Isabel English, 'murmur'

Opening Reception: Thursday 29 October, 6pm
Opening Hours: Tues–Sat: 11am–6pm, Sun: 12–4pm

G lay her head down on her folded arms, on the table, and squinted until the shapes around the window vanished. Like a miniature screen, the window shimmered images: figures, faces, places. They were scattered and broken, though, by a hand on her neck. A soft warm squeeze and she leaned into Darlene’s palm and rested there. They both looked at the mother as if she was an image cast by electricity, paint, or light on a wall beside them.¹

Drawing on the novel A Deep North by Fanny Howe and an anatomical depiction of the ribcage from J.C.L. Sparkes’ A Manual of Artistic Anatomy (1888), Isabel English presents the installation murmur comprising a series of sculptural paper works sensitively situated within Studio 1 at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.

In murmur, English explores the intersections between psychology and human experience, positioning the works at the threshold between concealment and exposure. Gently activated by currents of air and warmth, the works shift at the periphery of the space, evoking a series of associations that point at once towards the domestic and the clinical. Forms seem to withhold as much as they reveal, suspended in a state of quiet indeterminacy, where meaning remains provisional and the boundaries between interior and exterior begin to dissolve.

¹ pg. 158 The Deep North by Fanny Howe (1990) from Radical Love: 5 Novels New York: Nightboat Books (2020)

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Names: A reading by Holly Pickering
07 November 2026 | 4pm
Studio 1

Isabel English is a visual artist and educator from Cork, Ireland. In 2023, Isabel took part in the show ‘Fly Floor’ - an exhibition in association with the Irish Tour of Ireland at Venice - curated by Mark O’Gorman and Niamh O’Malley. In 2024, she was awarded the inaugural Emerging Visual Artist Award from Cork County Council, which concluded in September 2025 with the solo exhibition ‘first-person’ at LHQ Gallery. This body of work was also exhibited in GOMA, Waterford as a solo show later in 2025. Alongside these exhibitions, she produced the publication ‘first-person’ with texts from Sarah Long and Julie Morrissy. Forthcoming residencies and exhibitions include a residency at CIMO, Croatia (September 2026), a group show at Lismore Castle Arts with Liliane Puthod and Sibyl Montague (October 2026), and a solo exhibition at the RCC Letterkenny (2028) curated by Mark O’Gorman.

Mark O’Gorman was the inaugural Curator at The Complex (2018–2026), a multidisciplinary arts centre in Dublin’s north inner city. The exhibition programme commissioned site-specific work without predetermined themes, each exhibition developed through conversation. He has regularly guest lectured at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin and Technological University Dublin. He co-edited the publication Vertices with Paul McAree, published by Lismore Castle Arts. His writing has appeared in Paper Visual Art, The Visual Artists’ News Sheet, and various exhibition publications. He is currently a board member at The Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry.

Holly Pickering is an artist from Waterford, Ireland. She works mainly across moving image, experimental writing and publishing to explore questions surrounding interpersonal communication, translation and linguistics. Her films 'Actor' and 'An Apprenticeship' have recently been screened at IMMA, as part of the Tilt the Interval screening program in collaboration with Screen Service (2025). Actor was also screened at Aemi’s DISSOLUTIONS Film Festival, The Complex, Dublin ( 2025). Her publication Good/That’s/Yes/Oh was published with Mirror Lamp Press (2025).

Dublin Gallery Weekend runs 5 – 8 November 2026, and is hosted by Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA). In its fourth year, Dublin Gallery Weekend brings together Ireland’s most exciting artists, galleries, cultural institutions and creative spaces in a citywide takeover.