Dublin Painting & Sketching Club

Concourse Gallery, Dún Laoghaire County Hall, Marine Rd, Dún Laoghaire, Dublin Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 11am-5pm, Ends Apr 17

This year the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club will mark Dublin’s nomination as a City of Literature by Unesco. So the club’s 133rd annual exhibition has an optional literary theme. Optional in that members didn’t have to submit work with a literary connection, though many have done so. Some have gone straight for the writers, others have zeroed in on the writings.

Notable among the former is Thomas Ryan. He shows portraits of Benedict Kiely, Thomas Kinsella, Sean O’Faolain and Monk Gibbon. Where he’s straightforward in his approach, Aidan Hickey is more playful, with allegorical likenesses of Oscar Wilde (The Storyteller, pictured) and Colm Tóibín (The Writer).

Artists inspired by writings include Brid Clarke, who takes on Molly Bloom's soliloquy (as well as a portrait of Pat Ingoldsby), and Padraig Lynch and Olivia Hayes, who both take poems by Patrick Kavanagh as sources. Kate Bedell braves a much- illustrated text, Wilde's The Happy Prince.

In all, 77 artists show more than 290 works. There’s much that isn’t especially literary but is very good, and the idea is a promising innovation.

Can’t See That? Catch This

Pacific Overture Ormond Studios, 6 Ormond Quay Lr, Dublin Ends Sun