Art

The week’s best art exhibitions

From Raphael Hynes still lifes to Marja Van Kampen’s colourful paintings on childhood

Marja van Kampen, The Colours of Wonder and Innocence, Signal Arts Centre

Aidan Dunne's face
Aidan Dunne
Sat Aug 24 2019 - 05:00

SIRENS Part III: Celina Muldoon
Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Chancery Lane, Dublin. Until August 31st
Celina Muldoon's Sirens project began with an exploration into accounts of mythological beings in the vicinity of her home in Co Donegal and, via the involvement of young collaborators, delved into "identity, isolation and a sense of place" on the periphery. Performance-based (live, Sat August 31st, 25mins), the work also involves installation, text (Sue Rainsford) and music (Keith Mannion).

Raphael Hynes: Still life paintings
Séeamus Ennis Arts Centre, Naul, Co Dublin Until September 30th
Drogheda-born Hynes studied at NCAD, though he paints still-life subjects in a precise, cool form of realism that recalls William Coldstream and Euan Uglow, or John Long – strong on measurement, with carefully calculated colour and tonal values. There is a poise and serenity to his work.

The Colours of Wonder and Innocence: Marja van Kampen
Signal Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow Until September 1st
Van Kampen's colourful paintings address the theme of childhood, drawing on her own memories and observations – the latter including visits to India – and her personal archive, including family photographs, in both colour and black-and-white, of herself and her sister.

Summer Exhibition
Gallery & Invited Artists. Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin Until September 13th
As the season winds down in preparation for the autumn onslaught of autumn events, it's your last chance to look around the summer survey shows. The Hillsboro gives you a bit longer than the school reopening schedule, running halfway into September. And the work is exceptional. Apart from Tanya Mosse's sculpture, you'll find pieces by John Gibbons, Leah Hewson, George Warren, Paul Mosse, Gwen O'Dowd, John Noel Smith, Eddie Kennedy, Jonathan Hunter and more.

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Haerfest: Åsa Sonjasdottir, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Kevin Gaffney, Sonya Schönberger
Centre for Contemporary Art, August 27th-October 12th
Haerfest is "harvest season" in old English, and the show features four artists "working with ideas around agriculture, trade and the politics of produce". Sonjasdottir is concerned with the potato; Molinos Gordo compares the scale of individual producers and commercial companies; Gaffney's film imagines a future of overproduction and enforced consumption and Schönberger looks at the Kenyan cut-flower industry.