Escape the January Blues with Turner time

New exhibitions plus the annual National Gallery event offer plenty of visual appeal


Irish artist Eleanor McCaughey’s latest exhibition was prompted by a rediscovery of a drawing from her childhood, with her work also influenced by her recent health issues and created against the backdrop of Celtic mythology and symbolism.

‘Forget your cares, sow your wild oats, sin is a wonderful disease’ will take place at Kevin Kavanagh’s contemporary art gallery on Dublin’s Chancery Lane until January 28th. kevinkavanagh.ie

Running Tuesdays to Sundays until February 15th, 2012-2022, a Decade of Exhibitions at the Olivier Cornet Gallery, on Dublin’s Denmark Street, celebrates the 10 years since its first gallery space at the Wooden Building in Temple Bar, followed by a stint on Cavendish Row. To mark the occasion, the event will feature represented artists such as Yanny Peters, Miriam McConnon, Claire Halpin and Eoin Mac Lochlainn. It also features works by two artists who have recently died, notably the painter Sean Mulcahy and ceramicist Freda Rupp. oliviercornetgallery.com

Opening today at West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen is George Bolster’s Communication: We are not the only ones talking. Based on his expanded film, the exhibition explores languages in other species on earth while Bolster grapples with the philosophical implications ensuing from the discovery of life on other planets. westcorkartscentre.com

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The richly coloured textured works of Bridget Flannery will feature at a new exhibit at the Solomon Gallery on Dublin’s Balfe Street. Opening on Thursday until February 4th, is Terra Incognita, showing the fruit of time spent in two vastly different terrains; Ballycastle in North West Mayo and Yamba in New South Wales in Australia. solomonfineart.ie

Opening January 21st is Metallic Skulls by twice-Hennessy Prize nominee and figurative painter Gordon Harris, who will unveil a series of new oil paintings depicting human skulls wrapped in precious metals at Gormley’s Gallery on South Frederick Street in Dublin. gormleys.ie

Turner time

Four talks will take place at the National Gallery this month marking Turner: The Henry Vaughan Bequest and Turner: The Sun is God, which run until January 31st and February 6th respectively.

This Tuesday in the Millennium Wing Studio, curator of the prints and drawings study room Niamh McNally will host Talk and Tea – J. M. W Turner’s Artistic Legacy -, with a short illustrated talk followed by audience conversation, priced at €5. On Thursday, McNally will discuss the annual exhibition of Turner watercolours and explore this year’s selection including the 31 Vaughan Bequest artworks, five additional Turner watercolours and eight prints of the artist’s Liber Studiorum prints. It is a free online event through Zoom, and booking is required.

Also on Thursday 12th is Magician or Maverick: Turner’s art, innovation and reputation, with Amy Concannon, Manton senior curator, historic British art at the Tate Britain, taking place at the Gallery Lecture Theatre, priced at €10.

Emma Griffin, president of the Royal Historical Society and professor of modern British history at the University of East Anglia, will host a talk (€10) also in the Gallery Lecture Theatre on Thursday January 19th, entitled Britain in the Age of Turner: Social and cconomic changes that define today’s world. The lecture will focus on the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the lives of the ordinary men, women and children whose labour underpinned industrialisation. nationalgallery.ie