08 March 2023, 6–7pm
A curator-led tour will give an introduction to Gather, an exhibition of new work by Niamh O'Malley at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios that will run as part of the Irish Tour of Ireland at Venice.
The second exhibition of the Irish Tour of Ireland at Venice takes place in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Niamh O’Malley’s Gather, which represented Ireland at La Biennale di Venezia is presented in an extended form including new sculptures and moving image. The artworks respond to the architecture of the gallery, its location in a city centre, and its close relationship to artists’ working environment in the studios above that, as Niamh O'Malley describes 'cultivate and facilitate practices that necessitate a fashioning of forms, a thinking through making.'
This exhibition of new artwork is the first made by O’Malley since La Biennale in 2022. Over the past two years, the planning and production of both exhibitions have taken place in O’Malley’s TBG+S studio, and with craftspeople based in Ireland working with wood, stone and steel. O’Malley’s exhibition emphasises the links between making and exhibiting artwork, while drawing attention to the industrial architecture of the gallery, its central pillars of metal and concrete, and the large street-facing windows. O'Malley has also considered the city's textures and grounding surfaces; as Brian Dillon writes in the accompanying catalogue, her limestone ‘drains’ are 'conspicuously pitted with fossilised shellfish: a deep-time reminder that beneath the pavement lies the beach, the seabed, the geological memory of primordial ooze.'
This event will see Ireland at Venice curators, Director Clíodhna Shaffrey and Programme Curator Michael Hill, give an introduction to the work on view in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
La Biennale di Venezia is the longest- established international platform for the visual arts. Niamh O’Malley, one of Ireland’s leading artists, was selected to represent Ireland at this prestigious global event, along with the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios Curatorial Team, Clíodhna Shaffrey and Michael Hill.
Niamh O’Malley’s recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include Vardaxoglou Gallery, London (forthcoming 2023); Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (forthcoming 2023); John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2021), mother’s tankstation Dublin (2020), Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2019), Lismore Castle Arts (2019), Grazer Kunstverein (2018), Bluecoat, Liverpool (2015), The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2017 and 2015).
The Irish Tour of Ireland at Venice is supported by the Arts Council as part of its commitment to promote the visual arts to Irish audiences.
15 May 2026, 4–5.45pm
Exhibiting artist Rebecca Moccia and Marta Bianchi from Careof, Milan will host a curated series of short video’s followed by an artist talk and introduction to the Gallery exhibition Nostalgism.
16 May 2026, 11.30am–1pm
An experimental drawing workshop with artist Shane Malone-Murphy exploring alternative ways of mapping experience through mark-making.
16 May 2026, 2-4pm
Drawing Room is a combined studio visit and workshop with visiting studio artist John Graham, emphasising drawing as location.
