Project Arts Centre
The French Diplomat’s Office, Barbara Bloom
Barbara Bloom’s installations have been described as “art-stage sets for life”. It’s apt: since the 1970s, Bloom has captured our quest for domestic nuance with pizzazz: presenting hauntingly still and polished interior settings that feel akin to walking inside a Richard Hamilton collage. With readymades and replicas, she subtly picks apart the idea of connoisseurship, and does so with a refreshing wit. Past shows have seen her upholster a replica Louis XIV chair with prints of her dental X-rays, perhaps a toying swipe at the idea of taste as a stamp of identity. A hugely influential international artist, this show presents the first occasion Bloom has shown her work in Ireland. Get sucked in by her pristine surfaces, leave with an altered worldview.
May 9 – June 29
Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
Eva Rothschild
Mixing an earthy organic bent with the fetishistic thrill of plastics and plexiglass, Rothschild’s work can have a bewitching, talismanic presence – precariously hanging; mysteriously floating; or providing a sinister omen in jet-black jesmonite. Bouncing off the visual language of twentieth century modernism, in particular the Minimalist Movement, Rothschild claws together a narrative about structure, progress, and the civilised urge to construct, but from an almost alien perspective. Now based in London, this show marks the acclaimed artist’s first museum solo show in her native Dublin.
May 23 – September 21
RHA
RHA 184th Annual
You know the drill. Taking over the RHA’s entire gallery space, the Academy’s 184th Annual exhibition will bring together some 300-plus artworks, the bulk of which have been selected through open submission process, then supplemented by Academy and invited artists. You’ll spot the work of established artists alongside lesser-known names, working across various media, in this supersize showcase.
May 27 – August 9
Words: Rosa Abbott
