn, the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen, has gone one step further with Gra, an exhibition from the collection selected by Salt & Pepper LGBTQI+ Art Collective with the artist Toma McCullim.

Grá features key works including The Red Rose by John Lavery, Victoria Russell’s Portrait of Fiona Shaw and Patrick Hennessy’s Self-Portrait and Cat. It includes works by Paul La Rocque, Sara Baum, Margaret Clark, Tom Climent, Gerard Dillon, Stephen Doyle, Mainie Jellett, Harry Kernoff, Janet Mullarney, Isabel Nolan, John Rainey, Patrick Scott, Edith Sommerville, Niamh Swanton and Mary Swanzy and continues until September 20.

'Richard Harris: Role of a Lifetime' at the Hunt Museum in Limerick.

At the Hunt Museum in Limerick, From Dickie to Richard, Richard Harris: Role of a Lifetime celebrates the life, legacy and creative spirit of one of the city’s favourite sons. With personal artefacts, memorabilia and audiovisual displays, it focuses on his unique brilliance and impact on the arts.

It is available to see until November 16. Applications are now open for the Hunt’s inaugural open submission exhibition for emerging and established artists. The deadline is August 31.

An Artist’s Presence at the National Gallery, until September 14, explores the way artists have consciously and unconsciously placed themselves in their work. It offers drawings and paintings from the permanent collection spanning the 18th to the 21st century. The diverse selection includes William Orpen, James Barry, Flora Mitchell, Sean Keating, Nancy Lee Katz and Moyra Barry.

'Dun Aonghasa Cliffs and Shoreline' by Paul Kelly at Mallow Arts Festival.

Art exhibitions are a feature of numerous festivals around Ireland. The Mallow Arts Festival, which runs until August 3, offers retrospectives by Paul Kelly and James O’Halloran (1955-2014) and features work by LS Lowry and Georges Rouault.

At Visual in Carlow, Dreamtime Ireland, until August 31, is a research project drawn from contemporary artworks and artefacts by Sean Lynch. It investigates the potential of art to provoke, investigate and critique the shape and purpose of Irish culture.