Temple Bar Gallery + Studios launches its 2023 Artistic Programme

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios is pleased to announce the launch of the 2023 Artistic Programme, coinciding with our 40th anniversary.

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios is a leading artists’ studio complex and contemporary art gallery. For 40 years, TBG+S has supported hundreds of artists in thirty high-quality, light-filled and affordable studios in Dublin city. The Gallery is part of a network of artistic spaces critical to exhibiting contemporary art in Ireland. We are delighted to mark 40 years of artists working and exhibiting in the city, and we look forward to the year ahead.

A limited edition poster based on the painting "He could see behind himself" St Columba, 2022 by studio artist Isabel Nolan is specially commissioned by TBG+S to celebrate 40 years of artists working in the city (1983–2023).

Our 2023 Exhibition Programme opens with the Ireland at Venice Tour of Niamh O’Malley’s Gather, following its success as Ireland’s representation at the 59th Biennale di Venezia 2022. In this exhibition, O’Malley foregrounds her studio practice with several new sculpture and moving image works, made for the gallery. Following this, French artist Fanny Gicquel, presents a solo exhibition of new work as winner of the Prix du Frac Bretagne – Art Norac Award. A group exhibition of work by Lyndon Barrois Jr., Elisa Giardina Papa, and Léann Herlihy draws together three international practices that unravel the cultural impact of images and their relationship to storytelling and technology. SPIN SPIN SCHEHERAZADE is a live artwork by Orla Barry blending autofiction and oral history in a humorous and passionate monologue. The final exhibition in 2023, is Atoosa Pour Hosseini’s The Magic Circle, exploring illusion, reality, and perception through the media of film, video installation and performance.

Author Wendy Erskine is guest curator for Dublin Art Book Fair 2023 (DABF), Ireland’s only art book fair. A centre for artist books, DABF is an immensely popular event that platforms independent publishers and small presses; presenting a full-scale programme of events including talks, tours, workshops, and book launches over its ten-day run in December.

Our commissioned writer is Padraig Regan, award winning author and poet from Belfast. Their debut collection Some Integrity was published by Carcanet in 2022 and was awarded the Clarissa Luard Award and shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. They will write on the five gallery exhibitions with creative freedom and respond in their own way.

Learning + Public Engagement purposefully shape different ways for audiences to engage with exhibitions, meet artists and learn something new about contemporary art. A uniquely produced programme includes Hedge School curated by artist Léann Herlihy as part of the Spring School series; a three-day Summer School in TBG+S gallery; Flags, a public artwork commissioned for Wellington Quay; Art Walk, guided tours in Temple Bar; and an ongoing programme of talks, screenings, performances, short films, and workshops.

Also included in the programme is information about our Studio membership, international residency opportunities, and the Recent Graduate Residency Award.

Admission to the exhibitions and events is free, for everybody. TBG+S warmly welcomes all visitors to its Programme throughout 2023.

Clíodhna Shaffrey, Director, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios welcomes this year’s programme with

For 40 years, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S) has been a bedrock for artists in Dublin city. Established in 1983 when Jenny Haughton, a visionary arts administrator with a group of artists, moved into a vacant building, earmarked as part of CIÉ plans for a major bus interchange in Temple Bar. The interchange never transpired due to astute political agency with the foresight to grasp what the presence of artists brought to the city. So, instead of levelled buildings, new roads and emissions, Temple Bar, with TBG+S as one of its anchors, was designated a Cultural Quarter – supported through European funding.

Combining a studio complex with a public gallery, TBG+S has been a workspace for hundreds of artists, and the gallery has been at the forefront of ambitious contemporary practice and exciting exhibition making. Over its forty years, the relatively simple format of a studio room of one’s own, amidst a community of artistic peers, with a public gallery programme, has proven to be a catalyst for so much artistic breakthrough.

The full programme is available to download below.